The Savage Girl (1932)

Overrated

Did you people see the same film I saw?

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

"The Savage Girl" tells us the story of a rich man financing an expedition into the African jungle to hunt down animals for his future zoo. During this trip, the men are confronted with a white jungle goddess and start to fight over her.The movie is all in all quite boring. There is no real climax or anything and what happens is already very foreseeable from the very beginning. We have a shining hero, an innocent but handsome wild woman and a barbaric antagonist. We have a bunch of the stereotypes that are typical for this period and we have a goddess that manages to wear make-up despite growing up under wild animals somewhere in the jungle. It is no secret that she probably is also supposed to be of erotic value, too. Unfortunately, all this doesn't really add up in the end and what remains is barely more than the idea of a female Tarzan. Though I appreciate that the movie praises respectful behaviour towards women in a way, it is a bit odd how the female protagonist is not curious but rather begging for physical contact.All in all this is one of the movies that didn't hold the test of time. You won't miss it if you didn't see it but you can, of course, come to a different conclusion if you're very interested in this kind of stories.

An African explorer is hired by an eccentric millionaire to capture animals for his new zoo. While in Africa he comes into contact with a white jungle goddess – the savage girl...This is an obvious female version of Tarzan. It's cheap and generic but, sadly, also pretty mundane. The savage girl herself really only saves some animals and then gets captured. She's not much of a white jungle goddess to tell you the truth; she's closer to a Dr. Who assistant in terms of general effectiveness. This, of course, is a great shame. Rochelle Hudson is foxy enough in an early-30's-what-do-you-expect kind of a way. The director Harry L. Fraser was also responsible for another terrible jungle adventure called The White Gorilla; so Harry had form in making sub-standard fare in this genre. Like that other movie, this one also features scenes with a man in a monkey suit. Although in the case of this movie, the ape-man only appears at the end for some brief action.In summary, even though I should know by now not to expect too much from Poverty Row movies, this one is still just too uneventful for its own good. When one of the best scenes involves a man trying to frighten an elephant with a mouse you know that you might have a problem.

When a drunk, a white mouse, and an elephant get more amusement than a scantily clad jungle girl (on whom the film is named after), you know what kind of film you are in for. Rochelle Hudson gets to scream more than any heroine in a Bela Lugosi film here, dealing with the nefarious intentions of sleazy looking Adolph Milar while being rescued by rather portly hero Walter Byron. Milar comes from the Tod Slaughter/Snidely Whiplash school of acting, and fortunately only has minimal screen time. In the meantime, there is stock jungle footage of natives and various wild animals (used over and over), as well as drunken Harry Myers' experiment of finding out if white mice will scare elephants is true. This brings out a few amusing moments. Of interest, I did find out from one source that elephants may be afraid of mice because they are afraid of them running up their trunks and causing them to smother to death. (Talk about the phrase "Junk in your trunk!") Hudson isn't really all that interesting as eye candy here. Maureen O'Sullivan had nothing to worry about, nor did the thousands of others used in "Tarzan" rip-offs such as "Hollywood Party" (Lupe Velez) and "So This is Africa!" (Raquel Torres). While she would go on to better things, this was not a distinguished way to start a career. Other than screaming, her entire dialog consists of repeating words that Walter Byron says in an effort to communicate with her. While you can't really expect all that much out of these "Z" grade films of the 30's and 40's, sometimes you find a gem or something good enough to make them memorable. It's sad to say that a drunk, a white mouse, and an elephant do not have enough screen time to make that the case in this film.

This is somewhat of a camp classic for a few reasons, one of which is undoubtedly Rochelle Hudson (who actually had quite a decent film career) and her absolutely stunning looks in the film. To her credit, she portrays the Jungle Goddess role with some actual effort too, utilizing very little in spoken word and a great deal of nonverbal communicating to the cameras (granted, a great deal of screaming too). The acting is actually not bad by the main characters, and the story's not too shabby either, especially considering this era's standards for such MST3K-ish fare such as this film. However, it's an hour long and it doesn't drag at all, plus it's admittedly fun watching the bad guy get his come-uppance from both the main character and a gorilla buddy of the Jungle Goddess. The film's also quite funny at times, with Stitch actually bringing a taxi driver, cab and all, on the African expedition, and some callback dialogue that never seems forced. Anyone throwing an "old, bad movie marathon" party should track this one down.