The Human Jungle (1954)

Danforth is assigned to take over the police department in a section of a large city saddled with juvenile delinquency, petty crimes, graft and also a recent unsolved murder of a ... See full summary »

Director:

Joseph M. Newman

Writers:

Daniel Fuchs, William Sackheim (screenplay),

Stars:

Gary Merrill, Jan Sterling, Regis Toomey

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Gary Merrill	...	Police Capt. John Danforth
Jan Sterling	...	Mary Abbott
Regis Toomey	...	Det. Bob Geddes
Lamont Johnson	...	Det. Lannigan
Patrick Waltz	...	Det. Strauss (as Pat Waltz)
Chuck Connors	...	Earl Swados
Paula Raymond	...	Pat Danforth
Emile Meyer	...	Police Chief Abe Rowan
George Wallace	...	Det. O'Neill
Chubby Johnson	...	Greenie
James Westerfield	...	Police Capt. Marty Harrison
Florenz Ames	...	Leonard Ustick
Claude Akins	...	George Mandy
Booth Colman	...	Wallace
Henry Kulky	...	Matty

Storyline

Danforth is assigned to take over the police department in a section of a large city saddled with juvenile delinquency, petty crimes, graft and also a recent unsolved murder of a strip-tease dancer. Recognizing the laxity of the department he implements many changes and soon finds himself under fire by the newspapers, the attorney of a racket leader and the denizens of this human jungle. He calls this a cop's war that is the same as a soldier's war with the difference being that people hate cops. His cause isn't helped when a rookie policeman accidentally kills an innocent bystander. And he has to protect police informer Mary Abbott from Swados, a killer in the hire of the man behind the petty mobsters.

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Plot Keywords:

juvenile delinquency

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Genres:

Crime

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 October 1954 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Police Story

Company Credits

Production Co:

Allied Artists Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

82 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Soundtracks

"It Ain't Gonna Be You"
Written by Max Rich
Sung by Jan Sterling

User Reviews

Seems Dated For Even 1954

The premise and the subtext for this screenplay strikes a chord with me in 2005 . The story centres around a tough cop wanting to clean up a violent , crime ridden inner city area of America , so right right away the potential for zero tolerance policing and weeding out apathetic cops and dubious moral justice is there . As I said this strikes a chord with most people in Britain today since the police over here have never been held in such low regard - If you get burgled , mugged etc and phone the police they'll tell you their short of resources and will come to take a statement a week on Thursday but physically defend yourself against criminals because they run riot in streets devoid of police and you'll find the cops have more than enough resources to come and arrest the poor victim who was only trying to defend their life and property . Sorry if I'm digressing a little bit

The problem with THE HUMAN JUNGLE is that the director has made a very stagy film and in many ways it's like watching a theatrical play filmed on celluloid . Not very good actors have been cast and Emile Meyer as police chief Rowan is even more wooden here than in his similar role in RIOT IN CELL BLOCK 11 and the rest of the cast varies from fairly inexpressive to over emphatic . In fact it's difficult to believe this is a movie produced in 1954 because all the time I thought I was watching something produced 20 years earlier