White Huntress was directed by George P. Breakston (1934-1966), a child actor turned director who might be more familiar to drive-in cinema fans as the man behind the two-headed monster film, The Manster (1962). In White Huntress the genre that most comes to mind is that of an old-fashioned Western where the cowboys circle their covered wagons to fight off angry Native Americans, but here instead of cowboys we have two hunters escorting a family of settlers across uncharted territory in Africa and getting embroiled in deadly battles with, first, the wildlife, and then tribal warriors (credited in the beginning as the "Warriors of the Masai and Kipsigi Tribes"). Adding some sizzle to the African heat, the two guides start competing for the settlers attractive daughter - and the results are deadly.
Jungle Siren gets a plug on the dvd backflap as "Jungle action, PRC-style." Crabbe, who in the '30's won an Olympic gold medal for swimming and was also known for his heroic roles as Tarzan, Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers, spent most of the '40's churning out low budget Westerns and more for PRC. Crabbe is quoted on IMDB as saying that "If you can believe it, we started my last movie for PRC on Monday and had it in the can on Thursday! That's when I decided I'd had enough and quit. I went in and told them I was through. They didn't even bat an eye. The next thing I knew they replaced me with Lash LaRue." So it's probably safe to presume Crabbe was no fan of the PRC-style, but he nonetheless puts his best foot forward to fight Nazi agents and drag along his comic-relief side-kick into Africa to help the French underground build a landing strip in the jungle that will be of strategic importance. Tossed in for good measure is the spunky jungle vixen Kuhlaya (Corio) and an evil witch doctor, each actively doing their best to kill the other. Considering the era and the studio, it's not too surprising that the "colorful" natives here have an appalling mortality rate and are treated like disposable props. To steal a quote from a native looking upon a shriveled head impaled on the end of a stick: "This is a bad sign."
Retromedia's two-sided dvd traipse through the black and white jungles of yesteryear offers up both films in full-screen transfers that do the best they can within the limitations of the source material. The package doesn't offer too many frills beyond the surprise ten-minute clip for African Pygmy Thrills and, actually, the footage herein is fantastic and far more suspenseful than the action pieces found in either of the features. This documentary footage shows a group of people feverishly working together to build a bridge made out of vines to cross a crocodile-filled river. Their real ingenuity and bravery give both Kuhlaya and Crabbe a run for their money.
For more information about White Huntress/Jungle Siren, visit Image Entertainment.
by Pablo Kjolseth
