THE JUNGLE PRINCESS (1936)

In the jungles of Malaysia, an elephant stampede destroys the village of the young girl Ulah, and her father dies saving her from a tiger. Fifteen years later, Ulah (Dorothy Lamour) is a solitary jungle dweller (think female Tarzan but in a sarong rather than a loincloth) with a pet tiger she calls Limau. Her tiger has become something of a legend among the natives, for whenever it appears, the sound of soft laughter is heard nearby. It's called the Tiger Who Laughs, but we see that it's really Ulah, hiding in the trees, who laughs. A small British expedition is about to leave before the rainy season sets in, but Chris (Ray Milland) wants to stay and work on his book, which irritates his fiancée Ava (Molly Lamont). While Chris in the jungle, the laughing tiger appears and starts to attack Chris, whose leg is injured. The native guides run away but Ulah stops and helps him, taking him to her cave and attending to his leg while the two of them, despite their language differences, flirt up a storm. Chris's party looks for him but assumes he's dead and take off, leaving Chris and Ulah to get cozy in the jungle. Time passes, the expedition returns, and Chris feels duty-bound to return to Ava, but Ulah and Limau accompany him. Despite the obvious closeness of Chris and Ulah, Ava insists on holding Chris to his promise of marriage. But eventually, between these romantic entanglements and the belief among the natives that Ulah is a witch, problems ensue.

Despite having the predictable structure and trappings of the average jungle adventure, this feels a little brighter and more fun than the Tarzan movies of the same era, largely due to the chemistry between Lamour (in her first movie) and Milland. She's charming, if mostly called upon to give a one-note performance, and he is still young and vigorous, and it's fun to watch their relationship develop. Though this was made after the imposition of the moralistic Production Code, it has the feel of a pre-Code movie: it's made very clear that Milland and Lamour are having a physical relationship without the benefit of clergy, so to speak, not to mention the specter of forbidden "miscegenation," with the Anglo Chris and the native Malaysian Ulah (with Lamour in what I call duskyface). Another thing this has in common with the Tarzan films is that the rest of the cast, here including Akim Tamiroff and Lynne Overman, makes little impression. There's not a lot of action until the climactic attack of the flying (sort of) monkeys which is pulled off nicely. A fun 30s adventure. [DVD]