Bring 'Em Back Alive (1932) Review - Staged Jungle Chaos

If you love animals, you will probably want to throw your shoe at the screen during Bring 'Em Back Alive. It is a 1932 jungle adventure that is basically eighty minutes of a guy named Frank Buck trapping beasts and making them fight each other.

If you're into weird, dusty film history or want to see how early Hollywood faked reality, it is a wild ride. But modern animal lovers should stay far, far away. 🐯

The setup is simple. Frank Buck and his assistant Ali trek into the Malayan jungle to capture wild animals for zoos back home.

Except "capturing" mostly looks like Frank poking things with a stick or setting up ridiculously elaborate traps. It is pretty clear he is more interested in the cameras rolling than actual conservation.

The movie is famous—or infamous—for its brutal animal showdowns. You get a black leopard fighting a python, which then fights a tiger, which then fights *another* python.

It is completely obvious that some of these animals were tossed into a pit together just to see what would happen. It gets pretty tense, even if you know it is totally staged.

The editing is incredibly choppy during these fights. They clearly tried to hide the crew members standing just out of frame with brooms to keep the beasts from running away.

At one point, a giant monitor lizard just kind of wanders into the shot and looks confused. I swear you can hear the director whispering behind the camera to make it move.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Bring 'Em Back Alive (1932) through its definitive frames.

Unlike the claustrophobic studio sets of The Big House, this one actually gets out into some real dirt, even if half the jungle looks like a very large backyard. It has that same rough-and-tumble survivalist vibe you find in Daniel Boone Thru the Wilderness, but with way more actual teeth and claws.

There is a weirdly sweet moment where Frank adopts a baby elephant. But then it immediately cuts to him trapping a screaming orangutan, which feels super cruel.

The way Frank talks to the locals is... well, it is very 1932. Let's just say the word "boy" gets used about a hundred times too many and leave it at that.

Also, the sound design is hilarious. Every time a big cat snarls, it sounds like someone is ripping a piece of heavy cardboard in half right next to the microphone.

The tiger vs. python fight goes on forever. Seriously, they roll around in the mud for what feels like ten minutes.

The python gets a good squeeze in, but then they just kind of call it a draw and slide away. It is bizarre how much of this movie relies on you just wanting to watch a giant snake crush things.

I did love the baby honey bear though. It just rolls around on its back and ignores all the colonial nonsense happening around it. 🐻

In the end, Bring 'Em Back Alive is a messy, fascinating, and deeply uncomfortable relic. It is not "good" in any modern sense, but you won't be able to look away.