The interesting subject of racism in Hawaii is badly treated in this film Jungle Heat. The setting is Hawaii right before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Glenn Langan has been sent for to manage a new plantation after the old overseer was murdered and he's got some definite ideas about how to manage the plantation. These natives are just lazy by nature and they need a good swift kick in the posterior region to get them to work.All this is playing right into the hands of the avuncular James Westerfield who plays another plantation owner but is in league with the Japanese who want the native Hawaiians against the Americans. Dr. Lex Barker tries to tell Langan this is all a Japanese plot, but he's too thick to believe him. Besides Langan's wife Mari Blanchard is providing all the jungle heat that the male population is in.This film is about 15 years too late. It might have been acceptable propaganda fare in 1942, but even the most xenophobic Americans weren't going to buy this in 1957. But Mari Blanchard sure is nice to look at.

Jungle Heat (1957)I have a thing for old B-movies. It's partly for the rawness, and the photography, and maybe discovering some actors in early (or late) performances. "Jungle Heat" is a dud. The writing and most of the acting is so bad it made me cringe. And I'm a sympathetic audience.So skip that, skip the rest of this review, and give me a thumbs up for helping your day. (smiley face)What recommends this at all? For one thing, the setting is interesting, and it's filmed where it's set: Kauai, Hawaii. (At least the crew and cast were happy. I've been there and it's about the most amazing place I've been.) The plot is meant to be hyper-dramatic, filled with dread as we know Pearl Harbor is looming. Yes, it's set right before December, 1941, and the story implies that Japanese enemies were at work in the backwaters of Hawaii. The locals, though portrayed as bimbos or selfish fools (mostly) eventually catch on to what's happening and put an awkward end to it.But my goodness, what bad production values. The director (who I met once, in Woodstock where he had a place), is famous for being the "third" screenwriter (after the famous Epstein brothers) on Casablanca (which does have the most stunning script). But he never quite rose to his apparent promise. He ended up best as a producer, but unlike the great producers (name any of the keystones of the studio system era), he itched to be "more" than a producer.What else? Ah, nothing. My review are too long anyway. Move on.

Jungle Heat (1957) * 1/2 (out of 4) New plantation owners show up in pre-WWII Hawaii to take over their land but they soon realize that Dr. Jim Ransom (Lex Barker) is investigating possible Japanese communist working in the area. If you're looking for a boring, dull, lifeless and bad dialogue driven film then this here is a must see. If you're half-way human and expect thrillers to be thrilling then it's best that you stay away from this "C" movie from Bel-Air. It should be noted that the studio made this film at the same time as their equally bad VOODOO ISLAND with Boris Karloff. Both films contain a low-budget, a notable star and that's just about it. It's clear the studio wasn't able to do too much with their budget and this is probably why you see so little going on here. There's really no action scenes up until the end and once we get to them by that times you're so bored that it doesn't matter what happens. Another major problem is that the three lead characters are all rather bland and not for a second do you care about them. I think it was interesting that they were trying to do something pre-Pearl Harbor but the end result is just a failure. When you've got poor writing, no story and a lack of any real characters it's very hard to overcome this and JUNGLE HEAT ends up feeling twice as long as its 75-minute running time. Barker actually isn't too bad in his part and Mari Blanchard and James Westerfield are also fairly good. Still, there's just not enough going on with this picture to make it worth watching unless you're wanting to be a judge and see whether this or VOODOO ISLAND is worse.

A Bel Air production, it's not so usual to catch on a TV broadcast. So, don't let it go. At the beginning and during all the first third of the feature, I wondered if it was worth seeing it. I was a little bored. Lots of talking among natives, jungle, Lex Barker and Mari Blanchard with Glenn Langam in between, hot passion in prospect in the jungle. Guess what I mean...But the interest appears in the middle of this story about plot,spies and Japanese fifth column in a little island just before December the 7th.Everyone knows what that means...Speaking about it, the movie ends with an interesting image.Not so bad, after all.