Liane, Jungle Goddess (German Liane, das Mädchen aus dem Urwald) is a 1956 West German film directed by Eduard von Borsody.
An expedition discovers blonde 16 year-old Liane venerated by the native tribe in the African jungle and returns her to Hamburg where she is welcomed by her grandfather, ship tycoon Von Amelongen. His nephew Schoening, present head of the firm and prospective heir, tries all to stop his uncle from acknowledging her, including perjury, destruction of evidence, and finally resorting to murder. He dies in an accident driving his car into the river in his flight from the police. There is a subplot around a love quadrangle centered around Thoren, who is secretly loved by biologist Jacqueline who is in turn courted by Hungarian Tibor. Thoren plays paternal protector to Liane before succumbing to her youthful charm and returning with her to the jungle. - Rotten Tomatoes
From Femmecentric
Yes, yes, I know that this Movie has been seen as sensational exploitation, especially by the standards of the 1950s, and racist in its depiction of native Africans by positioning white culture as superior. But on the other hand, I also see a powerful female character that takes on the world by her own terms. She is strong and independent. She is obligated to no man and is functioning a male world as a strong feminist. Here is a film the presents a Jungle Queen as a precursor to the “We Can Do It” feminist movement of the upcoming 1970s. Here is a film, set in that androcentric time of the 1950s, that didn’t present a woman in a demeaning way, but rather as strong and independent.
And by the way, the novel that this film is based on was written a woman, Anne Day-Helveg (1898 – 1975) who was an Austrian dancer, dance teacher, and romance writer.
Anne Day-Helveg changed her name several times by 3 marriages (Gruner, Helveg, Lothringer) and by taking pen-names. As a dancer and dance teacher, she was Annie Helveg during her time in Vienna. As a writer of romantic stories, she was Anne Day-Helveg or Anne Day.
In 1938, shortly after her mother's death, she left Austria escaping from the Nazis to France without any money or passport. In 1941, under the name Anna Gruner-Helveg, she was accepted as a stateless refugee in Geneva. Her famous brother Karl Popper supported her during war-time by sending money through the Red Cross, though he himself lived under financial strains in New Zealand. She became a Swiss citizen after marrying the Swiss writer Fred Lothringer. They lived and worked together in Ascona, the place where she died in 1975.
Anne's only remarkable success was the romance in German language Liane, das Mädchen aus dem Urwald (Liane: The Girl from the Jungle), after having been made a German film in 1956 (Liane, Jungle Goddess). It is about a female Tarzan starring the four-star actor Marion Michael, and in those years the topless young beauty Marion Michael was a sensation.
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Uncovering Marion Michael and LIANE, JUNGLE GODDESS
From Idol Features
Today, few Americans know who Marion Michael was.
Those who do are mostly aficionados of vintage men’s magazines or old cult movies. (I qualify on both counts.)
But there was a time in the late 1950s and early 1960s when Marion achieved celebrity status in Europe and was billed as “Germany’s answer to Brigitte Bardot” in the United States.
She was born in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia) on October 17, 1940 as Marion Ilonka Michaela Delonge. After World War II ended, her family moved to Berlin.
For a while, Marion studied ballet. Then in 1965, she heard that the Berlin-based Arca film production company was looking for an unknown young woman to play the lead character in a film based on the popular German novel, Liane, das Mädchen aus dem Urwald (Liane, the Girl from the Jungle), written by Anne Day-Helveg (sister of philosopher Karl Popper).
The story is partly a female variation on Tarzan combined with elements of old “white Jungle Goddess” characters that were popular in comic books and movies in the 1930s and 1940s, like Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.
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