Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1994)

This is a Disney movie. Get over it. There are lots of things that you could say about this movie that give the wrong impression--it's Disney, it's got crappy 1994 effects, it's only rated PG, it's based on Kipling's Jungle Book, and it has Jason Scott Lee, a pretty hit-or-miss actor. In its defense, I would say that it is not characteristic of Disney at all, it has very little resemblance to the animated movie of the same name (or to the original books), and despite its PG rating, it's a rather adult movie, especially for a Disney feature.

It's more a sequel rather than a retelling of the classic Jungle Book tale of a boy who grows up in the jungle and befriends the animals. In this movie, Mowgli, after living in the jungle until adulthood and completely losing touch with society, is thrown back into the mix when he stumbles across British soldiers in colonial India. Some corrupt soldiers get wind of a mythical place in the jungle said to contain mountains of treasure, and they kidnap Mowgli and force him to take them there. In the middle of all this is a love affair between Mowgli and Kitty, a general's daughter, a crush that has been going on since their childhood together. There are also undertones of racism, class distinction, and social formalities both necessary and archaic.

Since this was a lower-tier Disney production, it does have its "cute" moments, especially in the beginning when Mowgli is a child, as well as some special effects which are patchy at best. The script is tight, but often too simplistic. But when the film gets past the Disneyisms and dated effects, it transcends its studio's stereotype with the help of positively gorgeous cinematography and a majestic score by Basil Poledouris. It shows that a film can be enjoyable by both children and adults without being overlong, dependent on flashy special effects, rife with pretentious heavyweight actors, or dumbed down to its younger audience members. It also avoids unnecessary violence or language, something attributed to more "adult" films that often end up being more juvenile (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl). Nevertheless, it maintains a more serious tone, as well as a sense of adventure and fun that never loses focus.

While not a great film by any means, Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book is some of the best family fare you can get your hands on. I consider it superior to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, or any of the other more "adult" family movies coming out these days. This is surely a neglected film, seldom judged on its own merit.

The Narrow Margin (1952)

B-budget film noir in the 1940s and 50s usually entailed feeble attempts to live up to their A counterparts, or were interesting yet uneven forays into the experimental realm of expressionism and Freudian psychological art. The Narrow Margin stands head and shoulders above its contemporaries as a B noir that gets everything right.

The story revolves around the widow of a late great gangster (Marie Windsor), slated to testify at a trial and reveal the names of several of her husband's cohorts. Naturally, a large crime syndicate wants the list, and they're willing to kill if bargaining proves futile. The bulk of the film's action takes place on a train as the widow, under the protection of Sergeant Walter Brown (Charles McGraw), travels in order to testify. Nothing is quite as it seems, and Brown finds himself deeper than he had anticipated.

There is no music in the film (except for some tinny jazz heard over a phonograph), which makes the title sequence more eerie than most, and doesn't date the film as much as many others of its day. It also preserves a documentary-like aesthetic throughout the movie. The script is tight and doesn't over-sentimentalize, except for the slightly dated police-force heroics of Brown. Even so, the preaching is kept to a minimum, and never impedes the momentum of the story. There are no lulls; every scene reveals a new twist or brings forth a new plot point. Besides, at 71 minutes, the film hardly has time to stall.

The film's economy, expert pacing, and innovative use of the camera testify to its achievement as an above-average B-level film noir. All who were involved went on to greater things, most notably director Richard Fleischer who directed films such as the sci-fi effects film Fantastic Voyage and the U.S.A. sequences in WWII behemoth Tora! Tora! Tora!.