"Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book" is a Limited Edition release of 1000 copies.
The original film music production recordings are available here for the first time, nearly complete, and skillfully restored and remastered from the last surviving transcription discs.
Rózsa's music shines on this new CD in a way it never has before. Featuring lengthy and authoritative liner notes by Golden Age film expert Rudy Behlmer, this is an album you won't want to miss. As a bonus track, we've included a previously unavailable excerpt of a rare interview about the score with Rózsa himself, conducted by Behlmer in 1974.
1. Main Title 1:30
2. The Jungle 2:47
3. Animals of the Jungle 4:45
4. Nato Runs Away 2:31
5. The Wolf Cave and Mowgli' Lullaby 2:06
6. Shere Khan Chases Gorofli from the Jungle 2:25
7. Jungle Lullaby 1:21
8. Mowgli' Mother 1:44
9. Among Men 1:03
10. Mowgli and Mahalla Go to the Jungle 2:35
11. The Lost City 2:13
12. The White Cobra 3:22
13. Shere Kahn and the Stampede 4:37
14. Kaa the Rocksnake 5:12
15. Night in the Jungle 1:02
16. The Murder 3:05
17. Fury of the Jungle 2:20
18. Mowgli Saves his Mother 3:15
19. The Fire 4:01
20. The End 1:34
21. Excerpt of interview with Miklos Rozsa and Rudy Behlmer (6/1/74) 24:44
"The Jungle Book" isn't always faithful to the Rudyard Kipling original (in fact, it seldom is), but 1942 audiences swept up in the grandeur of the production values and the lush Technicolor photography didn't mind at all. Indian juvenile star Sabu plays Mowgli, who having been lost in the jungle as an infant has been raised by wolves. While he has no trouble conversing with his animal neighbors (whose voices aren't as ludicrous as you might think, though we never imagined that a snake could sound like Lionel Barrymore), Mowgli yearns to touch base with his human roots; thus, he returns to the native village whence he came. With the help of his jungle companions, Mowgli rescues his adoptive family, his natural mother (Rosemary DeCamp) and the rest of the humans from the greedy machinations of villains Joseph Calleia, John Qualen and Frank Puglia. Adapted for the screen by Lawrence Stallings and co-directed by Zoltan Korda and Andre De Toth, "The Jungle Book" scored a significant hit for its distributor United Artists, who really needed a smash at this point in time.