THE BEAUTY JUNGLE is an interesting and atypical picture from Val Guest, best known as the director behind various science fiction hits, Hammer-produced and otherwise. It's an exploration of the world of modelling, following the misadventures of a pretty young woman who finds herself pursued by a slightly sleazy newspaper reporter with a view to transforming her into a top starlet.
The film is posited as a comedy but it's more of a quiet tragedy than a laugh riot. Indeed, it has more in common with the thriving 'kitchen sink' style of drama than the riotous CARRY ONs of the era, despite the presence of a Sid James cameo and various sea side trappings along with all the bikini-clad loveliness. Janette Scott and Ian Hendry are entirely convincing as the doomed would-be lovers, while the supporting cast of reliables includes an on-form Ronald Fraser alongside Edmund Purdom (back when he could still be cast as a matinée idol), Tommy Trinder, and former child starlet Janina Faye (of Hammer's Dracula). Things build to a suitably pessimistic climax that hinges on a nice and clever twist.
The film is posited as a comedy but it's more of a quiet tragedy than a laugh riot. Indeed, it has more in common with the thriving 'kitchen sink' style of drama than the riotous CARRY ONs of the era, despite the presence of a Sid James cameo and various sea side trappings along with all the bikini-clad loveliness. Janette Scott and Ian Hendry are entirely convincing as the doomed would-be lovers, while the supporting cast of reliables includes an on-form Ronald Fraser alongside Edmund Purdom (back when he could still be cast as a matinée idol), Tommy Trinder, and former child starlet Janina Faye (of Hammer's Dracula). Things build to a suitably pessimistic climax that hinges on a nice and clever twist.