Taunt B picture classic from RKO which helped cement the reputation of director John Farrow. It's got a great tense situation: a plane crashes in the jungle, and head hunters are after them. The head hunter component of this film is actually a lot less than I remembered it being - they only really came along at the end. But it helps that the cross section of passengers is a genuinely interesting cross section: there's the young son of a top gangster and a hoodlum looking after him; a hooker; an eloping couple; an anarchist assassin and the cop who nabbed him, etc. There's also a very good cast, most of whom you wouldn't care to see in their own vehicle but who are good in an ensemble, including Patric Knowles, C Aubrey Smith, Chester Morris, John Carradina, Lucille Ball, Joseph Calleila and Allen Jenkins.
The writers included Donald Trumbo and Nathaniel West, and arguably this has some leftie propaganda – rich man Knowles and cop Carradine are bad, the goodies are the elderly, disenfranchised and the anarchist; also the anarchist (the best role and the best performance) has a spiel where he talks about how happy the people are in their new system under a strong leader they all admire. Very strong B film, with a great finale.
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