Queen of the Jungle (DVD)

Deep in the heart of darkest Africa a scientist searching for radium lives with his wife and little daughter, Joan. In their jungle camp, Joan and her young friend, David, are playing hide-and-seek when the girl climbs into the empty basket of an aerial balloon being prepped for take-off. As her parents watch in horror, the craft accidentally launches skyward, carrying off their frightened child.

Twenty years later, rumors circulate about a white jungle goddess, and David, now grown, is sure it must be his childhood playmate. He mounts an expedition, determined to return the long-lost girl to her family, but the rescue will ultimately be much more difficult than he ever imagined. Man-eating lions, a mysterious leopard woman, an evil witch doctor and a tribe of hostile natives are just a few of the jungle terrors that threaten to thwart David's rescue attempt.

This 12-part serial, released in 1935, was a remake of The Jungle Goddess, a silent chapterplay released in 1922. Much of the footage from the earlier production is reused, and sequences showing Mary Kornman are often intercut with shots of her predecessor, Elinor Field. In 1948, a third semi-remake starred TV's Superman, George Reeves. The screenwriter of Queen of the Jungle, J. Griffin Jay, is best known for penning most of the scripts for Universal's Mummy series and other 1940s horror films, including Captive Wild Woman and Return of the Vampire.

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