I'd give this one six points just because it was a good vehicle for one of my favorite character actors from the 1930's - Barton McLane - to play something other than just an all out tough guy.Barton McLane plays Cliff Ballenger, who is a great guy when he is not drunk. He's also a big cat tamer in a circus, who works tigers and lions together, although this fact is never explicitly mentioned, nor is the fact that it is very dangerous because lions and tigers do not like each other very much - Clyde Beatty did it in his heyday and was famous because he could do it.The problem is, Cliff is mean and easily challenged when drunk, and easily gets drunk when he is jealous. And when he is drunk he does some pretty unthinkable things that endanger others, and then he overcompensates for his bad acts. So Cliff gets drunk one night, mistakes one of his good friend's statements as a challenge, and claims he can tame the meanest cat in the circus - Satan - even when he is drunk. When that friend tries to stop him, he loses his life to Satan, Cliff just loses a leg. So Cliff, once out of the hospital, decides the best way to make amends is to help his dead friend's grown daughter, to take over where he left off. It helps that with a false leg Cliff is still able to work the big cats and make pretty good money.The girl is in jail for prostitution - she was broke, didn't want to tell anybody, and as she says "a girl's got to eat". Cliff visits her in jail, doesn't judge her, and rents her a home when she gets out. She marries him out of gratitude, but then one night Cliff brings one of his good friends home for dinner and lightning strikes between Cliff's new wife and his best friend. This is lightning they don't want to act on because they both like sober Cliff a great deal. How does this turn out? Rather predictably and even poignantly I'll say. It's one of Warner's better B efforts even though none of the other players besides Barton McLane really made it in Hollywood although everybody gave a good performance here.

When lion-tamer Barton MacLane loses a leg and his assistant to one of his big cats, he takes June Travis, the assistant's daughter, under his wing. She marries him out of gratitude, but all too soon she falls in love with Warren Hull. Everyone tries to do this decent thing, but....Barton MacLane plays a role that would have gone to Lon Chaney at MGM or George Bancroft at Fox in their heydays. His big, burly, loud performance is just fine for the Bs, but despite some real acting chops, there was no place for him as a leading man, even in the Warner B movies. He retreated to supporting roles, like his turn in HIGH SIERRA and prospered for decades.Although everyone gives their best, the obvious process shots and stunt doubles renders this a mediocre B picture. The big fire scene may hold some excitement, but by this point in the movie, all the obvious camera fakery had washed away any residuum of interest for me.

Bengal Tigers (1936) ** (out of 4) "B" movie from Warner has Barton MacLane playing Cliff Ballenger, a tough-as-nails animal trainer who in a drunken state ends up getting a man killed by a dangerous tiger known as Satan. Soon afterwards he tries to help the man's daughter (June Travis) who is in bad shape. The two are soon married but not long after that she falls in love with Cliff's best friend (Warren Hull).BENGAL TIGERS is a decent low-budget quickie that is mildly entertaining as long as you don't go into it expecting any sort of masterpiece. There's no question that the movie should have and could have been much better. I say that because the first portion of the movie is rather entertaining because we get a behind-the-scenes look at the circus life. In these moments there are some great shots of animals and humans performing and there's even a nice sequence where the tiger escapes and Cliff must go into a basement to try and get him.The film certainly needed more scenes like that but sadly the film very quickly turns into a rather boring melodrama once the love triangle kicks in. What makes the melodrama so bad is the fact that it's rather predictable and ends exactly as you'd expect it to. MacLane is good in the lead role and managed to bring some power to the film. Travis, Hull and Paul Graetz are good as well in their supporting parts. The stuff between MacLane and the tiger have very obvious doubles at times but they're still mildly entertaining.BENGAL TIGER thankfully only clocks in at 62 minutes but even that at times seems long.