PHENOMENALITY: *naturalistic*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*
Though I know that "white-jungle queens" appeared in comic books and B-movies well into the 1950s, BLONDE SAVAGE still seems a pale copy of such 1930s flicks as TRADER HORN and THE SAVAGE GIRL, both of which hinged on the capacity of white explorers to "tame" savage women. BLONDE SAVAGE is in the same naturalistic mode as both of these films, for even though jungle-girl Meelah is decked out in Sheena-garb, she's no "noble savage." She's also not really any sort of white goddess. She's simply a child who's been reared by a black tribe after the death of her parents. Pilot-for-hire Blake (Leif Erickson) arrives at the plantation of Harper, who happens to be the man guilty of killing Meelah's parents, and who wants Blake's help in recovering the victims' bodies. Instead of helping Harper, Blake falls for Meelah and helps her bring Harper to justice.
Meelah has no special skills or empathy with jungle-life, so even though she's the focal character of BLONDE SAVAGE, the adventure is both naturalistic and subcombative. Erickson makes a good leading man, and while Gail Sherwood makes a meager Meelah, she does get to sing for a crowd of appreciative African tribesmen, who for once are not particularly nasty or superstitious.
THE INTRUDER takes place on a desert island, when a group of stranded ship-passengers and a man who's been on the island so long he's gone a little nuts. There's one moment that suggests the uncanny, when a passenger asserts that the madman's howls sound like those of a damned soul. However, there's no concerted effort to make the madman an uncanny threat, so this too falls into the naturalistic phenomenality.
Lila Lee plays a brassy blonde with one good line, along the lines of, "If you don't like blondes, just wait a while, and I'll oblige you."
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