If your home library of films
can be seen by guests you may want to tuck this
one away in a closet somewhere like some strange
piece of voodoo. Don't speak of it. If someone
should ask if you've seen or heard of it,
eye the person suspiciously and simply say, "I
don't know what you're talking about."
A woman (Rose Hobart) travels through
a jungle nightmare in search of her scientist
husband (Charles Bickford). He has been living
with a sadistic Prince and scorns his wife for
following him to the primeval forests of Maradoo.
While she struggles to change her husband's
embittered feelings toward her,the evil Prince
(Georges Renavent) begins to view her as a new
conquest, the latest of many sinister designs.
The tone is set for low expectations
in the first scene between a Borneo trade commissioner
and the Hobart character. The acting is so bad
in this scene you expect them to turn to the camera
and apologize, admitting to the audience they
haven't a clue what they're doing.
But thankfully the scene passes and a wild adventure
begins.
Straight out of the trade commissioner's
office and into the jungle, the woman, accompanied
by native guides, faces a series of frightful
sights until finally resting. Then, creeping out
of the night, a gigantic snake slithers over a
sleeping man's torso. The snake is so massive,
far more snake than anything Indiana Jones had
to face and so real looking you have to believe
it is real. Later, a man is eaten by a herd of
alligators and again it looks astonishingly realistic.
The Prince's temple is fantastically
constructed, a ghoulish and exotic lair. Renavent
plays his role effectively with a venomous smile
and Bickford's angry drunken doctor is very
convincing. Hobart rises and falls to the level
of those she works with (meaning that in most
of the film she's fine). A native female
(Lupita Tovar) is always lurking around representing
the scientist's temptation to the primitive
and adding to the fun.
In the days when Hollywood was
less politically correct and not quite so sensitive
to global markets, filmmakers would often focus
a xenophobic lens on the bizarre and strange goings
on in the Middle East and Far East. Borneo is
surely a ghastly and primitive place, right? But
what lies East of Borneo? A place more ghastly
and primitive. Obviously. That is the tantalizing
promise by the producers of this film. The result
is a movie that is (surprise) ghastly and primitive,
profoundly dark and insensitive. But also a lot
of fun. Just don't tell anyone. (Stephen
Jared) |