The Twilight Zone (TV Series) The Jungle (1961) User Reviews

The jungle comes to the big city

[sol1218 · 8/10 · 24 July 2010]

***SPOILER*** Alan Richards', John Dehner, wife Doris, Emily McLaughlin, tried to have warned him not to go through with his colleagues plans in finalizing a deal to build a hydro electric plant, the Koloka River Dam, in the African jungles but the man just wouldn't listen. Alan was warned by the local shamans in the area that constructing the dam will mean a slow and painful death to anyone who's involved with it. Even with Alan seeing what Voodoo can do while he was in Africa to people who had no belief or faith in it at all he still went ahead with the project! Walking out of his high-rise apartment building in mid-town Manhattan Alan is greeted at his front door by the carcases of a slaughtered goat! A warning for him not to go through with the deal! The final nail on the coffin is when back at his job Alan and his colleagues finalized the deal to go ahead with the project. That in fact was his death sentence. A sentence that was to be carried out before the night was over with brutal and jungle-like effectiveness !

As a last resort and final attempt to save her husband's life Doris gave Alan a lucky amulet, a lions tooth, to ward off danger but in his confused state of mine, in fearing that he may well have been sentenced to death, Alan left it at a local bar while getting himself tanked up with a friend of his! The stage was now set for the powers of the African shamans, or witch doctors, to go into effect. And thats exactly what they did in bringing the sounds and sights of the African jungle into the heart of midtown Manhattan and stalking poor Alan Richards like a lion stalks its prey until he has his quarry cornered, in Alan's own apartment, and is ready to spring!

One of the very best of the "Twilight Zone" episodes "The Jungle" plays a lot like the horror movies made in the 1940's by director Jacques Tourneur & writer producer Val Lawton like "Cat People" and "The Leopard Man". It's that it makes your, as well as Alan Richards, mind conjure up what's happening without actually seeing it happen. The audience, like Alan, is left in such a state of paranoid fear that the slightest sound or movement off screen can induce a nervous breakdown to anyone watching. It's then in the final few minutes when Alan's now back home and feeling safe and secure that he gets the biggest surprise of his life. A surprise that's so shocking and nerve shattering that it leaves him totally parlayed and not able to either duck or slam the door shut on the horror that awaits him!

Listen, there is goes again!

[rmax304823 · 8/10 · 1 January 2012]

This is one of the series' best episodes. It drags no moral behind it. It's not preachy. It's not two people sitting around arguing or one frenzied person encased in a small room. It's simply about being alone in a big city -- a problem many of us have faced.

John Dehner, of course, is literally alone, whereas the rest of us just FEEL alone and threatened. Dehner's absent wife has left him an amulet which will guard him from the evil forces of the jungle -- or the amygdala, if you like.

Dehner is in a bar, chatting with a friend, and he dismisses the charm. He forgets it on the counter when the two of them leave. Dehner's friend drives off, Dehner discovers his car won't start and he'll have to walk home, and the bar has just closed and gone dark, so there's no help there.

Dehner's walk across the city is positively frightening. He takes a short cut through the park, which is a bad idea. He runs across a bum, whom he scares and drives off.

Your hair may stand on end, and it's all done without spectacular visual effects.

Dehner finally reaches his apartment but he pays for his cynicism. It's immensely enjoyable.

Voodoo Curse

[AaronCapenBanner · 7/10 · 28 October 2014]

John Dehner plays Alan Richards, a successful businessman who has just returned from Africa with his wife, where he was in charge of a massive construction project that local tribes people opposed. Not being able to stop the project, the local witch doctor put a curse on Richards, which he dismisses as nonsense, but his wife is a true believer, and after destroying the protective charms she had for him, discovers on his way home later that night from a bar that he seems to be stalked by sounds of the jungle, which frightens him to return home as soon as possible, but he will find little sanctuary there... Moody episode contains no surprises but does have a most effective final scene...

Maybe Tarzan Can Save Me

[dougdoepke · 30 July 2006]

Project manager offends African tribe and brings on a voodoo curse.

Businessman John Dehner hears a lion's roar and the loud squawk of a jungle macaw. The trouble is that he's in the middle of a city. What gives? Clever idea from writer Charles Beaumont makes for a memorable episode. What Dehner shouldn't have done is toss those African amulets into the fire. Now he's in for it. Then too, his development firm shouldn't have plunked their project down in the middle of African tribal lands. The locals don't take kindly to being ignored. Dehner's late night walk down deserted city streets accompanied by the jungle sounds is a hoot and reminds me of Val Lewton's 40's classic The Cat People. Perhaps there's an early environmental message somewhere in this1961 script. Anyhow the ending is a real grabber, so don't miss it.

What Your Amulet!

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 25 November 2008]

The supernatural world is full of curses. There are times when it is prudent to believe a little, at least in The Twilight Zone. A woman carelessly brings back things that should have been left undisturbed. She sees them as souvenirs. They aren't. They are a connection to terror. Then her shortsighted husband gets into the act. Tales of terror are permeated by shortsightedness and that happens here. If we can't go to the jungle, the jungle will come to us. One is victimized and another waits to be. This is a pretty decent story. If there's a shortcoming, it would be that the main characters are not given a chance. They act the way people do, and that's their undoing.

Worse episode so far

[WilliamCQ · 6/10 · 29 March 2016]

I've been watching the episodes consecutively and so far, it's the worse episode I've seen. I found myself changing channel (which get me out of on demand TV, so I can get back where I left off) at least twice. I wanted to rate this 5/10 or less but I realized the actors gave a good performance and the rest (cinematography, sound, etc.) is up to par.

The story isn't so bad. I blame this major disappointment on the direction or bad script (which is under the direction IIRC). I found myself wondering if at the time there was some strike, which affected the quality. Or perhaps this episode was a filler.

Low key episode a powerful and unnerving tale of primitive magic

[mlraymond · 10/10 · 7 January 2007]

This episode doesn't get shown very often, but it's one of the creepiest, and most involving stories ever presented on Twilight Zone. The night time scenes of John Dehner, walking through what seems to be a city of which he is the only inhabitant, have a really eerie quality. Sound is used cleverly to convey the idea of unseen, nocturnal menace. Other viewers have remarked on the similarity of Dehner's frightened journey home to the famous scene in the 1942 Cat People, with Jane Randolph looking over her shoulder, as she walks through a disturbingly quiet Central Park alone. It's very possible that author Beaumont had this in mind. The fact that the scared walker is a man ,who looks like he could take care of himself in a tough situation, makes the story's impact even greater, sort of like the Lee Marvin character in The Grave.

One thing that has always struck me, from the first time I ever saw this episode ,is the similarity to the theme of Fritz Leiber's famous 1943 novel Conjure Wife. In that story, a husband finds magic charms his wife has hidden, and gets rid of them in annoyance, declaring that there's no such thing as black magic, and then finds himself the victim of inexplicable misfortunes. I would suspect Beaumont had been influenced by the Leiber story, which was also filmed in the early Sixties by a British movie studio, about the same time as the Twilight Zone episode.

Jungle fever

[Calicodreamin · 6/10 · 15 June 2021]

An interesting concept for an episode, but the execution left something to be desired. Most of the episode was the main character running around. The ending was well executed though.

Environmental and corporate messages in 1961

[tforbes-2 · 10/10 · 21 March 2011]

"The Jungle," written by the great Charles Beaumont, is a rather prophetic episode in so many ways. The troubles begin when Alan Richards (John Dehner) throws amulets into a fire at his apartment in the big city. From there, he is subjected to various noises, and the episode ends with … well, you check it out!

Beyond what has been said here, "The Jungle" addresses environmental and corporate issues. We are watching a corporation doing work in Africa with disregard for the native peoples living there, and with disregard for the environment.

And as for the amulets and sacred objects, I understand this part very well, having had contact with people from the Six Nations. Some may see them as objects of superstition, but there is also another message here as well: One should have respect for different groups of people. And this was an important lesson in 1961, when so many African nations were emerging from colonial rule.

Yes, the jungle sounds and dark sets are eerie. But there are so many important messages in "The Jungle" that matter as well!

Superstitions

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 20 July 2023]

In New York, when the executive Alan Richards finds the souvenirs that his wife Doris brought from Africa for their protection, he burns all the objects. Doris explains that a witch doctor gave them to her when they traveled to Africa to see the enterprise that he is responsible for, and she gives a lion tooth to him. In a meeting at his company with the senior management, he explains how superstitious they all are, and leaves the meeting with a colleague to drink in a bar. Late night, they leave the bar and the lion tooth on the counter, but Alan's car does not start. He needs to walk home along a night of terror.

"The Jungle" is a silly episode of "The Twilight Zone". The beginning is intriguing and keeps the attention of the viewer. The development is tense and we do not know what might happen to Mr. Alan Richards. But the conclusion of the episode is awful and totally unexpected, with the materialization of a lion. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Selva" ("The Jungle")

Weak. Seriously, you guys....

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 29 May 2010]

I have noticed that when I have reviewed a weak episode of "The Twilight Zone" that I often get a lot of 'not helpfuls'. So apparently, there are a lot of people who really, really love this show. I like it as well, but must admit that not all episodes are equal--there are some great ones and there are some very weak ones. "The Jungle" is among the weakest of the series.

The show begins with John Dehner and his wife in New York City. Instead of showing them on their recent trip to Africa, the two characters talk about it--an obvious money-saving step. It seems that some African witch doctor or other believer in magic has cursed Dehner and the wife believes that this curse will follow him--and has places good luck charms around their home. Then, in the next scene, Dehner gives a speech to a group of executives about superstition. By the end of the film, Dehner is attacked by a lion--proving that being superstitious is supposedly good.

This show is just plain weak. The story never comes close to being interesting and it also seemed pretty dumb. The motivations, irony and suspense are all missing here--like the script was never finished and it was the barest of story ideas. Dull and not worth your time.

A Walk On The Wild Side

[telegonus · 9/10 · 14 July 2017]

The Jungle is a way above average, darkly moody and highly atmospheric third season Twilight Zone. It's not perfect. There are things wrong with it, but they're mostly small. Overall, it delivers. Both host-creator Rod Serling and author Charles Beaumont worked on the script.

As the tale of a businessman, recently returned from an engineering expedition in Africa for a large oil company, the story builds nicely in a New York City apartment in which the man's wife has collected charms, odds and ends, such as a lion's tooth, a human finger and other, similar objects, to ward off evil spirits, which her husband promptly tosses into the fireplace.

At a business meeting later on, however, the husband himself expresses doubts about what his employer is setting out to do in Africa, and now he seems to be advocating caution, even raising such issues as whether we need to hold on to or at least honor our superstitions, as a means of warding off fears of, for instance, the Unknown; and he makes a good case.

The story's protagonist seems a divided soul, and I wish that the episode had delved more into his character. Urbane veteran actor John Dehner plays the part well, though in moments of fear and panic, of which there are many in the episode's second half, he never quite convinces as a man in flight from irrational superstitions.

Yet much of the aforementioned is nitpicking: The Jungle is a mood piece; and as it builds a head of steam it turns into the horror story it was threatening to become in its first few minutes. There are several startling scenes, some played in near silence; while in others the sounds of wild animals can be heard, in the trees, on the rooftops; in alleyways.

In The Jungle, The Twilight Zone art and sound departments did fine work in creating a back lot nightmare on abandoned city streets with very few tricks. The pace is flawless, especially once Dehner leaves the bar, and the viewer can clearly see the lion's tooth he left behind in the darkness; and this is a foreshadowing of what's in store for the man in the course of roughly the next hour.

This is a Twilight Zone for those interested less in morals and ideas and more in the mood for the exploration of unconscious fears and especially how that which is most primal and irrational in us all can be found anywhere, whether Africa or North America, and how we can never escape them.

Do do that voodoo that you do somewhere else-not in The Twilight Zone.

[darrenpearce111 · 5/10 · 3 December 2013]

African curse stories are pretty lame, predictable, and just about done to death. This typical dose of hocus pocus prescribed by a witch doctor for a businessman is no exception. John Dehner was an important contributor to the Zone (in three entries), but he cant save this one, albeit that he adds class and puts across a scene about the other businessmen's superstitions well. There is so little story here from the normally brilliant Charles Beaumont. The whole thing seems out of place in TZ and would look more in place in Night Gallery or an Amicus horror anthology film. You might like it if you're a fan of the film 'Cat People'(1942), which I am not.

I think even the jungle sounds needed to be put across with more subtlety to get quite the right creepy effect when Dehner is in the city.

One of the lesser entries mostly lacking in classic ingredients.

Very underrated

[drhoads-93743 · 9/10 · 23 December 2020]

I watched this episode once about 10 years ago and didn't think much of it. Upon watching it again recently, I realized how great it is. It doesn't have that classic Twilight Zone vibe to it due to its dark nature; however, I appreciate how deeply creepy it is and well-directed. It's very nightmarish. Great camerawork and well-acted.

Watch this episode if you're in the mood for something a bit different from the series and something a bit darker.

Welcome to the Jungle. We got fun & games! And goat carcasses on your doorstep!

[Coventry · 8/10 · 24 July 2020]

"Twilight Zone" episodes are great by default. And if you're about to watch one written by Charles Beaumont, you can rest assured it'll be borderline brilliant. The indescribably talented author, who sadly passed away far too early from a horrible and tragic illness, penned down twenty-two "Twilight Zone" stories altogether, and thus far they have all been terrific. "The Jungle" delivers something that is missing in a lot of other installments in the series, namely genuine suspense. The tales are usually mysterious, bizarre and imaginative, but too often they not tense or menacing enough. "The Jungle" is a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat; - guaranteed. Alan Richards, a New York businessman, recently returned from rural Africa with concrete plans to roll out a huge construction project that would severely impact the lives of local tribes. Alan's wife is petrified of the curses spoken out by a voodoo-priest, but Alan refuses to be superstitious even when there's a goat-carcass on his doorstep. When Alan intends to head home at night, his journey through New York turns into a hellish jungle expedition. The walk home is genuine horror, with even a human casualty (characters hardly ever die in "The Twilight Zone) and a downbeat climax.

Most Disappointing Episode

[Foxbarking · 3/10 · 13 June 2014]

I have to agree with one of the previous reviewers, planktonrules, that this is just a terrible episode. "The Twilight Zone" is supposed to be the realm of imagination and somehow this tale of a business man cursed by African witch doctors had none.

The plot of this episode is basically that a business man and his wife have returned from Africa after developing land there. The husband finds that his wife has been keeping charms to protect the two of them from curses placed on them by witch doctors for the land development. The husband throws them away, and immediately sees a dead goat appear outside his door.

The remainder of the episode, it seems that he has renewed belief in the curses. He points out the superstitions of others. By the end of the night, he is too scared to walk home because he is hearing "jungle" noises. He gets home and his wife has been killed by a lion and he is next. That's it.

I know some people will tell me that I have do not have patience or an imagination. They are wrong. I love shows and movies that leave a lot up to my mind to figure out on its own. I enjoy ambiguous endings and I enjoy slow building suspense. This episode had none of that. It was dull and there was nothing creepy, suspenseful or even interesting about it. Apart from that, and I know it was over 50 years old, but the African stereotypes were rather offensive as well. By far the worst episode of the series.

Atmospheric Horror in the City Streets of the Twilight Zone

[michael-48656 · 10/10 · 22 December 2017]

Based upon the other reviews I have read here, "The Jungle" is either one of the best or one of the worst entries in the series. I count myself among those who favor it. True, the story is predictable. The characters are archetypal. The message is one with which we are very familiar in the more environmentally and culturally conscious twenty-first century. Nevertheless, this episode is a master example of atmosphere and pacing. The essence of horror is primal and irrational. It is the fear that our own rational and civilized lives may not keep the monsters at bay. Given Rod Serling's rational humanism, I find it most interesting that he chose this story, since the story is fundamentally a refutation of the twentieth century conceit that progress can and should stamp out the primal nature of man. The clear connotation is that there is something intrinsically good about the untamed wild. It can and will protect itself from our own hubris, and we civilized men therefore are best advise to go only so far in trying to subdue it. In terms of the atmosphere, the most unsettling shots are the subtler ones - the cold breeze rustling the moonlit trees, the beasts chirping or growling in the distance, etc. What happens to the cab driver seems arbitrary at first, but then makes sense in retrospect. "The Jungle" has taken over, and there will be no easy escape for our protagonist. Without giving away the ending, I shall say that it is especially remarkable given the times. Though offscreen, it is raw and unforgiving, which is as it should be given what has transpired up to this point.

Quite weak

[ericstevenson · 5/10 · 2 August 2018]

This is one of the worst episodes of "The Twilight Zone" mainly because it doesn't have anything too different about it. Its plot features a guy mentioning how he made money from destroying a forest in Africa. He keeps hearing these jungle sounds over and over. He does talk about how silly it is to believe in luck or curses. The episode ends with him being killed by a lion. It's too predictable.

The entire episode took place entirely in the city. I wanted to see what happened in Africa! Did they ever even explain why the driver died? They didn't have to kill him too! This is probably the worst episode I've ever seen. There's just nothing interesting at all and there's no tension that's arising. **

You don't to go to Africa to find yourself in the jungle

[Woodyanders · 9/10 · 13 April 2018]

Hard-nosed businessman Alan Richards (a typically fine performance by the always reliable John Dehner) returns from Africa where he was in charge of a construction project. Back in America Richards finds himself on the receiving end of a voodoo curse put on him by a witch doctor.

Director William F. Claxton does an expert job of crafting a strong spooky mood and generates a tremendous amount of tension; the sequence with Richards walking home through an increasingly hostile urban jungle proves to be positively nerve-wracking thanks to Claxton's firm grasp of Val Lewtonesque less is more subtlety and the excellent use of wild animal sound effects. Jay Adler has a neat supporting role as a decrepit and destitute tramp. The sharp black and white cinematography by George T. Clemens presents several striking and unsettling visuals. Charles Beaumont's smart script offers a potent and provocation subtext on skepticism versus superstition. A real bang-up episode.

"...if you wanted to get hold of a dead goat on an hour's notice, where would you go?"

[classicsoncall · 8/10 · 19 May 2010]

When I was a kid growing up during The Twilight Zone's original run back in the Sixties, I often found myself walking home from the local softball field, about a distance of a quarter mile. This was in a small town, and even with street lights, it got pretty dark around ten o'clock. You can imagine what goes through a twelve year old's mind when there's nobody to walk with or talk to; as silent as it can be, there's always a rustle or unexpected noise to creep you out. You get the kind of feeling old Alan Richards (John Dehner) got when he starts to hear those weird jungle noises and can't run fast enough to get to the safety of home. There were given evenings I could have outrun him in a hundred yard dash.

'The Jungle' plays strongly to that power of suggestion, beginning with Richards' admonition from his wife after he throws her black magic amulets into the fireplace - "You'll never be back". I couldn't quite figure why he was using those same superstitions to argue against the African dam project since he was running the job. Probably the best way writer Charles Beaumont could keep that thread going.

For some reason, whenever I see this episode I picture John Dehner's character facing off against a black panther for the finale. If I were writing the story, I would have had the big cat on the bed with the Mrs. nowhere in sight. You know, hinting at the idea that she might have turned into a wild beast for just that added twist the Twilight Zone was noted for.

Bottom 10 episode

[localbum24-1 · 3/10 · 8 January 2019]

This is definitely one of the worst episodes of the entire series, insofar as nothing happens. It's also a poor lead performance. There's not much else that needs to be said. It's not even bad in an entertaining way.

A Great Director's Episode

[liparulos · 9/10 · 25 June 2023]

"The Jungle" is a great Twilight Zone episode for which the major credit should go to its director, William F. Claxton. The Twilight Zone was most a writer's show, and most of the great episodes worked dramatically, character revealed through speech. "The Jungle," written by the prolific Charles Beaumont, based upon his story of several years before, works more cinematically--and cinema is a director's media.

"The Jungle" develops more and more through the viewer's experience of what happens to the character (not what he says or how he grows). On the usual low television budget, Claxton tells the story through images and sounds, most of which are actually misdirection--you don't really see almost anything (except that leaping lion at the end!), just experience lighting effects given meaning through the soundtrack. The craftspeople who put this together in three or four days should take pride in their work. It's a great episode that builds suspense to a powerful climax.

Do do that voodoo that you do so well.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 30 August 2019]

Far from flawless, this "Twilight Zone" episode has many spooky moments that reflect on mankind's fears of the unknown and the odd trinkets they carry around to ward off spells, superstition and simple bad luck. It stars John Dehner as a businessman recently back from Africa, heard dismissing the ridiculous claims of his wife and fellow colleagues that he needs to be looked out for. Walking home after a meeting, he begins to hear the sounds of the jungle right on the streets of Manhattan. I've seen my share of weird creatures on those same streets, even in the middle of the night, but nothing like what is insinuated here. It's an effective moment in an otherwise ordinary episode that becomes silly towards the end with the presence of one of those creatures appearing out of nowhere.

Emily McLaughlin, who played Dehner's wife, would soon go onto soap opera same playing General hospital's first leading lady, nurse Jesse Brewer. Other than a few rare early episodes of that series, this was the first time I had seen her not behind the seventh floor nurses station in her black cardigan and starched uniform and cap. Not a great script, yet tense in certain moments, but oh that ending. Somebody in the zone had been watching a little bit too much Val Lewton!

Jungle Prey

[hellraiser7 · 8/10 · 3 November 2021]

This isn't a favorite episode of my but a good one. In a way the episode is sort of like an E. C. comic tale as it's got the format of the doomed perpetrator about to get what he or she deserves.

We see the main character Alan Richards who isn't likeable as he's pretty much another typical corporate blowhole that just wants more than enough, let alone more than he already has no matter the cost; but also has an extremely petty ego. In one scene the characters dis guarding the cultural mystical trinkets and talking smack about they superstitions and mystical beliefs is pretty much his disregard for people in class down from his own, but also simple anyone that is different in anyway.

Really like this one board meeting scene when we see certain members have trinkets of luck like the typical rabbit's foot and others. I thought this was interesting, this didn't make any of them foolish but human, it really is human to believe there is a lot more going on in the universe than what you see and touch because there is; also, it can be psychologically healthy because it can keep egos in check and keep our moral compass pointing the right direction. Granted I'll admit certain superstitions I honestly don't believe as some are just that superstitions, but I honestly feel hold a validity of truth or at least make you wonder like that dreaded day "Friday the 13th".

Alan being as petty as he is insults them for it as he walks away, unfortunately as we see in a bar scene this pettiness is the very thing that kills him when we see when he's at a bar he does a very stupid thing as he abandons the very thing that could've saved his life.

There is a double layer of suspense where on one hand you in the same boat as him as we see the scene of walking back home left and right there are a bunch of animal noises, camera shots of sculptures of animals that may or may not be the source of those noises, things happen and don't. All those things just really feed on your imagination, you constantly think a lion or any of the predatory animals are going to get him here and there. But of course the other layer of suspense is that you already know he's going to get what's coming to him but you just don't know when.

The story not just shows the importance of respecting cultures and people that are not of the same class or nationality. But also, that mysticism and spirituality have their places in not just our contemporary reality but the universe.

The thing about being prey is fear always comes first before the kill.

Rating: 3 stars.

60's Hollywood...

[Samuel-Shovel · 3/10 · 29 March 2020]

In "The Jungle" a man in charge of a dam project in Africa threatening the livelihood of the "natives" soon feels himself threatened on the streets of New York when he starts hearing jungle noises in his urban jungle.

The fetishism of old Native American, African, and Asian customs in old Hollywood is always a bit cringeworthy. Here we're using it as the boogieman that will get you if you imperialize their land. It's admirable I suppose to have a message of leaving cultures to their own devices, but the delivery here leaves a lot to be desired. The end shot of the lion was actually unexpected by me though. So that's worth something I guess...