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On an expedition in the deep African jungle, photographer Thoren (Hardy
Krüger) one day stumbles over a white (topless) girl, Liane, who strolls
around the jungle as if she owned the place, & who frees him from some
natives. From now on,he has just one idea, to take pictures of the alomost
naked jungle girl, but his colleague Keller's (Reinhard Kolldehoff) ideas
go even further, & soon enough he captures her in a net & takes
her to their camp. Soon, er tribe, the Vodos, attack, but are scared off
by some native drumming caught on tape.
Now Thoren & friends seem to have just one idea, to get the girl, a
sweet litle 17 who has been living in the jungle for most of her life
& does only speak the natives' language, back to civilisation.
Soon enough, Liane the jungle girl has made the front page of every
newspaper in Europe, & hamburg based wealthy ship owner Ammelongen
(Rudolf Forster) soon thinks she is his granddaughter who disappeared in a
shipwreck 15 years ago, & he asks his nephew & CEO of his company
Schöning (Reggie Nalder), to get him the girl.
Soon enough Liane, her black servant Tanga (Jean Pierre Faye), a baby
lion, & Thoren are welcomed as guests into Ammerlong's house ... much
to the dismay of Schöning, who fears for his inheritance, since he is the
only other relative of Ammelongen. So Schöning uses every trick in the
book to discredit Liane & prove that she is not Ammelongen's
granddaughter - to no avail as it seems since Ammelongen finds a letter
from his daughtr with little Liane's fingerprints on it that match exactly
big Liane's prints. So Schöning grows desperate & first destroys the
evidence, then kills his uncle leaving sufficient efidence to make Tanga a
tailormade suspect. But the investigating officer (Arno Paulsen) sees
through Schönign's little charade, & in the end Schöning dies on the
run from the law when he drives his car off a bridge.
Liane though is disappointed from civilisation & returns to Africa
& her tribe, the Vodos.
Of course, jungle girl films in the 1950's were a dime a dozen, stil
this film managed to be tremenduously successful especially in Germany
& all over Western Europe - since its lead actress, cute 17-year old
Marion Michael, had extended topless scenes, a thing almost unthinkable in
the 1950's.
Does this make Liane, das Mädchen aus dem Urwald a good film ?
Probably not, apart from the nudity, the film is pretty childish,
predictable, full of kitsch & does support a rather conservative world
view (though one can't really compare the world view of the 1950's with
today's world view).
But is the film entertaining ?
If you can accept the cheesy adventure stories, unintentional humour
& an underbudgeted & corny representation of Africa, this might
just be your movie.
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