Based on a Book

Disney has mined Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli stories twice, but it has never topped this elegant, lush classic by the British Korda brothers. Producer Alexander Korda brought director Zoltan and designer Vincent to California, where they used Hollywood's res... Read More

Disney has mined Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli stories twice, but it has never topped this elegant, lush classic by the British Korda brothers. Producer Alexander Korda brought director Zoltan and designer Vincent to California, where they used Hollywood's resources to create a storybook India of verdant jungles, beautiful lagoons, and modest peasant villages. Sabu plays Mowgli, the man-cub raised by wolves and schooled in the jungle who returns to civilization as a young man. When greedy villagers discover that he knows of a hidden treasure, they turn the town against him and follow him to the ruins of an ancient palace (a magnificent, crumbling temple of glowing blue stone overrun with vines and vegetation). Sabu gives a vital, energetic performance, leaping and climbing like he was born to the wild and innocent of corruption and fear that infects the village. As the treasure hunters turn on one another and resort to murder for the prize they all desire, the film gets darker and fiercer than Disney ever dared in its remakes. It's still the most glorious of all versions, a grandly realized epic vision with a sense of wonder and a magnificent fantasy landscape of deep, rich colors, like a painting come to life. Joseph Calleia plays the greedy villain with his usual conniving flair. Miklós Rósza wrote the gorgeous score. Be wary of inferior video copies: the film has fallen into the public domain and is available in a proliferation of substandard prints. --Sean Axmaker

"Oh hear the call! Good hunting all - That keep the Jungle Law! -Night-Song in the Jungle When young little Mowgli's parents are run out of their camp by a formidable Bengal tiger, the toddler scampers to safety alone in the cave of a Seeonee wolf pack. T... Read More

"Oh hear the call! Good hunting all - That keep the Jungle Law! -Night-Song in the Jungle
When young little Mowgli's parents are run out of their camp by a formidable Bengal tiger, the toddler scampers to safety alone in the cave of a Seeonee wolf pack. Thereafter forest animals succor Mowgli and through his wits and their kindness, he reaches adulthood.
Paradox exists in this paradise, but nowhere more forcefully than in the Bengal Tiger, Shere Khan. In the contest that must occur between Shere Khan and Mowgli, which will triumph: the human intelligence of Mowgli, or the deep, instinctive cunning of the wily striped cat?
Kipling, who was forced to learn the art of self-preservation at a foster home and boarding school, believed in following the Law of the Jungle. Part silly, part serious, these delightful stories convey Kipling's message in a way that children and adults alike will appreciate time and time again.