kevin olzak 1955's "Female Jungle" was an early release from American International Pictures, when it was still called American Releasing Corporation, possibly a vanity project for actor Bert Kaiser, who not only plays a major role, but also co-wrote and produced (his only feature film, period). First time director Bruno Ve Sota, later responsible for 1955's "Dementia," 1958's "The Brain Eaters," and 1962's "Invasion of the Star Creatures," was a busy character actor in low budget films (particularly Roger Corman or Jerry Warren), and frequent villain in TV Westerns. Immeasurably aided by the cinematography of Universal ace Elwood 'Woody' Bredell, his best known titles including "Black Friday," "The Mummy's Hand," "Dark Streets of Cairo," "The Invisible Woman," "Man Made Monster," "Horror Island," "Hold That Ghost," "The Strange Case of Doctor Rx," "Mystery of Marie Roget," "The Ghost of Frankenstein," "Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror," and "Phantom Lady." The film looks very good, the setup taking place almost in real time, just over an hour, starting off with the strangling murder of a pretty young blonde (not Jayne Mansfield, but Eve Brent, also making her film debut). She turns out to be a famous starlet, whose rise to the top was aided by news columnist Claude Almstead (John Carradine), who, like Clifton Webb's Waldo Lydecker in "Laura," remained confident that she'd always return to him whenever she strayed. There's a starving artist, Alex Voe (producer Bert Kaiser), who discovers Almstead at his apartment door at 2AM, curiously demanding a sketch performed; his not so faithful wife Peggy (Kathleen Crowley) has no problem accompanying the older man back to his place for a nightcap and moonlight swim. Ultimately, the film stubbornly focuses on its least interesting character, boozing cop Jack Stevens (Lawrence Tierney), barely recovered from his alcoholic blackout, conducting an investigation on the fly that never really picks up steam. Jayne Mansfield is absolutely stunning in her film debut, capably handling her supporting role as Candy Price, alternately carrying on with Voe and Stevens, all kisses with each man she comes across; too bad she too gets bumped off. Small parts are well played by director Ve Sota, James Kodl as the saloon owner, and especially Davis Roberts, so good in TV comedies like SANFORD AND SON, a very sober and believable performance as the janitor, usually a role played strictly for comic relief. It's not surprising to find John Carradine in such impoverished circumstances, and it's happily one of his meatiest roles of the 50s; bespectacled, dapper, and clean shaven, either a red herring or a killer, seemingly with understandable designs on another man's beautiful wife. The denouement is a lengthy one, and in his capable hands, ultimately satisfying (the picture would have been nothing without his presence). The pacing slowed by the dialogue-heavy script, it's downbeat but surprisingly good given the little known actors involved.

John Seal Female Jungle is a fairly good and at times noteworthy low budget indie feature. Produced by star Burt Kaiser, who plays a down on his luck sketch artist with the longest 1950's hair this side of Elvis, the film also features Lawrence Tierney, who sleepwalks through his role as a drunken cop trying to win back the respect of his sergeant by helping solve a murder mystery. Tierney's career was entering crisis mode at this point thanks to his own drinking problem, and though he's obviously trying his best here, it shows. The story is fairly feeble, but the fine cast--which also includes John Carradine, Attack of the Giant Leeches man Bruno Ve Sota, an unglamorous looking Jayne Mansfield, and Davis Roberts--is worth watching. For a poverty row cheapie the film looks quite good--a testament, perhaps, to the effective work of DoP Elwood Bredell, who always did good work with little money on 'B' classics like Man Made Monster and Phantom Lady.

subcityii Even allowing for the fact that it was a low budget, quickly made picture (like many film noirs were), this picture for me was more bad than good. First the bad, the film suffers from some stilted acting by the supporting players and so-so dialog. The film even manages a couple of moments of unintentional humor. It is about a murder that takes place outside a bar where an off duty cop is drinking heavily. The cop is played here by Lawrence Tierney (who looks more like his younger brother, Scott Brady, than he has in any other role of his I've seen). The cops on duty browbeat Tierney into helping out with the investigation. I did not understand why they expected Tierney's character to help, he was off duty after all. Now for the good, after a few false leads and dead ends, the killer is revealed. I must admit, the killer's identity was unexpected. I was fooled. The leading performers here are competent but the one person that really stands out, literally, is a young temptress played by Jayne Mansfield. It is easy to see why she ended up with a Hollywood career playing Marilyn Monroe type parts. This film was released as the second half of a double feature. That is where it belongs. The western it was released with, Oklahoma Woman, is a much better film.

bmacv There's a persuasive argument to be mounted that the end of the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood movie-making can be ascribed not to the studios' divestiture of its theater chains but to the explosion, in the motorized society of the 1950s, of drive-in theaters, where the main attraction was not on the screen. Up to that point, even the lowliest second feature was apt to show at least a modicum of craft and plausibility. The exploitation movies changed all that, ushering in an era when just about anything goes – or, often, nothing.American International Pictures was the outfit that pioneered fodder for the teenage popcorn-and-petting trade. In 1956, it released one of its few features that might be considered even marginally noir – Female Jungle (also called The Hangover). Neither title quite fits, though the second has a bit more claim to legitimacy than the first, which was simply a ploy to pack 'em in.After the gala premiere of her debut film, a starlet leaves a seedy bar and meets her quietus at the hands of a strangler. For the next hour or so, Lawrence Tierney, John Carradine, Jane Mansfield and half a dozen other characters go racketing around through the night on a series of wild-goose chases. Tierney plays an off-duty policeman whose long evening bending his elbow resulted in a blackout; he thinks he might have been the killer. Carradine plays a gossip columnist whose helped the dead starlet's career, only to be jilted. Mansfield (in her screen debut) seems to be playing a call-girl who's in love with an out-of-work caricaturist whose wife might be the next victim of….All that said, Female Jungle remains watchable, if barely. It was AIP's policy to engage a few actors on the way up and a few more on the way down, filling up the rest of the slots with whoever was handy (both the producer and director have parts in the movie). But Tierney, by this time seriously on the skids and persona-non-grata in the major studios, exudes some of his rough magic while Carradine, looking particularly suave, gives it his old-trouper's all. And Mansfield, of course, has her own morbid fascination. There's a peculiar allure to some of this late-50s sleaze; if you're into it, this is the movie for you.