Search - Jungle Cavalcade on DVD

Nick H. from ALTON, IL
Reviewed on 4/10/2011...

JUNGLE CAVALCADE at first glance is unimpressive...black and white wildlife footage easily outclassed by any TV animal documentary you'll catch on TV, some animal confrontations staged just for the camera shot. But Frank Buck was a reallife version of Indiana Jones, an pre-WWII animal trapper who supplied hundreds of animals to zoos around the world. His slogan was "bring 'em back alive" and that's what he did. He filmed his expeditions and released the movies to little competition. At the time, people didn't routinely travel the world like Buck, certainly not to lead expeditions into the most remote jungles of the planet. Headquartered in Singapore's Raffles Hotel, Buck filled orders from his clients and delivered them for shipment. Buck appeared in several animal-trapping documentaries, did a cameo in Abbott and Costellos' Back to Africa with lion-tamer and circus owner Clyde Beatty, and even starred in his own B-movie adventure. In the wake of the success of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Hollywood presented a short-lived network TV show that traded on Buck's notoriety. This is a snapshot of a forgotten pre-WWII era, something that calls up an impossible-to-recapture moment of time.