Violence Follows The Former Jungle Jim, While The Film Sacrifices Good Sense For Nonsense.
When the long-running syndicated publication of the popular Jungle Jim comic strip ceased in 1954, the series of movies that had been made since 1948, starring Johnny Weissmuller as Jim, had stretched to a total of 13. Weissmuller had contracted for 16 films, and as a result Columbia Pictures moved the series to its Screen Gems subsidiary, with the Olympic Games gold medal winning swimmer of 1924 and 1928 slated to continue as lead player, his character to be known as Johnny Weissmuller instead of Jungle Jim. Such is the case with this work that is number 14 of the entire group, all of which are aimed at a callow and non-discriminating audience. Although one of the greatest of all swimmers, Weissmuller could not claim to be skillful at the craft of acting, but here his studio employs methods to make his assignment an easy one, by utilizing a good deal of stock footage that includes proxies for Johnny: stunt men battling purportedly wild animals. These are readily recognizable clips that appear within the narratives of others in the Jungle Jim series: MARK OF THE GORILLA (vs. eagle) - 1950; THE LOST TRIBE (vs. crocodile) - 1949; JUNGLE JIM (vs. leopard) - 1948. Additionally, Africa and its jungles are performed by the familiar lush grounds and lagoon at the Los Angeles County Arboretum in suburban Arcadia. Action opens with Weissmuller leisurely paddling down a stream and discovering upon its bank a dead and apparently murdered man. Following his report of this crime to a local representative of The Government (whichever that may be) his investigation into the affair reveals that agents of an unidentified nation are pilfering valuable cobalt ore from a jungle-based mine owned by John King (Steve Darrell) who actually is selling the ostensibly stolen ore to the spies, and turbulence ensues as Weissmuller delves deeper into the activities of sundry plotters. Accompanied only by Kimba, a chimpanzee that supplants Tamba, from the Jungle Jim group of movies, as his regular sidekick, Johnny, when he enters The Jungle, has his invulnerability challenged by King henchmen disguised as crocodiles, and who are under the direct supervision of a Tribal Leader, a white man called by the exotic African name of Rovak, who is one of the many representatives of the Forces of Evil that saturate this completely featherbrained affair. Yet another is Luora (Judy Walsh) described as King's ward, a white woman who states that she is a half-caste Cannibal Princess. As one might infer from all of this, the film is intended to be enjoyed by a juvenile audience, and one not composed of the particularly quick-witted. There is considerable footage of swarming crocodiles that are in reality alligators, and The Natives of this Dark Continent adventure have plainly been assembled from many other locales, as they are an aggregation of Hispanics, Asians and whites with an occasional Negro included for authenticity. Although this may be somewhat disorderly to some viewers, it makes perfect sense as an integral part of a storyline that is consistently confusing. An extended fight episode pitting Weissmuller against a tubby Hispanic Native is run repetitively for our pleasure, showing the hapless villain punched from a boat into the lagoon a comically inordinate number of times during the altercation. Walsh, who cannot act at all, in her final cinematic appearance, must rely upon post-production voice-overs to permit her monotonic delivery the benefit of being comprehensible. Those who are more than three years of age and mentally sound might be better occupied with watching cement harden than with viewing this bilge. The movie has been pointed out to this viewer as a hilarious example of something so bad that it's good. If there is some form of logic there, it has escaped me.
