Jungle Hell (1956)

Director:

Norman A. Cerf

Writer:

Norman A. Cerf (story)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi

Plot:

A tribe in the Indian jungle is threatened by flying saucers, mysterious rays and radioactive rocks.

Plot Keywords:

Jungle | Flying Saucer | Elephant | UFO | Alien Invasion

Cast

Sabu	...	Sabu, The Jungle Boy
K.T. Stevens	...	Dr. Pamela Ames
David Bruce	...	Dr. Paul Morrison
George E. Stone	...	Mr. Trosk
Naji	...	Shan-Kar
Robert Cabal	...	Kumar
Serena Sande	...	Shusheila
Ted Stanhope	...	Dr. Angus Caldwell
Jacqueline Lacey	...	Secretary
Paul Dastagir	...	The Child

Also Known As:

Jungle Boy (USA) (alternative title)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Trivia:

This is made of episodes of an unsold Sabu TV series.

How many elephants does it take to make a Sabu movie?

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I can't believe there's any stock footage of elephants anywhere that I haven't seen now. It's all in this movie. I mean *all*. "Jungle Hell" isn't a descriptive title by any means. "Elephant Hell" might be better. This is where bad elephants go when they die. This movie contains more stock footage than any movie I've seen - even more than "Devil Monster".

Here's the plot. Dr. Paul Morrison works alone in a small village in the middle of the Indian jungle. For some reason he has running water and electricity in his office. Doc's buddy Sabu (a grown man in a diaper-like loincloth) believes in his modern medicine, which creates some conflict with the local medicine man, Shankar. When Morrison cures a local boy of what appears to be radiation burns (all it takes is a little salve), he cables London for some help investigating the source of the burns. A Dr. Ames comes to his aid and *gasp* she's a woman!

Once this awkwardness is sorted out - she's pretty good-natured about it - Morrison gives her some spare women's clothes he has lying around. She lost hers in a plane crash, but why does bachelor Morrison have women's clothes in the first place? Then they're off in search of the "burning rocks" that may or may not be uranium ore. That's not really how radiation works, but it's just a Sabu movie so I guess it's close enough. Dr. Ames lost her scientific instruments in the crash along with her clothes, but they show up again when they finally find some more rocks. Oops.

Another explorer wants to find the rocks as well, but only for the potential profit. A friend of Shankar's helps him in exchange for a bag of gold. A mysterious and poorly drawn flying saucer seems to have something to do with the rocks, which are buried beneath trees. Both groups battle wild animals while they do their best to avoid the myriad elephants in the neighborhood. I have to admit the stock footage of the tiger jumping into the water and killing the crocodile was pretty cool. I didn't know they did that.

SPOILERS

Nothing gets resolved, and the movie ends the way it began - with Sabu narrating against a backdrop of stock footage of crowded mother India. He reveals that Morrison and Ames get married, that the flying saucer was controlling the tiger and the elephants, that its mysterious beings were using the Earth as "incubating grounds", and that to wonder why is "distraction". The End.

Wait. Did he say "distraction" or "destruction"? His accent is kind of thick, so I'm not really sure. I played it a couple times and couldn't figure out which it was. Either way, it's rather bewildering. If they weren't able to show the ending, at least they could've written a better one for Sabu to read. I don't get it.

Now, if they had replaced the elephants with dinosaurs this would've been a movie to reckon with!