Search - Sheena Queen Of The Jungle - Volumes 1-3 (3-DVD) on DVD

Enjoy Irish, cut the rest a lot of slack

cmartins | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 11/28/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I suspect this set will appeal mostly, if not solely, to "old timers" (such as myself), as a sort of trip down memory lane; younger audiences are likely to enjoy it only, if at all, as high camp.

Leave us face it: except for the late Ms. McCalla (her looks, not her acting skills), the series was unspeakably bad: plots, writing, dialogue, direction, acting, production, you name it. However, it is not without historical significance. For one thing, it was, to the best of my knowledge, the very first action / adventure TV show to star a female character, just as the comicbook Sheena had been in that medium in 1938, predating Wonder Woman by three years. Also, it debuted in the US in September 1956, with the Hayes code still going full blast and not long after the apex of McCarthyism and the witch hunt on comics that had put an end to Sheena's career on the printed page and all but doomed "jungle girls", the until then highly popular subgenre she begat, to extinction. So, in a way, the (short-lived, one single 26-episode season) series was a breakthrough.

As for the product: image quality is good, given the material's age and origin, with only a few occasional lines here and there. Sound, on the other hand, is disappointing, muffled throughout and all but unintelligible in some episodes; sound quality on the older releases on VHS was actually better. Packaging is rather rushed: next to no information, episodes are not in chronological (airdate) order, and the order on the boxes does not necessarily match that on the discs.

Based on content and product, the set rates a two out of five. Irish alone adds two more stars to it.

"

A (vine-) swingin' feminist

Chrijeff | Scranton, PA | 06/16/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Despite occasional hokiness (hey, it was filmed in 1956) and definite Political Incorrectness (ditto), this short-lived (26 episodes) early TV series features, in its beautiful, athletic, and extremely competent heroine, a role model who doubtless inspired many a little girl, 12 or 15 years later, to throw herself headlong into Women's Lib. Sheena (Irish McCalla) is a hybrid of Tarzan and every "white queen of the jungle" ever to grace the pages of the pulps; barbaric in a brief leopardskin tunic, metal armbands, fancy earrings and a bangle, famous "from Nairobi to Cape Town" (though she lives mostly in the Kenyan uplands), respected (and sometimes feared) by every tribe in her orbit, she runs barefoot through the jungle, swims crocodile-infested rivers, swings gaily through the trees on vines (McCalla famously did all her own stunts till one of these flights netted her a broken arm), overpowers men half again her weight, and, with the help of her friend Bob Rayburn (Christian Drake), a guide and white hunter, and her Faithful Anthropoid Companion Chim the chimpanzee, helps safaris in trouble, pursues fugitive criminals, prevents the exploitation of the natives, and deals with bad guys of all hues and persuasions. Though McCalla claimed she "couldn't act," she manages to bring the character to life--watch the grace and dignity in her walk (queenly indeed!) in some of the shots. It's true that the picture and sound quality aren't all that could be hoped for--sometimes the brightness is too much, and often the soundtrack is uneven--but given that TV technology was still in its infancy at the time, we should probably be grateful to have it in any condition at all. This collection includes 15 of the original episodes; we can hope that the remaining 11 are available to the manufacturer and will appear in forthcoming volumes.



Viewers curious to know more about the character might want to sample the reprints of the original comic strip (available beginning with Golden Age Sheena: The Best Of The Queen Of The Jungle) or the more recent prose adaptations, beginning with Sheena Queen of the Jungle Volume 1 (v. 1) or Sheena Queen of the Jungle #1."

Sheena deserved better.

Montillard | 03/05/2010

(1 out of 5 stars)

"The picture is trembling and very contrasted or fuzzyness. The sound is very bad, inaudible sometimes. I'm very disappointed. Irish McCalla deserved better!"