The Bridge in the Jungle

Bridge in the Jungle, The (1971)

* (out of 4)

This obscure and forgotten film is based on the book by B. Tavern, a name most will put on THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE. In this film, a crocodile hunter (Charles Robinson) is going through Mexico when he's saved by an older man (John Huston) and taken to his village. Once at the village the hunter sees how this small Mexican village works daily and hopefully he'll learn a few lesson but while there a young child turns up missing. I'll admit that I really have no idea what THE BRIDGE IN THE JUNGLE is about nor do I really understand why it was made. Considering Huston won his father an Oscar for THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, I can somewhat understand him wanting to appear in this Tavern film but at the same time it's a shame he didn't offer to direct this thing as I'm sure it would have at least been somewhat better. This is the type of film that you could watch ten-minutes of, pause the film and then not be able to tell another person what you just watched. The pacing is so incredibly bad that it's hard to really stay focused and the material is so bland that you'll be wishing you were somewhere else. It's hard to really keep up with everything going on because for the most part you just have characters walking around slowly, talking slowly and in fact they never seem to be getting too much done when it comes time to move the story forward. It seems as if you're constantly doing nothing and just sitting there waiting for anything to happen. The movie starts off like you're going on an adventure with the crocodile hunter but then it changes shape only to do so yet again when the child goes missing. At one point I thought the movie might have been an attempt to show the villagers in a good light but this didn't last very long either. Robinson is pretty bad in the lead as he doesn't bring an ounce of energy to the part and I do wonder if he perhaps had a few illegal substances in his system. Huston is the one saving grace as he at least seems interesting in giving a performance. Chano Urueta, director of THE BRAINIAC, appears towards the end of the film for you horror fans who want to see the madman who created that cult classic. Outside of that, there's really very little to recommend here as even the locations are photographed poorly. The director would only do one more feature before turning producer for several Charles Bronson flicks including THE EVIL THAT MEN DO, 10 TO MIDNIGHT and DEATH WISH 4 among others.