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The Beauty Jungle
The Beauty Jungle
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Val Guest
Written by	Val Guest; Robert Muller;
Produced by	Val Guest
Starring	Ian Hendry; Janette Scott; Edmund Purdom;
Cinematography	Arthur Grant
Edited by	Bill Lenny
Music by	Laurie Johnson
Distributed by	The Rank Organization (United Kingdom); Continental Distributing (United States);
Release date	25 August 1964;
Running time	110 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The Beauty Jungle (also known as Contest Girl) is a 1964 British film directed by Val Guest and starring Ian Hendry, Janette Scott, Ronald Fraser and Edmund Purdom.^[1] It was written by Guest and Robert Muller.

Plot

Shirley lives in Bristol. While on a seaside holiday at Butlins holiday camp a young typist Shirley Freeman is persuaded by a local journalist Don MacKenzie to enter a beauty contest. When she wins, she decides to give up her previous career and life and take up entering beauty contests full-time. Her parents disown her.

Shirley comes second in a heat for the "Rose of England" contest, but her friend points out to the judges that the winner has not followed the rules and she is disqualified so Shirley wins by default, winning £300 and a trip to Monte Carlo. They enjoy the trip together, but Don changes the booking at the hotel from two single rooms to one double room. Whilst in Monte Carlo she enters yet another beauty contest, "Miss Trapeze", this is a chaotic contest set in a circus, but nevertheless she wins, winning 500NF. The contest organisers Mr Carrick and Mr Armand invite them to dinner.

Returning to Britain she does a photo-shoot in Torquay with photographer Walter Carey. She then enters the final of "Miss Rose of England" and wins, winning £1000.

She is then entered as "Miss England" in the "Miss Globe" contest held on the Cote d'Azur. Here Don has to stay at a different hotel and Shirley has to share a hotel room with Miss Peru, but she comes only 6th despite naively sleeping with one of the male judges the night before the contest. Disillusioned with the beauty profession she stops entering beauty contests completely.

Later on, after being required as reigning champion to judge a beauty contest in the UK, she sees that her younger sister Elaine has entered the contest and immediately walks away completely from the beauty profession and all of its hypocrisy and sordid publicity stunts.

Cast

Ian Hendry as Don Mackenzie
Janette Scott as Shirley Freeman
Ronald Fraser as Walter Carey
Edmund Purdom as Rex Carrick
Jean Claudio as Armand
Kay Walsh as Mrs. Freeman
Tommy Trinder as Charlie Dorton
Norman Bird as Mr. Freeman
Janina Faye as Elaine
Aliza Gur as Miss Peru
David Weston as Harry
Peter Ashmore as Lucius
Sid James as Butlin Judge (as Sydney James)
Jacqueline Jones as Jean Watson
Jackie White as Barbara Lawton
Jerry Desmonde as wwimming pool MC
Alan Taylor as TV commentator
Eve Eden as Angela Boynton
Lionel Blair as Talk of the Town producer
Francis Matthews as Taylor
Nikki Peters as Cora
Raymond Young as "Miss Globe" host
Margaret Nolan as Caroline
Arlette Dobson as Miss America
Donna Pearson as Miss Sweden
Sandy Sarjeant as Miss Spain
Barbara von der Heyde as Miss Germany
Paul Carpenter as American tourist
Donald Hewlett as advertising man
Rosemarie Frankland as hereself
Norman Hartnell, Lydia Russell, Duchess of Bedford, Stirling Moss, Linda Christian, and Joe Brown appear as themselves

Production

Val Guest said "when the press found out I was doing a film about the beauty jungle in 1964 and it was printed in odd bits of press coverage I got a letter first of all from Eric Morley who demanded to be able to see the script and to point out to me I couldn't use Miss England, I couldn't use Miss Great Britain, Miss World, Miss Universe, any of that. I didn't answer that, it didn't call for an answer; then later when we’d gone ahead we got a letter from his solicitor wanting to see the script. I said no way could they see the script but I'd be delighted to invite them to the premiere. There was all niggling going on there, so we called it Miss English Rose… and it was Miss Globe instead of Miss World and Miss Universe."^[2]

Weston-super-Mare (including the now-demolished lido), Butlins Bognor Regis and the Redcliffe area of Bristol were amongst the filming locations.^[3]^[4]

Guest said the film did "alright. We got our money back but we didn't break any records. It broke even. It was a shame because I thought it was a good entertaining picture, but I think we suffered from not having any top names. "^[2]

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Would-be exposé of the horrors and frauds of the beauty queen racket, which never quite makes the grade as either heavy romance, sociological document, personal tragedy, or even just fun. The dialogue is totally lacking in bite, a sizeable chunk of the footage is expended on interminably dreary beauty parades, and the film only springs to life momentarily in an overdone but amusingly awful contest in a tatty Monte Carlo circus. Ian Hendry gives a far better performance than his material warrants, and Edmund Purdom intervenes, convincingly enough, as a movie idol who recognises ruefully that he is little more than an inanimate sex-symbol."^[5]

References

^ "The Beauty Jungle". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
^ ^a ^b Fowler, Roy (1988). "Interview with Val Guest". British Entertainment History Project.
^ "IMDB". IMDb. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
^ "Reelstreets". Retrieved 20 February 2022.
^ "The Beauty Jungle". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 31 (360): 105. 1 January 1964 – via ProQuest.