The Naked Jungle

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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(s) March 3, 1954
Running time 95 min.
Country USA
Language English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

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 Peruvian cocoa plantation, it was based on the short story "Leiningen Versus the Ants" by Carl Stephenson.

Contents

[edit] Plot

As the film opens, Joanna (Eleanor Parker), a New Orleans woman arrives at the 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. During the next week, 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 may crack his resolve to send her away.

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. The film's title is presumably a reference to how the ants "strip" the jungle and turn it into a wasteland.

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.

[edit] Filming Location

Portions of this movie were filmed in Florahome, Florida. This small town is located in Putnam County west of the county seat, Palatka. The dynamiting of the bridges was one of the scenes filmed here. Tragically, a local citizen died when he was thrown from his horse during one of the explosions.

[edit] Pop culture references

The MacGyver episode "Trumbo's World" featured the same premise as the short story and the film, even using a sizable amount of stock footage from the film. In the episode, the plantation owner was called Lucien Trumbo and he was played by David Ackroyd. MacGyver himself roughly filled the Eleanor Parker role, although he got to do some of Charlton Heston's heroic bits.

[edit] External links


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