The Naked Jungle

The Naked Jungle

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For the unrelated TV programme, see Naked Jungle.

The Naked Jungle
Promotional film poster
Directed by	Byron Haskin
Produced by	George Pal
Written by	Ranald MacDougall Ben Maddow Philip Yordan based on a story by Carl Stephenson
Starring	Eleanor Parker Charlton Heston Abraham Sofaer William Conrad
Music by	Daniele Amfitheatrof
Cinematography	Ernest Laszlo, ASC
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	March 3, 1954 (1954-03-03)
Running time	95 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$2.3 million (US)[1]

The Naked Jungle is a 1954 film directed by Byron Haskin, and starring Charlton Heston and Eleanor Parker. Telling the story of an attack of army ants on a Brazilian cocoa plantation, it was based on the short story "Leiningen Versus the Ants" by Carl Stephenson.^[2]

In 1970, it aired on WVUE-TV in New Orleans, Louisiana as part of its highly publicized switch of channel positions with that city's PBS member station, WYES-TV.^[3]

Contents

 [hide] 

• 1 Plot
• 2 Production
• 3 Impact
• 4 References
• 5 External links

Plot[edit]

In 1901, mail-order bride Joanna (Eleanor Parker) arrives from New Orleans at a South American cocoa plantation to meet her new husband, plantation owner Christopher Leiningen (Charlton Heston), whom she has married by proxy.

Leiningen is cold and remote to her, rebuffing all her attempts to make friends with him. She's beautiful, independent, and arrives ready to be his stalwart helpmate; however, no one has told him she's a widow. He rejects her because he had wanted to marry a virgin.

As she awaits the boat to take her back to the United States, they learn that legions of army ants - the "Marabunta" - will strike in a few days' time. Leiningen refuses to give up the home he fought so hard to create. Instead of evacuating, he resolves to make a stand against this indomitable natural predator. Joanna joins the fight to save the plantation; their courage and his probable loss of all he's worked for crack his resolve to send her away.

Production[edit]

The screenplay was co-written by Ranald MacDougall and the blacklisted writer Ben Maddow. The film was produced in Technicolor by George Pal, who also made The War of the Worlds, Tom Thumb, and The Time Machine.

William Conrad, who had starred as Leiningen in a 1948 adaptation of Stephenson's story for the radio program Escape, appears in the film as a district commissioner.^[4]

The unique "sound" of the ants devouring everything in their path was created by swirling a straw in a glass of water with crushed ice, which was then amplified. Much of the Rio Negro (Amazon) jungle riverscape, as well as the bridge dynamiting and sluice scenes, are second-unit stock footage shot in Florahome, Florida, according to IMDb.

Impact[edit]

The film strongly influenced the 1985 MacGyver episode "Trumbo's World", which also featured clips from the film.