Silly, poorly executed adventure about a Chinese woman and her son on the run from some of her countrymen. For reasons I cannot recall, they find themselves in a South American village from which they are trying to get back to the U.S. Why they left the U.S. in the first place is not clear to me. At any rate, a rough and tumble American saloon owner comes to their aid. Robert Fuller is the Bogart-like hero and Ann Blyth makes an unconvincing Chinese lady. Robert Loggia, Warren Stevens and Richard Anderson are all on hand in supporting roles. The fight scenes are clumsily staged, and the back lot sets are painfully obvious. Skip this one.
5 Reviews
Bury him at sunrise
sol-kay8 February 2012
***SPOILERS*** It from non other then the Panamanian town's police chief Colonel Chauvin, Robert Loggia, and a bunch of friendly native headhunters that American bar owner Rory O'Rourke, Robert Fuller,is able to get Lady Mei, Ann Blyth , and her 10 year old son Jing Li, Tony Davis,out of the country to the safety o the United States. Both Lady Mai and young Jing are being targeted by Chinese General Doe, Richard Anderson, who's actually a US navy deserter and his henchmen who are out to murder both of them.
The fact that young Jing is heir to the Chinese thrown is enough reason for Gen.Doe to have him killed! In that he'll keep his uncle from taking power and thus prevent Gen.Doe from being appointed the nation's Defense Minister! And it's Rory O'Rourke's job to prevent that from happening! And by him doing that he's in fact putting his life in mortal danger. It's Col. Chauvin who at first was working with Gen Doe and his American partner the unshaven and slimy Alder Ritter, Warren Stevens, who saw through his act and joined Rory in getting both Lady Mei and young Jing out of danger and to the safety of Panama City. But it was the friendly jungle headhunters who made that all possible by preventing Gen.Doe together with Ritter and his henchmen from overtaking Lady Mei young Jing and Rory when they had them cornered in the jungle.
***SPOILERS*** With the danger now gone Lady Mei and young Jing are safe to go back home to China, via the US, and Rory back to his bar. With the most important of all the happening in the movie Col. Chauvin can now go back to his girlfriend American singer Elena, Susanne Cramer, who he's been having an on and off affair with for years. That's in Elena switching from him to Rory over who she eventually want's to marry.
The fact that young Jing is heir to the Chinese thrown is enough reason for Gen.Doe to have him killed! In that he'll keep his uncle from taking power and thus prevent Gen.Doe from being appointed the nation's Defense Minister! And it's Rory O'Rourke's job to prevent that from happening! And by him doing that he's in fact putting his life in mortal danger. It's Col. Chauvin who at first was working with Gen Doe and his American partner the unshaven and slimy Alder Ritter, Warren Stevens, who saw through his act and joined Rory in getting both Lady Mei and young Jing out of danger and to the safety of Panama City. But it was the friendly jungle headhunters who made that all possible by preventing Gen.Doe together with Ritter and his henchmen from overtaking Lady Mei young Jing and Rory when they had them cornered in the jungle.
***SPOILERS*** With the danger now gone Lady Mei and young Jing are safe to go back home to China, via the US, and Rory back to his bar. With the most important of all the happening in the movie Col. Chauvin can now go back to his girlfriend American singer Elena, Susanne Cramer, who he's been having an on and off affair with for years. That's in Elena switching from him to Rory over who she eventually want's to marry.
Ann Blyth plays a Chinese lady....'nuff said!
planktonrules16 October 2015
The fact that Ann Blyth plays a Chinese lady isn't surprising. Hollywood OFTEN did such outrageous casting--with a Swedish guy playing Charlie Chan, John Wayne playing Genghis Khan, Katharine Hepburn playing a Chinese peasant and Tony Randall playing the inscrutable Dr. Lao. Sadly, there are countless other similar sorts of miscastings of white actors playing Asians. Not only is this offensive and silly, but these were all roles that could have been played by Asians--and played better. Because of the ridiculous notion of Blyth in such a role (as well as her super-white looking son), you've got to knock a couple points off this episode of "Kraft Suspense Theatre" right off the bat.
The story is a silly affair with manly Robert Fuller playing an international adventurer, Rory O'Rourke, in a crappy Central American town where practically no one appears to be Hispanic!! Along the way, he meets up with a Chinese princess (Blyth) who, along with her kid, is trying to escape to freedom. But some evil general is also looking for them and O'Rourke's work is cut out for him.
This episode comes off like a bad B-movie from the 1930s brought to television. In the 30s, however, it would have worked a bit better as folks back then didn't know much about China and they would have just taken it for granted. Also, by 1965, the Chinese empire talked about in this film no longer existed--it was 16 years AFTER Mao's takeover of the country and this makes it all seem very dated. Plus, and I know this might sound mean, but who cares about some Chinese emperor in 1965?!
The show has some really bad writing, terrible miscasting and all the usual clichés you'd find in a crappy old film. A very, very weak and silly episode...one of the worst of the series.
The story is a silly affair with manly Robert Fuller playing an international adventurer, Rory O'Rourke, in a crappy Central American town where practically no one appears to be Hispanic!! Along the way, he meets up with a Chinese princess (Blyth) who, along with her kid, is trying to escape to freedom. But some evil general is also looking for them and O'Rourke's work is cut out for him.
This episode comes off like a bad B-movie from the 1930s brought to television. In the 30s, however, it would have worked a bit better as folks back then didn't know much about China and they would have just taken it for granted. Also, by 1965, the Chinese empire talked about in this film no longer existed--it was 16 years AFTER Mao's takeover of the country and this makes it all seem very dated. Plus, and I know this might sound mean, but who cares about some Chinese emperor in 1965?!
The show has some really bad writing, terrible miscasting and all the usual clichés you'd find in a crappy old film. A very, very weak and silly episode...one of the worst of the series.
Dumb and dumber
cbmd-3735222 December 2022
Set in Panama where all the people are Asian or Caucasian. Ann Blyth as a Chinese, so typically Hollywood racism. This episode makes so little sense and is so full of cliches it's practically campy! Richard Anderson in a Chinese outfit is hysterical especially since he was much taller than Robert Fuller, it's like he was made up for a costume party. I d o congratulate the actors on their professionalism, they managed to not break out laughing at the silly situations, costumes and dialogue. This episode is so crappy compared to the other episodes of this show you have to wonder how it was ever shown.
This ain't 'Casablanca'
lor_5 October 2023
A period drama set in Panama in 1850, "Jungle of Fear" is an odd piece of material for "Kraft Suspense Theatre", usually dealing with contemporary mysteries.
The script by John McGreevey is vaguely (a great stretch in fact) resembling the format of a "Casablanca" -an international setting of intrigue, where foreigners are anxious to get away and travel to California to join the Gold Rush there.
Robert Fuller stars, styled comfortably in Western movie costuming, in the Bogie role owning a saloon who controls most of what goes on in a small port town. Ann Blyth plays a Chinese woman (see other IMDb reviews for reactions of viewers who can't get beyond the obsolete Hollywood casting of stars in other-races roles) on the run from the Chinese government, whose predicament forces out-for-himself Fuller to decide to do a noble deed for a change. Robert Loggia with a full head of hair (or rug) is the local constabulary role (a la Claude Rains) and Harold Sakata, fresh from OddJob in "Goldfinger" is also on hand for fight scenes.
The script is by John McGreevey, a prolific tv writer who worked with Fuller on many episodes of "Wagon Train".
Scene stealer is an obscure German beauty Susanne Cramer (an Elke Sommer type) who sings and provides Fuller romance working in his saloon. Her IMDb bio is typically cryptic and badly researched -yet intriguing -I would be interested in her real life story.
The script by John McGreevey is vaguely (a great stretch in fact) resembling the format of a "Casablanca" -an international setting of intrigue, where foreigners are anxious to get away and travel to California to join the Gold Rush there.
Robert Fuller stars, styled comfortably in Western movie costuming, in the Bogie role owning a saloon who controls most of what goes on in a small port town. Ann Blyth plays a Chinese woman (see other IMDb reviews for reactions of viewers who can't get beyond the obsolete Hollywood casting of stars in other-races roles) on the run from the Chinese government, whose predicament forces out-for-himself Fuller to decide to do a noble deed for a change. Robert Loggia with a full head of hair (or rug) is the local constabulary role (a la Claude Rains) and Harold Sakata, fresh from OddJob in "Goldfinger" is also on hand for fight scenes.
The script is by John McGreevey, a prolific tv writer who worked with Fuller on many episodes of "Wagon Train".
Scene stealer is an obscure German beauty Susanne Cramer (an Elke Sommer type) who sings and provides Fuller romance working in his saloon. Her IMDb bio is typically cryptic and badly researched -yet intriguing -I would be interested in her real life story.
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