Search - Jungle Bride on DVD

TWO SEXY STARS IN THE TROPICS

"Tee" | LA | 02/26/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"JUNGLE BRIDE is an enjoyable "B" movie starring two of the best-looking personalities of the 1930's, Anita Page and Charles Starrett. Anita's brother has been arrested for murder; he implicates Starrett, who has fled the country and gone to South Africa. The movie opens where newspaperman John Franklin, who has been deputized, is bringing the much-publicized Starrett back to the states for prosecution. Anita is Franklin's fiancee and is accompaning him. The ship they are on sinks (in a superb segment that truly suggest the pandemonium of such an event) and Anita and Charles are among the few survivors, stranded on an uncharted terrain. Just as Anita starts to see Charles is an honorable guy who should also happen to wash ashore but her fiancee Franklin. It doesn't take psychic ability to predict who is her ultimate choice.

This rather routine movie is enliven considerably by two of the most undervalued actors of the era, Anita Page and Charles Starrett. Lovely Anita is one of the most gorgeous women who ever made a name for herself in films and at times is quite scantily clad in best pre-code fashion. Providing the beefcake to go along with Anita's cheesecake is handsome Charles Starrett. Anita at age 23 was already on her way out in Hollywood, her golden years at MGM already behind her and this was one of her handful of post-Metro poverty row films. In the 1990's, the media rediscovered the still-living icon and she gave a number of interviews and made a few additional films, playing small parts in some very minor films. At this writing she is still with us and age 95, one of the very last survivors of the silent and early talking screen.

Charles Starrett, seven years Anita's senior, was just starting his career when he made this picture. Two years later he would begin a career as a major "B western" hero, starring in well over 100 westerns for almost twenty years. He retired in the early 1950's and passed away in 1987 at 84.

These are two appealing young stars I could watch in anything but I think anyone who enjoys programmers from the thirties will find this little hour-long potboiler well worth their time."

Pre-code film lost in terrible DVD transfer

William R. Ray | Arden, NC USA | 07/16/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This film was very watchable when first released but......if I had to make a guess, this presentation from Alpha Home Entertainment is a VHS tape copy of a VHS tape copy finally transferred to DVD. The detail is almost gone which ruins the tantalizing scenes featuring Miss Page. It also ruins the excellent wild animal footage included in the film.

Only very serious collectors of pre-code films should bother with this one. Only someone who works for Alpha or Amazon.com would give this item 5 stars. Be careful what you read.

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