The Naked Jungle: South American Hot Chocolate 🥁🥁 🥁 1/2

Year Released: 1954
Directed by: Byron Haskin
Starring: Charlton Heston, Eleanor Parker
(PG-13, 95 min.)
Genre: Action and Adventure, Romance

“Leiningen! You're insane! They're not creatures you can fight--they're an elemental--an 'act of God!'” –District Commissioner

Which is worse?  Charlton Heston as the arrogant and moody South American plantation owner, or the marabunda, the plague of army ants moving relentlessly toward him, devouring everything in their path.

Add to that his too perfect, too beautiful “mail order bride” and you have a bitterly seductive cocktail you cannot ignore.

Moved by lonely letters written to her brother by cocoa plantation owner Christopher Leiningen (Charlton Heston), New Orleans widow Joanna (Eleanor Parker) agrees to marry Christopher by proxy. Upon arriving at his South American plantation, Joanna clashes with the moody Christopher over his dismay about her previous marriage and the harshness of jungle life. The relationship appears doomed -- until a horde of attacking black ants forces the Leiningens to pull together.

Leiningen is a little like Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window, who sees an incandescent Grace Kelly as “too beautiful, too perfect” as well .

Yes, the bedridden photographer in Rear Window is a bit moody, too, but he is at least civil.  Charlton Heston’s Christopher Leiningen is downright hostile once he finds out his “mail order bride,” has been married before, albeit she is a widow and had explicitly told Leiningen’s brother to tell him that.

Maybe all this somewhat cheesy melodrama is because the short story, written in 1938 by Carl Stephenson, less glamorously titled “Leiningen Versus the Ants,” has no females in it all. While the hero, unlike the handsome Heston, is certainly not a looker.

Leiningen sucked placidly at a cigar about the size of a corncob and for a few seconds gazed without answering at the agitated District Commissioner. Then he took the cigar from his lips, and leaned slightly forward. With his bristling grey hair, bulky nose, and lucid eyes, he had the look of an aging and shabby eagle.

But Hollywood has always known that sex sells, even if it is the relatively chaste 50s version.

In fact, because of his star power and leading man looks, Heston replaced the actor who had played Leiningen in the radio play, William Cannon (some may remember from the television series “Cannon” (1971-1976) who accepted the relatively bland role as the Commissioner who warns him about the marabunda:

Ten miles long, two miles wide--ants, nothing but ants! And every single one of them a fiend from hell; before you can spit three times they'll eat a full-grown buffalo to the bones. I tell you if you don't clear out at once there'll he nothing left of you but a skeleton picked as clean as your own plantation.

Once those ants enter the picture, Leiningen’s plans to ship Joanna back home to New Orleans are put on hold, and she proves a stalwart ally in his thousand to one odds against these horrible creatures.

These creatures are “elemental,” as Leiningen declares in the short story, and he will fight them with his own elemental devices, fire and water. Too bad some of that actual fight is minimized in the film, such as the way the ants attack the eyes first, to blind and debilitate victims

Down the slope of the distant hill there came towards him a singular being, writhing rather than running, an animal-like blackened statue with shapeless head and four quivering feet that knuckled under almost ceaselessly. When the creature reached the far bank of the ditch and collapsed opposite Leiningen, he recognized it as a pampas stag, covered over and over with ants.

It had strayed near the zone of the army. As usual, they had attacked its eyes first. Blinded, it had reeled in the madness of hideous torment straight into the ranks of its persecutors, and now the beast swayed to and fro in its death agony.

Those wonderful words probably appeal to English teachers like me, who actually taught this short story to her sophomores, but Hollywood knows that a “picture paints a 1000 words.”

The frightening sound of those ants in their destruction is surprising bland and practical.

The unique "sound" of the ants devouring everything in their path was created by swirling a straw in a glass of water with crushed ice, which was then amplified. (you can make your own sounds a little more interesting with a cocktail, though.)

***

Who will win?  Will Leiningen and Joanna find love just before they are devoured by the ravaging horde?  Or will Leiningen save the plantation and Joanna in a desperate self-sacrifice?

You will have to watch this film that famed director Martin Scorsese labeled one of his 100 guilty pleasures to find out.

You might also take a gander at another film made the same year, Elephant Walk, where is it those large creatures that menace a 21-year-old Elizabeth Taylor as well as her planation owning husband.

Cold and cloudy, or snowed in right now?  The Naked Jungle with a chaser of Elephant Walk will definitely warm you up.

–Kathy Borich
🥁🥁 🥁 1/2

Trailer

Film-Loving Foodie

Maybe I should feature a recipe for chocolate covered ants, given how our betters want us to eat bugs while they dine on Wagu steak, but I will forgo that gourmet fare.

Since Leiningen grows cocoa on his South American plantation, let’s settle for some South American Chocolate called Xocolatl.  I will let Kate Hackworth take it from here.

Xocolatl is a spiced, slightly bitter chocolate drink that was popular with Aztecs and Mayans. It's a rich drink with chili, vanilla and cinnamon that can be enjoyed hot or cold. You're going to love it!

It's not as sweet as typical hot cocoa, so you can taste the flavor in the chocolate, cinnamon, vanilla and chilli. This refreshing drink can be enjoyed hot or cold.

This version is based on a traditional recipe where chocolate, cinnamon, chili and vanilla combine into a delicious drink, but it's a little sweeter so more suitable to modern tastes.

It's full of great flavor, slightly spicy and less sweet than typical American hot chocolate. – Kate Hackworth

Here are a few more versions of a hot morning drink, either cowboy style or Argentine Gaucho style called Mate.  

South American Hot Chocolate

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups (350ml) milk

• ½ cup dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips or 100g dark chocolate, chopped

• ½ cup (120ml) water

• 2 teaspoons honey or sugar or more to taste

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 1 red chili

Instructions

Warm the milk and chocolate chips in a pan over a low/medium heat until the chocolate melts, whisking often.

Whisk in the water, honey, cinnamon and vanilla.

Cut the chili in half, remove and discard the seeds, then add the chili to the pot. Allow the mixture to nearly come to the boil, then remove from the heat.

Allow the mixture to sit for 10 minutes to infuse the flavors. Taste during this time and remove the chili if it’s getting too spicy, and add more sweetener if desired.

Serve warm or cold.

Veggie Desserts.com