An almost Pre-Code jungle adventure by Cecil B. Demille – who can resist it?
This film wastes no time with set up to get straight to the action. Four desperate people are thrown together as they shanghai a lifeboat to escape from their bubonic plague-infected ship. Self-promoting newspaper reporter, Stewart (William Gargan) and Arnold (Herbert Marshall), a chemical researcher beaten down by his inconsequential life, grab unwilling accomplice, librarian Judy (Claudette Colbert) and the unflappable wife of a British official, Mrs. Mardick (Mary Boland), for their bit of self-justified piracy. Just when they think that they have found safety onshore Malaya, they discover that the local village is being burnt to ground — the plague has reached land!
Gargan, Colbert & Marshall
Picking up white ex-pat (Leo Carillo) who has gone native, they are forced to bush whack through the jungle to reach the next port in hopes of returning home. They quickly become lost and have to contend with dangerous animals and hostile natives. The two men are chauvinistic bores who continually berate mousy Judy for being timid and having no sex appeal. But, by simply taking off her glasses, letting down her hair and bathing nude in a waterfall, Judy is transformed into a Sheena-like, sexpot goddess, knowledgeable in all jungle lore. From here on in it’s a grudge match between the two men for Judy’s affections. Just as the jungle has transformed Judy, indifferent Stewart rises to the challenges, while Arnold slowly unravels without the artificial adulation of his readers back home to prop up his ego.
Four Frightened People is not a great film by any criteria. Written by Bartlett Cormack (The Front Page, 1931 and Thirteen Women, the 1932 film that made a star of Irene Dunn) and Lenore J. Coffee (Evelyn Prentice, 1934) from a novel by E. Arnot Robertson, its 78 minute running time seems overly long for a plot that was already tired by the 1930’s. It mostly plays as a comedy, but there are times it gets quite dark. The film gets points for actually shooting in Hawaii, so the jungle feels authentic.
Cecil B. Demille was always good at feeding the Christian indignation of the censors to get away with a little titillation. Here Mary Bolland's character is a crusader for ‘fewer babies' (i.e., no sex). In a fun scene after she’s been sidelined from the main plot, she emancipates the women of a jungle tribe from their baby (sex)-obsessed men. This very direct support for the suffragette movement is something that you would not see in films a year later. Mrs. Mardick’s morality crusade disguised in terms of population control let DeMille feature Colbert's nude shower (actually body double Annette Kellerman in a flesh-coloured body suit) in a scene that must have had the men on the edge of their theater seats, but it actually pales in comparison to Colbert’s milk bath in DeMille’s Cleopatra of the same year.
Distinguished actor Herbert Marshall has the best and most believable character arc in the film, moving smoothly from uninvolved, casual cad to believable romantic obsession for Judy's unleashed libido. Despite having lost a leg in WW1, Marshall navigates the real jungle set with ease.
Comedic relief, Mary Bolland, acquits herself well as
a character that Natalie Schafer would perfect as Mrs. Howell years later on TV’s
Gilligan’s Island. Of note is that whenever our lost troop camps for the night. they miraculously produce a 3-star lodge to sleep in that The Professor would have been proud of.
The Ineffectual jungle guide is played by Leo Carillo who would later become best known for playing The Cisco Kid’s sidekick, Pancho, for 6 seasons (1950-1956) on television. I fondly remember him from a few Universal Horror films such as the mystery-comedy Horror Island (1941) and starring in a better role next to Nelson Eddy and Claude Raines in The Phantom of The Opera (1943).
Four Frightened People was a one-off low point for Colbert in 1934, a year which saw three of her films being nominated for Academy Awards for Best Picture; Cleopatra, Imitation of Life, and It Happened One Night, the latter winning her the award for Best Actress. Laura at Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings reviewed the recent BluRay release of this film and notes that it “was not considered a success in its day, which led to director DeMille being "locked in" to directing epics.”
Is Four Frightened People Worth My Time? If you've ever wanted to watch Claudette Colbert cavort in a leopard skin bathing suit, catch fish with a spear, hunt with a handmade bow, and order men around at the muzzle of a pistol, than this is the film for you.
Availability: The recent Kino Lober BluRay looks great and has a nice a commentary track by Nick Pinkerton.
