The Jungle Book

Rating:
Summary: Great oldie that desperately needs restoration
Review: Dark, poor sound quality, quite scratchy (didn't they have a master to use?) Terribly disappointed in this, as I recall it from my youth and wanted to pass along a treasure. Instead, my 5-year-old only lasted about halfway before he asked for something else (he has great concentration and listened attentively while I read him the entire The Hobbit, so I know it wasn't a lacking on his part) Alas, the old treasure is not gold, but brass. Given the state of technology, someone could easily clean this up and make every viewer thrilled. As it is, I sadly say, pass it by, it's better remembered than seen in its present wretched state.

Rating:
Summary: Great oldie that desperately needs restoration
Review: Sabu appears to be having a very good time as Mowgli, the child adopted by wolves who lives among the wild beasts as one of them; he swings from tree to tree like a nursery Tarzan. In the dark-green jungles of this lush, handsome Alexander Korda production (directed by Zoltan Korda) Mowgli has more to do with humans than in the original Kipling novel. Patricia O'Rourke is around for a suggestion of precocious romance; also Joseph Calleia is there for posterity...the screenplay by Laurence Stallings perhaps wandered a bit from Kipling, the segments concerning the python, the treasure and the ruined city are still thrilling in their way. Children will probably still love the movie, and adults will have a better time than they expected... Look for a very young, very American Rosemary DeCamp!

Rating:
Summary: KORDA CLASSIC.
Review: Sabu appears to be having a very good time as Mowgli, the child adopted by wolves who lives among the wild beasts as one of them; he swings from tree to tree like a nursery Tarzan. In the dark-green jungles of this lush, handsome Alexander Korda production (directed by Zoltan Korda) Mowgli has more to do with humans than in the original Kipling novel. Patricia O'Rourke is around for a suggestion of precocious romance; also Joseph Calleia is there for posterity...the screenplay by Laurence Stallings perhaps wandered a bit from Kipling, the segments concerning the python, the treasure and the ruined city are still thrilling in their way. Children will probably still love the movie, and adults will have a better time than they expected... Look for a very young, very American Rosemary DeCamp!

Rating:
Summary: pure poetry
Review: Seldom has live film so captured the mood of the original book on which it was based. The framing device of the old story teller (who turns out to be the villain of his own story) and the overvoice narration is Kipling all the way. While the cartoon versions degrade the material and put in riduculous songs, in this film the visual is poetry itself and the Rosza score is magnificent. This and its companion film <The Thief of Bagdad> are examples of movie making at its finest. And if the animals have more screen presence than do some of the actors, so be it.

Rating:
Summary: one of my favorites
Review: This is a good movies. I have seen it many times & will watch it again. It is fun watching Sabu in this movie & the best part is when the bad guys get what they deserve.

Rating:
Summary: Late Bogie!
Review: This stuff is great! Obviously taken from the original film and transfered to disc, this movie is the essence of black and white reel to reel cinema. Bogart's acting truly expresses why we revere this man as a legend of the big screen. Watch this on a big screen TV to get the full effect!

Rating:
Summary: 5 stars for the film - not the DVD
Review: What a pity that this classic film has entered the public domain. It's almost enough to make you wish that copyright laws lasted in perpetuity. Maybe then this movie would have been preserved and remastered the way that MGM's excellent DVD of "The Thief of Bagdad" was. I would gladly pay $15-20 (and quite possibly more) for such a treatment of "The Jungle Book," and would sleep just fine at night knowing that the heirs of the Korda brothers were getting a cut of it. Rather, we are treated to a slew of slipshod generic DVDs. It is probably only a matter of time before the original masters of this gorgeous, magical film deteriorate beyond all recognition, and all memory of this film vanishes into oblivion. This was the first film my mother ever saw as a young girl in Hungary in the early 1950s, and one of the first films I ever saw as young child in the early days of VHS. In all probability, I will never get the chance to show it to my own children, at least not in the way it was meant to be seen. What a pity.