7/10
Simple delightful nonsense. What's sarong with that?
19 August 2020
Warning: Spoilers
1936 created several new stars among the movie going public (Judy Garland made her feature film debut this year in "Pigskin Parade"), but no one was thrust upon the screen to create a certain image and would stick with it for decades like Dorothy Lamour. Indeed, her image did provide a lot of lamour, and audiences couldn't get enough of her in her sarongs. The films were silly but fun adventures, taking audiences out of the depression in a pre-war era and into a world of fantasy and to places they could never dream of going to, mainly because he settings didn't exist.

In this film, she lives in the jungle with her much older father who is killed by a tiger, and with her little tiger cub, grows up living in a cave. Years go by, and she encounters jungle animal collector Ray Milland who is injured by a tiger in a fight and later saved by Ms. Lamour who doesn't speak any English and only has a chimpanzee and the grown tiger as her companions. Obviously, she falls in love with him at First Sight, and while he is believed dead, they share several adventures together. But when he realizes that his fiance is searching for him, he decides to return to civilization and deal with his past which may mean leaving Dorothy behind.

Molly Lamont plays the uptight fiance who literally try to make a fool out of Lamour by proving to Milland that she's nothing but an uncivilized jungle girl. But where there is a sarong, there is a way, and even though she tries to dress Dorothy up in American fashions, Dorothy glamorizes it in her own jungle style and looks fabulous which entices Milland all the more.

Some of the locals are in fear of Lemoore who is the mysterious voice in the jungle that warns other humans of a tiger's presence, and a storm the Inn where everybody is staying, leading to Dorothy being caught in a trap and her jungle friends all rushing to her rescue in a tremendously thrilling conclusion. There's also Akim Tamiroff as the local leader and Lynne Overman providing comedy as Milland's sidekick. While she would later switch to Technicolor in a variety of similar roles, she looks equally as lovely in black and white, and the combination of camp, romance and her charm keep her films fresh more than 70 years later.
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