The Human Jungle

"The Human Jungle" (1954), directed by Joseph M. Newman, who would go on to make the classic science fiction film "This Island Earth" (1955) is film noir starring Gary Merrill, Jan Sterling and Regis Toomey.

The screenplay is nothing out of the ordinary: a cop turned lawyer (Gary Merrill) is offered to become chief of police in a hard inner city neighbourhood and he attempts to crack down on a large mobster (Florenz Ames).

After achieving stardom in films like "All About Eve" (1950), Gary Merrill's film career seemed to slowly die during the middle of the fifties in movies like this. Having seen him quality productions, one blames the script rather than he for the arrogant, bull-headed and plain unlikable persona he has here. In fact, by the end of it, you want him to die. The limp direction does the motion picture no favours and only Jan Sterling, Florenz Ames and Paula Raymond come out of the acting department with much dignity. It's a shame really that Ellis W. Carter, the cinematographer, and Hans J. Salter's music are found too far below what their talents deserve and manage to make this banal and film noir just about watchable.