(re)search my Trash

<body> <div align="left"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="800" cellpadding="0" height="100%"> <tr> <td width="100" rowspan="3" background="../stylepix/square.gif" valign="top">  </td> <td width="4" rowspan="3"></td> <td width="592" height="1%" valign="top">  </td> <td width="4" rowspan="3"></td> <td width="100" rowspan="3" background="../stylepix/squareright.gif" valign="top">  </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="592" valign="top" height="99%">  <p>Africa: As a child, Joan Lawrence (Marilyn Spinner), was taken away into the deep deep jungle via balloon in which she hid when playing hide-and-seek with her friend David Worth (Dickie Jones). Since that time, David (as an adult played by Reed Howes) hasn't stopped looking for her ... not because he likes the game so much but to bring her back to her parents. Finally he finds her, being the cruel queen of a native tribe that worships an idol that shoots radium rays from its eyes - an idol that is operated by the tribe's high priest Kali (Lafe McKee), a white man who wants to keep the secret of the tribe's radium for himself.</p> <p>David is captured by the natives, but just before he is sacrificed to the idol too, Joan learns that he is her childhood friend David, and decides to spare him, much to the dismay of High Priest Kali, who realizes he can no longer control Joan ... so she orders her and David both sacrificed. Somehow though, David can not only make good his escape, he also manages to break her free and convince her to come with him ... and she helps their escape by calling her friends, the elephants, to stampede.</p> <p>The escape of David and Joan is nt without perils hough, the have to fight the usual lions and leopards but also a murderous Tree Man and his killer apes, plus Joan is temporarily blinded and sent down a waterfall in a row boat (but of course she's saved and given eyesight again).</p> <p>Eventually, the two cross path with Captain Blake (Robert Borman), who promises them safe passage on his ship ... but actually, he knows who Joan is and wants her to lead him to the radium. It all ends in a horde of lions attacking Blake's ship, with David and joan escaping only just.</p> <p>Suddenly they are closer to Joan's tribe once more than in a long time, and one night, when they camp with a group of friendly beduines, Kali actually enters the camp trying to kill Joan ... but the Leopard Woman, whose life was once saved by David and Joan, has come to return the favour, and she lets her leopards loose on the camp, an attack during which Kali is eventually killed.</p> <p>Finally, Kali's chief henchman Gura captures not only Joan and David but also Joan's father (William J.Walsh), who has since his daughter's disappearance roamed the jungle looking for both radium and his daughter, but now that he has found them both, it looks as if it's already too late because Gura wants to feed him to the lions. But then Gura is shot by the friendly beduines, and suddenly Gura's tribe is no longer evil, they set their prisoners free just like that, and now that David, Joan and Joan's father are reunited, everything ends happily ...</p> <p> </p> <p>A weird little serial: Most of the action and jungle sequences of <b>Queen of the Jungle</b> were lifted from the 1922 serial <b>The Jungle Goddess</b> directed by William N.Selig (that is nowadays considered lost). Thing is, the earlier serial was recorded at 18 frames per second (which was common in the silent era), while the rest was recorded at the more customary 24 frames per second of the sound era. However, no efforts were made to slow the old footage down to match with the 24 frame standard, so the silent footage just moves a tad too fast, which is clearly visible in many scenes. Plus, the sound effects (most often of natives mumbling, for some reason) is not always very convincing (to say the least) and sometimes even unintentionally funny.</p> <p>That all said, <b>Queen of the Jungle</b> is still quite entertaining if you are prepared to overlook its obvious shortcomings, a piece of naive escapism with plenty of action, excitement and exotic locales. Not great, but fun.</p> <p> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="592" valign="top" height="1%">  <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> currentyear = "2006"; </SCRIPT> <SCRIPT language="JavaScript" src="../scripts/endcredits.js"></SCRIPT> <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> dosworsdonn(); </SCRIPT> </td> </tr> </table> </div> </body>