vincentlynch-moonoi The last time I watched this film on television was quite a few years ago, and the public domain print was blurry and garish. And so, I really didn't care for the film. Tonight it was on TCM and I thought I'd see if the print was any better. Wow...what a wonderful improvement! The color is still a tad strong, but you know what Technicolor was like in the old days. But this is quite good, and the clarity is perfectly sharp.The first 10 minutes of the film is not really part of the plot, but some beautiful wildlife photography...I guess you could say the jungle book. I'm not quite sure just how wild the wildlife was, but the photography of it is really, quite striking.The part of the story where Mowgli is adjusting to life as a human are quite interesting, and it portrays well how people see good and evil when something strange comes along. I rather enjoy the two performances that are key in this part of the film -- Sabu and Rosemary DeCamp, a much underrated actress.Of course, greed is an important aspect of the story, although there is an odd mix of SE Asian and Indian iconography in the film...but so what...it's all in good fun. The climax of the story is the jungle fire, and it is simply stunning.This is a remarkable film for its time, and well worth watching.

TheLittleSongbird As a child, I loved this 1942 film Jungle Book. As a 20-year old adult, I still do, my favourite version of the story alongside the less faithful but just as fun 1967 Disney film. As with all Korda Brothers films(The Four Feathers being my personal favourite), the film is full of beautiful scenery and cinematography as well as an exotic atmosphere. Miklos Rozsa's score is suitably stirring with an authentic touch, while the story is exciting and amusing with a real adventurous streak about it and the pace not dragging too much. The jungle animals look great and are colourful characters in their own right, and the film is lovingly directed as always. Sabu is a likable and athletic lead, Joseph Calleia is terrific as Buldeo and Rosemary De Camp is a sympathetic mother figure. My only complaint is the romance, which was not as developed as it could have been. Overall though, I still love this film and still thinks it holds up today. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Leofwine_draca Here we have a glorious Technicolour adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling stories, nowadays forgotten after being eclipsed by Disney's cartoon film of 1967. Its status is ill-deserved, however, as this turns out to be a thrilling and eventful movie along the same action-packed lines as THE THIEF OF BAGDAD.It's hardly surprising, given that the two films share both Zoltan Korda as director and Sabu as star. THE JUNGLE BOOK serves as a loose adaptation of a handful of the original Mowgli stories, featuring all the animal characters that Kipling made famous and integrating them into a storyline that's very much of its era.Once the Tarzan-like jungle adventures are dispensed with, the plot involves a trio of greedy hunters and their quest for a mythical city of gold. Along the way, there are plenty of animal encounters which utilise some cutting edge technology for their day; those giant snakes still look impressive even now, and I'd for sure take them over lazy, modern-day CGI.Overall the film has a pleasant and whimsical tone, and the bookend scenes involving an old beggar narrating the tale are very well handled. Sabu is in his element, and doesn't put a foot wrong, and there's enough drama to satisfy both child and adult viewers.

movietrail I first encountered Sabu in his other famous flick, "Thief of Baghdad", where he impressed with both acting talent and physical prowess. The movie, though full of Arab clichés and with actors and extras of every race but Arab, was forgivable because its premise was so fantasy-oriented. "Jungle Book" however, supposedly in a much more realistic mode, presents an India that is a mishmash of cultures, sometimes pseudoCambodian, sometimes pseudoTurkish, sometimes pseudoRoosevelt; with a lot of white actors who look like a bunch of poorly-painted Al Jolsons trying to be Indians while talking like New York cabbies. An overly-clichéd India would have been an improvement, but it seems nobody had any idea what India and its people should look like. The two significant female characters, while both actually of European stock, were the only characters (besides Sabu) who were close to convincing as Indians (although their costumes were not). And oddly, altho the movie poster claims that Mowgli risked his life in the jungle for the "girl he loved", their is no hint that their relation with each other was anything more than a vague mutual curiosity. The plot line was going everywhere and nowhere, and the abundant animal scenes were well shot but redundant (some reviewers comment on the obvious flakiness of the animals, but they must have better eyes than I do). For me, at least, the film's only saving grace was Sabu himself, who obviously was the inspiration for the project. He lit up every scene he appeared in with the believability of his character and his lithe and athletic physique which showcased much more agility than even in "Thief". But if you want sexy, you would do much better to see Jason Scott Lee's 90s version, albeit Mr Lee is hard to believe as an Indian. However, back to the 1942 version, the subplot dealing with Mowgli's nemesis - the evil tiger Shere Khan - was half-baked and he did SK in half-way through the movie with no apparent fanfare. It didn't mesh in well with the story of the greedy Hindu 3 stooges raiding the treasure and consequently the whole bit with the jungle fire and all. The real failure, of course, is the end where the British lass asks the storyteller "what happened to the boy and the girl??", to which the storyteller replies,"THAT... is another stor-r-ry!"Wha'...??!