"Thor, Lord of the Jungles" (1913) with Kathlyn Williams, Charles Clary, Tom Santschi, Lafe McKee, and William Holland is a seminal jungle-on-film story that takes place in Africa and America. We begin in Africa where Lafe McKee is hired by Clary (owner of a circus) to capture animals for his circus. We also see that McKee's daughter, Kathlyn Williams, is in love with Tom Santschi, and he with her. Almost instantaneously we also see Clary make an underhanded pass at Williams which riles Santschi. Meanwhile, the hunters capture a lion whom they call Thor. Now the story begins to go. Even before things begin to happen we know where this is going to go. However, that's because we've had over one hundred years to see this thing played out over and over. This film does it well.
This 3-reel Selig picture evidently was part of a series, for the original Moving Picture World review of 6 December 1913 opens with "In "Thor, Lord of the Jungle", the Selig wild animal series have reached an eminence not hitherto attained. Indeed, the term "wild animal" is not truly expressive of the range and values of this remarkable three-reel film subject, in which a mighty lion figures prominently and thrillingly." The print I watched is from Grapevine, and the quality is, well, mostly satisfactory, though there are stretches and scenes that are very washed out. Retained is the original blue tinting, which, unfortunately, would have been better served had those scenes been cleaned up in B & W so as to not be as light as they now are - or, of course, restored to the original palette as seen with the original tints. Good story with some creaky acting. What was uninviting was an organ score that, though plausible for the action occurring, nevertheless was grating on my nerves. I must admit that this is a fun film for seeing how it was 107 years ago when it came to satisfying the general public with subjects on film, and the film is "good" for its day, but it certainly isn't "very good", and it doesn't come anywhere near "great". Memorable as a relic. Thor, by the way, is a beautiful animal. Looks about as wild as my next door neighbor's cat. Kathlyn Williams gives a summary performance, but it's not necessarily memorable. Best performance was the hunchback at the American circus played by William Holland. He only acted in one feature film and four short films, including this one. Except for this one, all the others were with J. Warren Kerrigan and Lois Wilson in 1915.
