Jungle Jim Jumps In

JUNGLE JIM-Columbia-1948-After winning 5 Olympic gold medals as a swimmer Johnny Weissmuller played Tarzan in movies from 1932-1948.

Later in '48 he began the Jungle Jim series. It would mark his only other film appearances (not counting a cameo in 1976's WON TON TON: THE DOG THAT SAVED HOLLYWOOD). This one is the first and I'd say the best but basicly all Jungle Jim adventures were the same: Mystery surrounds some ancient tribe or temple. A woman photographer or reporter comes to investigate. Jim leads an expedition and saves the party two or three times. He also usually manages to expose a party member with an ulterior motive.

This one is also noteworthy as it features future TV "Superman" George Reeves as the party member with the ulterior motive. It also stars Virgina Grey as the female investigator. Grey had a pretty prolific and diverse acting career. She was in THE BIG STORE with The Marx Bros., HOUSE OF HORRORS with Rondo Hatton, MEXICAN HAYRIDE with Abbott and Costello, UNKNOWN ISLAND and TARGET EARTH among others! Later on in the series Jim had a chimp companion named Tama or Kama or something like that. Here however he has a smart but mischievous crow who is only a little less annoying...

Oh yeah, and I don't know where this African jungle is that Jim prowls around in but all the natives are white or Asian!

But then JJ was produced by Sam Katzman who was responsible for hundreds of Columbia cheapies, some good...some not so good...

Director William Berke made lots of B-movies including the first DICK TRACY feature. His last was THE LOST MISSILE in 1958.

For the last 3 movies the Jungle Jim persona was dropped and Weissmuller played himself! There was also a short lived TV series in 1955 but this may have only been a pilot.

Grant Withers starred in a 1936 serial also entitled Jungle Jim but I'm not sure if it was actually the same character.

Thanks for reading!