Yes I know it's a Cecil B deMille film but it's actually really good - honestly. It's not one of his awful sex and sandals epics, this one's set in 'modern' times with real people in a real story and it's really enjoyable.
The name Cecil B deMille on a film is usually a synonym for: 'avoid this - contains self-indulgent spectacle with actors having raided the dressing up box overacting in the most silent movie style imaginable.' Forget your preconceptions - the so-called (self-styled) greatest director in the world could actually direct..... actually direct well! With this he gives us an intelligent, grown-up drama that's quite deep and thoughtful yet never too heavy and it's anything but dull.
That an African Chimpanzee is living in Malaya is not a mistake. It's there for the totally laudable reason: it needs to be there to steal Claudette Colbert's clothes - it was necessary in TARZAN AND HIS MATE and it's necessary here so no more discussion needed!
Claudette Colbert is fantastic in this. Her character is a bit cliched: mousy school ma'am takes off her glasses, shakes loose her hair and voila - a beautiful, sexy lady! Being the superb actress she was however she makes what could have been a shallow role into a very authentic and believable person.
She's not the only star in this. Her four other co-stars are all equally as real and easy to engage with. Lost in the jungle, believing that each minute they are there might be their last minute alive changes or rather develops their characters preluding Lord of the Flies by twenty years. We have the cocky journalist, the stuffy middle-aged woman, the Anglophile Malaysian guide and the meek, mild-mannered middle manager - they're all transformed by the jungle into their true selves. The jungle wipes away the pretences and masks which society had imposed upon them. Some of them become the person they've always dreamed of being, some become the person they've been hiding from for years.
I'm reading what I'm writing and thinking that you're not believing me.? You think this sounds like cliched nonsense written by a precious schoolboy with an obsession of seeing Claudette Colbert in a leopard skin bikini. You'll just have to watch it for yourself. It's fabulous, it's fun, it's emotional, it's brilliantly acted....and Claudette Colbert is in a leopard skin bikini!
The name Cecil B deMille on a film is usually a synonym for: 'avoid this - contains self-indulgent spectacle with actors having raided the dressing up box overacting in the most silent movie style imaginable.' Forget your preconceptions - the so-called (self-styled) greatest director in the world could actually direct..... actually direct well! With this he gives us an intelligent, grown-up drama that's quite deep and thoughtful yet never too heavy and it's anything but dull.
That an African Chimpanzee is living in Malaya is not a mistake. It's there for the totally laudable reason: it needs to be there to steal Claudette Colbert's clothes - it was necessary in TARZAN AND HIS MATE and it's necessary here so no more discussion needed!
Claudette Colbert is fantastic in this. Her character is a bit cliched: mousy school ma'am takes off her glasses, shakes loose her hair and voila - a beautiful, sexy lady! Being the superb actress she was however she makes what could have been a shallow role into a very authentic and believable person.
She's not the only star in this. Her four other co-stars are all equally as real and easy to engage with. Lost in the jungle, believing that each minute they are there might be their last minute alive changes or rather develops their characters preluding Lord of the Flies by twenty years. We have the cocky journalist, the stuffy middle-aged woman, the Anglophile Malaysian guide and the meek, mild-mannered middle manager - they're all transformed by the jungle into their true selves. The jungle wipes away the pretences and masks which society had imposed upon them. Some of them become the person they've always dreamed of being, some become the person they've been hiding from for years.
I'm reading what I'm writing and thinking that you're not believing me.? You think this sounds like cliched nonsense written by a precious schoolboy with an obsession of seeing Claudette Colbert in a leopard skin bikini. You'll just have to watch it for yourself. It's fabulous, it's fun, it's emotional, it's brilliantly acted....and Claudette Colbert is in a leopard skin bikini!