Description

Jungle Book is a 1942 Indian/American technicolor action film-adventure film by the Korda brothers, based on a screenplay adaptation by Laurence Stallings of the Rudyard Kipling book, The Jungle Book. The film was directed by Zoltán Korda, produced by his brother Alexander Korda and art directed by their younger brother Vincent Korda. The cinematography was by Lee Garmes and W. Howard Greene and music by Miklós Rózsa. The film starred Sabu Dastagir as Mowgli. Because of World War II, the British Korda brothers had moved their film making to Hollywood in 1940, and Jungle Book is one of the films they made during that Hollywood period.

Cast

• Sabu Dastagir: Mowgli
• Joseph Calleia: Buldeo
• John Qualen: The barber
• Frank Puglia: The pundit
• Rosemary DeCamp: Messua
• Patricia O’Rourke: Mahala
• Ralph Byrd: Durgaived
• John Mather: Rao
• Faith Brook: English girl
• Noble Johnson: Sikh

Soundtrack album

In 1943 the film’s score, in a recording made directly from the soundtrack, was released on a 78-RPM record album with narration by Sabu, the film’s star, added. It became the first commercial recording of a non-musical U.S. film’s orchestral score to be released. The album was a success.
Although the film is in the public domain, the master 35MM elements are with ITV Studios. An official video release is currently available via The Criterion Collection.