Bengal Tiger

Dir. Louis King

62 Minutes

USA

1936

Starring: Barton MacLane, June Travis, Warren Hull, Paul Graetz, Joseph Crehan, Dick Purcell

Hastily assembled Warner B-film with a shoestring plot involving a lion trainer (Barton MacLane) in love with the fiancee (June Travis) of a friend who was mauled to death by the titular animal as a result of his drunken hubris. They marry, and conflict escalates when his new wife and new pal fall in love with each other. Early scenes in the circus give a nice entertainment of variety even though they mostly exist to pad an already microscopic running time (barely over an hour in length), and the general action is rushed as it goes through the motions before its inevitable "tragic-but-happy" conclusion. Had Lon Chaney lived a few more years, one could wonder if this would be the type of material he would have been resorting to (with an ending that echoes some of Chaney's own circus pictures The Unknown and Laugh, Clown, Laugh, both superior heavily because of his constant commitment). Passes the time quickly, but the beats are too familiar, the screenplay shoehorning some cliche summations into the dialogue ("he is getting to be just like one of his animals!", business of that nature), and the direction not of particular interest beyond the surface.

April 29th, 2020