The Savage Girl (1932)

"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.

As long as you never take this film very seriously, it is fun--though I certainly wouldn't call this a good movie! Tarzan-like knockoff films were very popular during the 1930s and 40s as well as female Tarzan-like films. I have seen quite a few and none of them are what you'd consider great films--but they are, in some cases, entertaining. As for this particular film, it's better than some--mostly because the stock footage they use isn't grainy or full of animals from the wrong continent! You may laugh, but many of the jungle films have these problems. In addition, they really have a few real animals they use in scenes with the actors--such as leopards. I have seen a few films where NONE of the scenes involve actual animals--just crappy footage! This film from tiny poverty row studio 'Commonwealth Pictures' begins with a completely unnecessary prologue telling us that the film MIGHT just be fantasy! Say it isn't so! Anyway, an affable rich drunk decides, on a whim, to fund an expedition to Africa in order to capture live animals for his zoo as well as determine once and for all if elephants are afraid of mice! The elephant in this film is actually an Asian one--but African ones are rarely used in films because they are nasty and unpredictable. At least they didn't feature Asian tigers or kangaroos! Once in Africa, they hear about a white jungle goddess. Actually, she's a hot white lady and you never learned HOW she made it into the jungle. And, unlike Tarzan, she isn't so butch and is apparently VERY hot, as the German guy in the group is constantly wanting to rape her and later in the film the jungle lady starts making lots of sexual overtures towards the nice leader of the expedition. There's more to it than that, but not much.Overall, an entertaining and silly film with a few intended and unintended laughs. Lovers of B-movies will enjoy this and younger folks will laugh that anyone actually enjoys this sort of silliness. Harmless and dumb fun.

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.

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.