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When he was 3, little Kaspa's (Ronnie Cosby) brought him to the African
jungle on a photo safari ... but then disaster happened, killing both his
parents, and ultimately the little one was adopted by a pack of lions,
with only his dad's knife reminding him of his former life. Now, hunter
Nolan (Robert Barrat) is capturing lions to sell them to circus impresario
Forbes (Sidney Toler) - and when he finds grown up Kaspa (now played by
Buster Crabbe) in a loincloth leading one pack of lions, he makes it his
point to capture him as well ... and Forbes is more than pleased as this
wild man will surely make a great attraction. Only once on American soil,
Kaspa escapes his capturers and finds refuge at school teacher Ann's
(Frances Dee) place, who is quick to take a liking to the savage. When
Forbes makes his big presentation of Kaspa to sell it to circus owner
Corey (Irving Pichel), everything that can go wrong does (including Kaspa
trying to release the lions), so Corey initially turns Forbes' offer down
- until he witnesses Ann calm down Kaspa, and thus he hires them both. On
the road with the circus, it's inevitable that Kaspa and Ann fall in love
it seems, but still his first interest are the lions, and he only plans to
stay with the circus until he has raised enough money to buy them back and
return them to Africa. It's only when Ann announces she'll leave the
circus that he notices he loves her even more and leaves with her. But
then a careless animal minder sets fire to the circus, and now it's up to
Kaspa to get things under control and see to it that all animals are saved
but not released onto the audience - which of course he masters with ease
... and the film ends with Kaspa returning to Africa with his lions - and
with Ann of course. Very much in the vein of Tarzan
(down to casting a swimming champ in the lead), King of the Jungle is
pretty much your typical early 1930s escapist fare, featuring exotica,
romance, danger, attractive leads, mild sexual innuendo, a bit of comedy
thrown in, and of course quite a few pulp mainstays. And while it's a
lively enough jungle man romp to kill some time, it's really nothing
special - and no match to the early sound Tarzan-movies
mind you. Basically, what this film really lacks on the story side is any
real conflict - even the climax with the circus fire seems rather pulled
out of the head to end the story than worked towards narratively. That
said, the direction is smooth and the cast is solid, so it's at least
decent vintage entertainment - if little more. By the way, both
director H. Bruce Humberstone and lead Buster Crabbe would later make Tarzan
movies for Sol Lesser, Crabbe would star in the serial Tarzan
the Fearless later in 1933 while Humberstone would direct a couple
of Gordon Scott Tarzans
in the 1950s.
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