Let's cut to the chase...the plot here in "The Jungle" is ridiculous. It's set in India and elephants have apparently been stampeding the countryside and killing many people. However, the great American hunter called in to take care of it, Steve Bentley (Rod Cameron) has just reported that everyone in his party but him got killed...and they were NOT elephants but Woolly Mammoths!! So, the determined Princess (Marie Windsor) heads into the jungle with her trusted Rama Singh (Cesar Romero) to see for herself...and Steve accompanies their party. In addition to Woolly Mammoths, the film also features something common in the era...white folks playing the leading roles even though they are supposed to be Indians. Romero can kinda pull it off but Marie Windsor looks about as Indian as Lassie! I think the film was sepia tinted to try to hide this but it doesn't work well. Nowadays, such casting is seen as culturally insensitive and insulting. At least everyone else in the film appears to be Indian and the film DOES get the look and feel of India right and the animals seem to be more accurate than most B-movies (where you'd see rhinos and kangaroos and more in the Indian jungle!). Considering it's a low-budget film, I was also surprised that some of the film was actually filmed in that country. So, culturally it's a mixed bag.So is it any good? Of course not! It really can't be! It's a product of its times but really isn't all that great...at best a slow-paced and very silly time passer. But, when it comes to giant monster films, it's better than most (not that this is high praise!).By the way, if you suffer from Ophidiophobia (the fear of snakes) skip this film. Trust me on this. Also, animal lovers might also want to avoid it as there's a scene where a tiger and Sloth Bear fight and it honestly looks like they just tossed 'em together and let them fight! Fortunately it APPEARS neither animal was seriously injured. Later, they toss a boar at a leopard! Great animal lovers they were NOT!

Rugged great white hunter Steve Bentley (well played with appropriately manly resolve by Rod Cameron) and feisty Indian princess Mari (a sturdy performance by the sultry Marie Windsor) embark on an expedition into the India jungle in order to find out the source of wild animal stampedes that have left many people dead.Director William Berke relates the engrossing story at a steady pace and maintains a likable sincere tone throughout. Cameron and Windsor make for personable leads; they receive fine support from Cesar Romero as Mari's loyal and protective husband Rama Singh. Carroll Young's tight script draws the characters with some depth and presents plenty of thrilling obstacles for the protagonists to contend with. The exotic locations add an extra tangy flavor. The stampede sequences with scared elephants trampling everything in their path are genuinely harrowing; ditto several moments depicting animals fighting each other to the death. A dance sequence with various lovely harem girls rates as another definite highlight. Clyde DeVinna's crisp black and white cinematography basks everything in a gorgeous sepia tone. Worth a watch.

With her father out of the country receiving medical treatments, the daughter of a rajah returns home to handle a crisis in he country. It seems that some form of wild animals are destroying villages. Hooking up with a great white hunter who was the only survivor of a hunting party sent to end the menace, the princess and a large group of soldiers head into the jungle to put a stop to the attacks. Add to the mix political intrigue, revenge and romance you have the makings for a perilous journey.This is an okay little scifi adventure film that suffers from a leisurely pacing. Shot in India much of the film is the journey into the jungle, which means that their is a great deal of travelogue footage. We see the landscape of India as well as several animal on animal attacks, not to mention a troop of traveling performers. Its interesting viewing because its not the sort of thing we've seen before, but at the same time it slows everything down.On the plus side this film doesn't really look and feel like most other movies. Its a weird mix of Western and Indian films, the result of much of the crew being natives to India. I especially like the non Western music which includes several songs naturally integrated into the film as either entertainment numbers or sung by the soldiers traveling through the jungle.Worth a look for those who want to see a run of the mill story told with a different sort of style.

Most films about prehistoric animals almost always feature dinosaurs. This is one of the few films I know of that deals with prehistoric mammals. In this film the menace is woolly mammoths that are driving elephants out of the countryside and into villages wrecking havoc and death. While the basic idea is interesting, the film itself is slow going. The American version which is only a little more than an hour long is padded with lots material designed to use up footage. Its seems it takes the party almost forever to encounter the mammoths. The final confrontation is exciting but it takes too long. The only other point of interest is that this is the earliest American/Indian co-production that I am aware of.