Alex da Silva
Vera Ralston (Christine) is hunting in the Amazon jungle and comes across pilot George Brent's crashed plane and crew. Brent falls in love with Ralston but she doesn't want to get involved and disappears to Rio. A meeting with an old friend of Vera's parents gives Brent an insight into her past but there is some serious craziness to follow.Woah! I wasn't expecting that. The film starts with drama in the Amazon as we are amongst a group of individuals avoiding capture from local head-hunters. We get a plane crash and a drumming soundtrack that is very tense. And then the drumming stops. Uh-oh, they're in trouble. It's a good beginning. However, the film then turns into love story nonsense as Brent pursues Ralston. He is very corny and somewhat creepy in his persistence and you feel the film is really going downhill. Then ...wham....the film goes somewhere completely different. So, book that visit to the Amazon jungle - things might get weird for you. It's got me thinking about that TV programme "I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here" where celebrities go into the jungle and bore everyone senseless. They are allowed to take a luxury item with them, so what would it be? If I ever get asked and agree to take part, I know my choice....it's got to be a pair of comedy breasts.
ofumalow
This odd, hard-to-see romantic fantasy (I finally tracked it down in a poor TV dupe from a trader) is a curio at best, without the atmosphere, charm or casting to pull off the very silly concept it plays with a very straight face. Vera Ralston plays the mysterious jungle-dwelling woman who bewitches Brian Aherne when his plane accidentally crash-lands in the area. Flashbacks eventually reveal the cause of her skittishness as a sort of supernatural curse that has already caused tragedy. Everyone seems to be punching the clock here, including the director. The big problem, of course, is Ralston: As usual, she's asked to play a character whose charms fascinate everyone, and as usual those charms seem very elusive to the viewer. The Republic Studio executive who married and tirelessly promoted her as a star despite the public's complete lack of enthusiasm must truly loved her to be so blind. She's not the worst actress ever to grace the screen, but she is wooden and not as attractive as the film insists she is. Constance Bennett has a humiliating role that is perhaps a typical 1948 notion of a "sympathetic" part for an actress of a certain age who's no longer a star: She's a professional woman whom Aherne treats as a best friend, though of course she's hopelessly in love with him. He's completely oblivious to that, natch, because he's so besotted with the younger, beautiful Ralston—something that seems particularly humiliating here because frankly the latter isn't all that beautiful. (She's more the kind of woman one might call "handsome," in that she has good features but little humor or vivacity to light them up.) The bones of the story might have been ideal for more florid, "exotic" treatment, like a Maria Montez vehicle. But the execution is surprisingly talky and flat, too pedestrian even to have much camp value. Too bad, because its mix of romantic sentimentality and kitsch fantasy should have made for something more memorable than this fairly dull "B" (though by Republic standards it was probably close to an "A").
Richardthepianist
I have had the GREAT JOY of FINALLY locating this film after not seeing it in about 30 years! Like some of the earlier comments,this haunting film has stayed with me since and just in the last few weeks,after persistently looking on the web to see if ANYONE had it on video for purchase,I FOUND a company named learmedia in Canada..I'm still pinching myself to believe that I have it at last! Angel on the Amazon is a film that still evokes romantic fantasy,psychological tension and a very satisfying ending.A must for those film collectors who find the needle in the haystack...Vera Hruba Ralston is a minor actress who gives a stellar performance and is backed by noted Brian Aherne,George Brent and Constance Bennett
PIAZZASANMARCO
I saw this movie as "Drums Along the Amazon" when I was a boy of about 15 to 17 in England. I am 66 now and I have never had the opportunity to see it since and neither have I ever forgotten it. Why? Because it is a haunting film that captured the imagination....maybe looking for that certain something in the jungle of life that always seems to just elude us.As I remember, Vera Ralston played an excellent part as Christine Ridgeway. She definitely commanded the film more so than George Brent.
AD
