Jungle Book (1942): watch the full film free, legally

Mowgli between village and jungle

Jungle Book, also called Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book, is a 1942 American action-adventure film in Technicolor. Independently produced by the Korda brothers, it is loosely adapted from Rudyard Kipling's 1894 story collection The Jungle Book. Zoltan Korda directed, Alexander Korda produced, and their younger brother Vincent Korda was responsible for art direction. Laurence Stallings adapted the screenplay. Indian-born actor Sabu plays Mowgli.

The film opens in an Indian village, where the elderly Buldeo is paid by a visiting British memsahib to tell a story from his youth. He recalls Shere Khan, a rogue Bengal tiger, attacking the village. A man dies and his child is lost. Grey wolves adopt the child in the jungle, where he grows up as Mowgli, a wild youth separated from human society.

Twelve years later, villagers capture Mowgli and bring him back. Messua takes him into her home despite Buldeo's prejudice against someone raised in the jungle. Mowgli learns to speak, tries to copy human ways, and becomes friendly with Buldeo's daughter, Mahala. His old jungle connections remain close, including Bagheera, a black panther, Kaa, an Indian python, and Grey Brother.

A treasure beneath the ruined palace

While exploring the jungle, Mowgli and Mahala find a concealed chamber beneath a ruined palace. It contains fabulous wealth. An aged cobra warns them that the treasure brings death, and they leave the chamber. Mahala takes one coin as a memento. When Buldeo sees it, he resolves to follow Mowgli to the treasure.

Mowgli later faces Shere Khan. He uses a jambiya knife, with last-minute help from Kaa. Buldeo arrives while Mowgli is skinning the tiger's body and threatens him with a hunting rifle, demanding to be led to the hidden wealth. Bagheera attacks Buldeo. The encounter convinces Buldeo that Bagheera is Mowgli in panther form.

Buldeo tells the villagers that Mowgli is a witch and accuses Messua as well. Mowgli is chained and threatened with death, but escapes with his mother's help. Messua and another villager who defends her are then tied up and threatened with burning for witchcraft. Buldeo, a pandit, and a barber go in search of the lost city and its treasure.

The Kordas' Hollywood production

In 1940, the three Korda brothers left London for Hollywood during World War II. Two films that had begun production in the United Kingdom, The Thief of Bagdad and That Hamilton Woman, were completed there. Jungle Book was among the films made during their Hollywood period. United Artists lent Alexander Korda $300,000 to finance it. It was produced through his American company, Alexander Korda Films, Inc.

Lee Garmes and W. Howard Greene photographed the film, and Miklos Rozsa wrote the music. Stallings' adaptation was criticized for straying too far from Kipling's original. Alexander and Zoltan Korda frequently disagreed during production. Zoltan wanted an underplayed realistic story, while Alexander favored an exuberant fantasist epic, and Alexander got his way.

The film was a notable commercial success. It earned $1.3 million in box-office rentals in the United States and Canada. Its 1948 re-release in the United Kingdom earned £86,089. In France, it was among the ten highest-grossing films of 1946, with more than 5 million admissions. It sold 18.9 million tickets in the Soviet Union after its 1944 release there.

Animals, colour and musical score

Reviews often focused on the animals and Technicolor imagery. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote that the filmmakers had used “a whole menagerie” for remarkable effects and praised the sleek, lithe wild creatures, while judging the picture mainly a spectacle and calling the colour strikingly vivid. Variety wrote that the production depended almost entirely on pictorial grandeur and novelty, and said Sabu moved through the jungle with ease and grace.

Harrison's Reports called it a jungle fantasy produced in “gorgeous technicolor,” though it said the fantasy approach would not have universal appeal. Time described a laborious, sometimes silly tale that was saved by animal photography. Edwin Schallert of the Los Angeles Times praised the visuals and animals, while saying its narrative was difficult to rate as highly as that of The Thief of Bagdad.

Jungle Book received four Academy Award nominations: Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color for Vincent Korda and Julia Heron; Best Visual Effects for Lawrence W. Butler and William H. Wilmarth; Best Original Score; and Best Cinematography. RCA Victor recorded a Rozsa suite narrated by Sabu on a 78-RPM album. Rozsa recorded it in New York with members of Toscanini's NBC Symphony.

Film details from the Wikipedia article “Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book”. Text adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0.