User reviews

"An African expedition searching for the 'City of the Dead' finds them facing many perils along the way. Natives, wild animals, and deadly diseases are met by the explorers as they look for the lost city and a long lost missionary. A doctor working on a cure for the jungle illness joins the expedition in the hopes their combined forces can meet the challenges they face," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

Director Harry Fraser shows some humor by panning busty Sheila Darcy (as Betty Graham) just before she coincidently utters her line, "Two heads are better than one." This film (also known as "Drums of Africa") intercuts "stock" animal/jungle scenes unconvincingly with hunky jungle doctor Buster Crabbe (as Robert "Junga" Hammond) and the visiting expedition. Sub-standard Saturday matinée stuffing.

** Jungle Man (9/19/41) Harry Fraser ~ Buster Crabbe, Sheila Darcy, Charles Middleton

This is the third jungle adventure I have seen from director Harry Fraser. The other two were The White Gorilla and The Savage Girl. This one, Drums of Africa, is at best marginally better than those other two. Harry sure knew how to knock out shoddy product in this genre. Like the other two films, this one is full of stock footage of wild animals. Although I don't really mind this as this footage is always kind of quite good fun to watch. In fact some of the scenes with the lions and tigers were actually pretty good, especially where some guy wrestles with them. Impressive stuff. My main gripe about the movie would most probably be its rubbish story line. There's a thread about a lost city, a fatal disease and a multiple lion attack. Nothing wrong with having a few things going on, but with the exception of the lion attack, the other story elements are dealt with very half-heartedly. The lost city turns out to be, you guessed it, more stock footage; this time hilariously it's shots of Angkor Wat which is of course in Asia. It just goes to show the things that they could get away with back in the 40's. Also, on that subject, I could never quite understand why there was a tiger in the middle of the African jungle. I think they just included it because they had it. The deadly killer disease is the other plot thrust of the story. And it's this that explains the presence of Buster Crabbe's doctor character in the middle of the jungle. He's there to find an antidote and help the natives. But this too is pretty lacklustre, and it really is hard to care very much about this plot element at all.

Drums of Africa is a pretty poor jungle adventure overall. It's not completely devoid of entertainment though.

If someone can figure out the plot for this movie, please let me know. The story line jumps all over the place, except during the many times when stock footage is shown to make the movie longer - way too much longer.

The "City of the Dead" is so obviously Asian (perhaps Anwat) that I was surprised they had the gall to show it in this "African jungle" movie. That was also stock footage as the actors and the "City" are never seen together. The budget for this movie was probably a couple of hundred dollars.

I like Buster Crabbe, but I was hoping the sharks would kill him in this movie.

Bruce Kellogg travels with his fiance Betty, her father, and Bruce's assistant Andy to unexplored Africa to search for the City of the Dead (apt reference to the movie). They arrive at the camp of Father Jim, who happens to be Betty's uncle and Dr. Hammond (aka Junga), who is working on a cure for a deadly jungle fever. Basically the "plot" has Bruce, Andy, and the guide Buckthorn going searching for the lost city, while Junga and Betty remain to save a village from the jungle fever and "get to know each other better". Blame for the dreck should be put on the shoulders of director Fraser, who turns this film (with a decent cast) into a home made 8mm movie version of a Ramar of the Jungle episode (apologies to Ramar), but also aided by an incompetent crew. Crabbe, Middleton, (how did these two get in here one year after Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe?), and Darcy all come off as listless and just waiting out the week this film must have been made in, but still better than the rest of the cast who can't deliver dialog or act, especially Barnett as the safari guide. Since its a poverty row jungle film, we have an overabundance of silent stock footage of native ceremonies and safaris. A black mark on everyone involved. Rating, 1.

Drums of Africa (1941)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

A group of people head out into the jungles of Africa in search of the "City of the Dead" but think jungles, the wild life and natives cause several problems. Buster Crabbe leads the cast and adds a little excitement to this film but overall it drags for the most part. There's a lot of stock footage of various jungle animals and this stuff is fun to watch but the actual "story" of the film is a dull and boring mess. Not to mention that the whole set up never really pays off.

The film is on various public domain labels under the title Jungle Man.

If you're a fan of random stock footage of animals from the early 20th Century, this is the movie for you. At least half of the film is taken up with clips of animals that are so poorly shot, it's often difficult to see what you're looking at. Animals that in nature are continents apart are presented as if they live in the same African jungle. I swear that some of the animals even appear to be in zoos or other unnatural settings. Piece these clips together, throw in a nonsensical story about the search for a lost city by some bored rich dudes, and add an even more nonsensical plot line where Buster Crabbe is searching for a cure to a deadly disease by slaving over a Bunsen burner in the jungle - you've got Jungle Man. By the time our heroes come down with the illness, I had long ceased to care about any of it. I was rooting for their deaths as it might mean the movie would end faster. It's all a total bore. The one hour run-time feels more like an eternity. If you can't tell, I didn't care much for Jungle Man.

The lone highlight for me was seeing Buster Crabbe and Charles Middleton together on screen. I'm not much a fan of the old Flash Gordon serial, but I realize it's historical significance. Seeing Flash and Ming together here was pretty cool.

This is pretty standard jungle fayre with Buster Crabbe leading the cast as a group of explorers try to find the legendary "City of the Dead" deep in the African jungle. This is a largely under-resourced effort peppered with plenty of interesting animal archive (not always played in real time!) as the team have to combat the natives, disease and some hungry lions and snakes as they track down a city that bore a starting resemblance to Angkor Wat. Crabbe himself is not involved in their trek, he is a local doctor trying to obtain a serum that will help the local population fight off disease. His attempt to retrieve this medicine from a sunken wreck allows him to get his shirt off and offers us a brief "Tarzan" impression, but for the most part the rest of this is all just a bit basic and roughly hewn together, with plenty of shrieking from the damsel in distress Shiela Darcy and an ending that sort of peters out rather than delivers anything.

I've just watched Jungle Man for the first time and found fairly enjoyable, despite reading some bad reviews about it.

A party, including a woman and her dad set off to Africa to search for The City of the Dead, located in the depths of one of the jungles there. They have to face several dangers on their way including lions, tigers, snakes and head hunters. When they do find it, they discover it a ruin and explore and take some film of it. On the way back to camp, the woman finds a lion cub and decides to take it with her. A big mistake as several lions then attack the camp looking for it. Everybody is OK at the end though.

Jungle Man has extensive stock footage of animals and natives dancing but that didn't spoil my enjoyment.

The cast includes former Tarzan actor Buster Crabbe, Charles Middleton and Sheila Darcy.

Though not brilliant, Jungle Man is a good way to spend an hour one afternoon.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

If we took movies like this seriously we would believe that the jungles of Africa are just loaded with lost cities. From the 1920 serial JUNGLE QUEEN right through TV shows like "Jungle Jim" and "Ramar of the Jungle" there was always some lost civilisation just over the next mountain. Such is the case in this movie also; hey if a plot point works why change it?

This time out we have Bruce (Weldon Heyburn) and his pal Andy (Robert Carson) a couple of rich, bored yachtsmen who decide to abandon sailing regattas and head for Africa to search for The City of the Dead. Coming along are Bruce's fiancée Bety (Sheila Darcy) and her dad William (Paul Scott). William is hoping for a reunion with his brother (Charles Middleton) who became a missionary and has been in the jungle for many years. Now in real life any safari that has perennial comic relief actor Vince Barnett as guide normally would not have much of a chance but hey fascinating indeed are the things you can get away with in a movie.

Also in the jungle is Dr. Robert Hammond (Buster Crabbe) who is known as "Junga" to the natives. They may have been enemies in the "Flash Gordon" serials at Universal but in this PRC picture Buster and Charles are the best of friends. Buster has been searching for the cure to a fatal disease the natives call "malaka" and has sent a sample of the serum he has developed to the States for testing. Sadly the ship carrying the serum is lost, " . . .sunk by a torpedo" as Middleton informs him (a vague reference to WW2 which the US was not yet involved in when this movie was made). I'll get back to this point later.

Bruce and Andy head off looking for the lost city. Whoever lost it must not have looked for it very hard because they find it with relative ease; and does anyone besides me think that Lost City looks an awful lot like Angkor Wat? Along the way there are many problems like attacking lions, giant snakes, headhunters, and of course a sudden outbreak of malaka. Can Buster do anything to save the natives and the explorers? If only the serum were not lost when the ship went down! Ah but wait, that wreck may not be lost after all! But can Buster get to it in the shark infested waters? That would be telling! You'll see for yourself.

The low budget shows. This movie uses tons of stock footage that looks to be about 10 years old or even more. Watch as the actors in this movie look offscreen and react to scenes of wildlife that look like they come from an early documentary. Performances are good despite the limitations. Vince Barnett is amusing while never getting annoying. Buster and Charles react well with each other. Sheila Darcy is quite good and for one scene she even gets to "go native" wearing a skimpy (well, by 1941 standards) sarong while she flirts with Buster.

I had fun watching JUNGLE MAN and if you give it a chance and overlook its shortcomings I think you will too.