Disney has mined Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli stories twice, but it has never topped this elegant, lush classic by the British Korda brothers. Producer Alexander Korda brought director Zoltan and designer Vincent to California, where they used Hollywood's resources to create a storybook India of verdant jungles, beautiful lagoons, and modest peasant villages. Sabu plays Mowgli, the man-cub raised by wolves and schooled in the jungle who returns to civilization as a young man. When greedy villagers discover that he knows of a hidden treasure, they turn the town against him and follow him to the ruins of an ancient palace (a magnificent, crumbling temple of glowing blue stone overrun with vines and vegetation). Sabu gives a vital, energetic performance, leaping and climbing like he was born to the wild and innocent of corruption and fear that infects the village. As the treasure hunters turn on one another and resort to murder for the prize they all desire, the film gets darker and fiercer than Disney ever dared in its remakes. It's still the most glorious of all versions, a grandly realized epic vision with a sense of wonder and a magnificent fantasy landscape of deep, rich colors, like a painting come to life. Joseph Calleia plays the greedy villain with his usual conniving flair. Miklós Rósza wrote the gorgeous score. Be wary of inferior video copies: the film has fallen into the public domain and is available in a proliferation of substandard prints. --Sean AxmakerMore...
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