Motography (Jan-Jun 1913)

June 14, 1913 MOTOGRAPHY 443 Selig Has Another Animal Picture "Alone in the Jungle" NO miracle apparently is beyond accomplishment for those engaged in filming the jungle series being produced by the Selig Polyscope Company. In times past it has seemed the acme of thrill and action had been reached in these jungle pictures. We have seen helpless heroines pursued through dense thickets by hungry man-eating beasts, we have witnessed thrilling encounters between the wild animals and the players whom they attacked, and have seen a rescue made just in the nick of time, but in "Alone in the Jungle," the latest animal picture to be made by the house of Selig and which is scheduled for release on June 14, all previous attempts are outdone. We, therefore, naturally hesitate to declare that the limit has yet been reached, for, perhaps, tomorrow may show us something even more thrilling and spectacular, though such a contingency seems, now, impossible. Certainly we can't imagine Miss Bessie Eyton, the leading woman who has in times past taken her life in her hands on numberless occasions, or Wheeler Oakman being placed in any more dangerous situations than they voluntarily assume during the taking of this latest two-reel thriller. Both Miss Eyton and Mr. Oakman are clearly seen on the screen to be pursued by huge man-eating lions and each is, later, discovered to be lying, apparently helpless, in the very paws of the shaggy beasts, and yet our common sense tells us that even the wealth of Colonel Selig couldn't induce these players to actually play with death in the manner they seem to be doing. Though trick photography is doubtless resorted to k! ' (' in making these realistic films, we must give all praise to the skill and science which has made such clever trickery possible rather than blame the producer for fooling us. The very knowledge that we are being fooled, but that the trick is so cleverly accomplished that we can't, though we watch ever so carefully, determine at just what point the realism ends and the trickery begins, tends to make us enjoy these two-reels of film even more than would be possible were we to believe that the players really were in the extreme peril in which they appear. The plot of "Alone in the Jungle" was conceived by "Big" Otto Breitkreutz and produced by Director Colin Campbell, who was responsible for the other animal features released by the Selig company. It runs as follows : The Browns are a prosperous family of refined English people who have settled on an isolated plantation in the jungles of South Africa. The family consists of the Hon. John Brown and his wife, two handsome, sturdy boys, Harold and Billy, and a beautiful daughter named Helen. Jack Arden, the son of another English planter living some miles distant from the Browns, frequently comes over to visit the boys and hunt with them. Jack and Helen fell deeply in love and as Jack is a successful construction engineer, with a bright future ahead of him, the match seems all that could be desired. But, Papa Brown, considering that Helen is too young to think of matrimony discourages the The young engineer, with a lovers very emphatically. true understanding of the parental o b j e c tions, gracefully agrees to wait for Helen. This is satisfactory to Mr. and Mrs. Brown and Arden continues his story Thrilling Scene from "Alone in the Jungle." Copyrighted 1913 by Selig Polyscope Company.