Cheap Jungle Girl - Serial (DVD) (William Witney, John English) Price

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Customer Reviews of Jungle Girl - Serial

From Batman to Zorro, the Lone Ranger to Flash Gordon, or Dick Tracy to Captain Marvel, they all had their own special appeal and allure. Granted, although all too often there were signficant differences in quality and production values, every fan had a favorite. And, for me and millions of other fans, no serial ever made was more exciting, entertaining, or intense as the action-packed thrills and perils found in "Jungle Girl."

Loosely based upon the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel of the same name and released in 1941 by Republic Pictures, the film starred beautiful Frances Gifford as Nyoka, the Jungle Girl. Unusal for the period, this was the first attempt (since the silent days of Pearl White) to feature a female as the lead in a movie serial.

Doubled equally by Helen Thurston and stunt ace David Sharpe, Nyoka swung through the trees with an acrobatic skill unseen in the much higher budgeted Tarzan films. Fighting diamond hunting gangsters and savage natives, she successfully endures 15-chapters of some of the best cliffhanger perils ever filmed . . . from lethal fire traps, avalanches, drownings, poison gas, falls from cliffs, and quicksand, just to name a few.

Opposed by "Slick" Latimer and Shamba, the Witch Doctor, (for me, one of the scariest villains in serial history) Nyoka barely survives to defeat her enemies and save the day. Universally considered one of the best serials ever made (and definitely the best jungle serial ever made), Jungle Girl was directed by the cream of action directors, William Witney and John English. It was so successful, the following year it spawned an even more popular sequel, "Perils of Nyoka."

For an example of the motion picture serial at its best, you can't do much better than "Jungle Girl" or its sequel. It's influence is felt to this day by modern serial fans like Steven Speilberg and George Lucas and many of their films, particularly the Star Wars and Indiana Jones series, owes a debt of gratitude to this long gone, but not forgotten, American art form.

Classic Cliffhanger!
As a long-time fan of the old motion picture serials, I've had the pleasure of seeing (and now, thanks to video, owning) many of the greats from the "golden age" of movie serials.

From Batman to Zorro, the Lone Ranger to Flash Gordon, or Dick Tracy to Captain Marvel, they all had their own special appeal and allure, although all too often there were signficant differences in quality and production values. Every fan had a favorite. However, for me and millions of other fans, no serial ever made was more exciting, entertaining, or intense as the action-packed thrills and perils found in "Jungle Girl."

Loosely based upon the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel of the same name and released in 1941 by Republic Pictures, the film starred beautiful Frances Gifford as Nyoka, the Jungle Girl. Unusal for the period, this was the first attempt (since the silent days of Pearl White) to feature a female as the lead in a movie serial.

Doubled by stunt ace David Sharpe, Nyoka swung through the trees with an acrobatic skill unseen in the much higher budgeted Tarzan films. Fighting diamond hunting gangsters and savage natives, she successfully endures 15-chapters of perils from lethal fire traps, avalanches, drownings, poison gas, falls from cliffs, and quicksand, to name a few.

Opposed by Shamba, the Witch Doctor, one of the scariest villains in serial history, Nyoka barely survives to defeat her enemies and save the day. Considered one of the best serials ever made (and definitely the best jungle serial ever made), Jungle Girl was directed by the cream of action directors, William Witney and John English. It was so successful, the following year it spawned an even more popular sequel, "Perils of Nyoka."

For an example of the motion picture serial at its best, you can't do much better than "Jungle Girl" or its sequel. It's influence is felt to this day by modern serial fans like Steven Speilberg and George Lucas and many of their films, particularly the Indiana Jones series, owes a debt of gratitude to this long gone, but not forgotten, American art form. END

Queen of serials !
I bought this DVD at amazon France. "Jungle girl" is my second serials. First one was the silent "Tarzan, the Tiger" with Frank Merrill. The jungle adventures with Frances Gifford as Nyoka are really breathtaking. She looks great and I was very sad when I read that she had in the mid-forties such a terrible car accident which injured her so much. Everyone in this cliffhanger did a fine job. Of course don't forget the vilains : Latimer (Gerald Mohr, great actor of B-movies) and Shamba (Frank Lackteen). What would have been serials without such figures ? Even, I'm a newcomer in this genre, it's obvious for everyone that serials described the eternal fight between good and evil. Another point is very interesting : Serials have sometimes female heros (think about Linda Stirling in the very masculine part of Zorro !).
The DVD quality is really good. The picture looks sharp most of the time and the sound is also OK. The trailers of other serials (in the bonus area) are very entertaining and of course interesting for someone like me who discovers this little gems from another time ! But what a great Time it must have been! William Witney and John English were real Kings of Serials. It's a pity that such artists never became an Oscar for their lifework behind the cameras. Thanks to them !