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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Naked Jungle (1954) in Movies
Jan 29, 2020
Nothing to do with Keith Chegwin, thank God. Slightly stodgy romance as plantation owner Charlton Heston sorts himself out with a mail-order bride and gets more than he bargained for in the form of Eleanor Parker. He is very stern and formal and calls her 'Madam' a lot; she is self-willed and feisty; sexual tension hangs in the air like the pong from a backed-up toilet but they seem stuck in an impasse until ferocious marabunta ants start swarming through the neighbourhood. (The ants only appear in the final act of the movie; one could wish they'd turn up sooner.)
Hard to say which is more awkward to watch nowadays, the depiction of the locals or the gender politics, but there is a certain camp fun to be had once the army ants finally show up: there are various scenes of people watching the ants through binoculars, while Heston's aargh-I'm-being-eaten-alive acting is as earnestly stoic as you might expect. Just about succeeds at what it sets out to do, and the structure of the story is solid, but very old-fashioned and corny.
Hard to say which is more awkward to watch nowadays, the depiction of the locals or the gender politics, but there is a certain camp fun to be had once the army ants finally show up: there are various scenes of people watching the ants through binoculars, while Heston's aargh-I'm-being-eaten-alive acting is as earnestly stoic as you might expect. Just about succeeds at what it sets out to do, and the structure of the story is solid, but very old-fashioned and corny.