Clyde Of The Jungle

THE LOST JUNGLE-1934-Lion tamer Clyde Beatty has problems with a new lion and his girlfriend Ruth (Cecilia Parker) who leaves him to go to South America with her father Capt. Robinson (Edward LeSaint) who's taking Professor Livingston to look for a lost civilization called Kenmor. He also has an assistant Sharkey (Warner Richman) who tries to sabotage his efforts. Later Clyde previews his newest act, mixed animals all in one cage for his boss and manager Larry (Syd Saylor)). 

Three months later his new act is a huge hit but he's not happy having never heard from Ruth. And with good reason the ship she was on got wrecked on a jungle island! They send an SOS by carrier pigeon and Clyde joins the dirigible rescue party that's going after them but it crashes leaving only Beatty and Larry alive. Although the no good Sharkey parachuted out before the crash. He stumbles upon the entrance to the lost city. We know this because the title “The lost city of Kenmor” pops up on the screen! 

Sharkey finds the dying professor (Cauford Kent) who mentions finding a treasure which excites his greed. Clyde arrives in time to save Ruth from a lion attack but their tender reunion is short lived as Clyde botches his reasons for coming to Kenmor. Meanwhile the crew lead by first mate Kirby (Wheeler Oakman) want to mutiny against Capt. Robinson who won't leave till he hears from the professor. Despite their predicament, Clyde seems intent on bringing back a man eating tiger. The uppity crew gains new respect for their predicament when thye see Clyde capture the tiger. They all agree to go look for the professor. Sharkey just happens to be outside the fence and hears the plan. He lets the tiger loose. Clyde winds up in a pit with the tiger who he somehow puts to sleep and Larry saves him. Then the lion invades the camp and kills Sharkey. After Clyde hog ties the lion, Livingston's map is found. Finally Clyde picks Ruth over wild beasts. 

This is the movie version of a 12 part Republic serial.

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Condensed Serial

ROBINSON CRUSOE OF MYSTERY ISLAND-1936/1966-This 12 part serial was originally called ROBINSON CRUSOE OF CLIPPER ISLAND. 30 years after it was first released it was condensed in this short movie and sold to television!

Mala, a Polynesian federal agent (Mala) investigates the strange events on the mysterious Clipper Island after a dirigible blows up and its landing field is destroyed. Foreign spies working for the shadowy "HK" are to blame. They can make a volcano on the island erupt which upsets the natives but their newly returned queen Melani (Mamo Clark) tries to hold things together despite interference from Porotu (John Piccori), an androgynous local high priest. Mala gets in a lot of predicaments, dives into the ocean and is assisted by his St. Bernard Buck (playing himself) and his horse Rex (Rex the Wonder Horse). The acting is bad but not unusual for this kind of thing and Mala kinda sounds like he took acting lessons from Johnny Weissmuller. The funniest part though is the look of terror on the face of the co-pilot when the dirigible is starting to crash in the first scene!

Mala (AKA Ray Mala) was born in the Alaska territory and came to Hollywood at an early age. Besides making around 25 movie appearances, he also worked as a cinematographer. Unfortunately he died of heart failure at age 45 in 1952. One of the directors (Mack Wright) also directed RIDERS OF THE WHISPERING SKULL.

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Herc, Bela and Clones!

HERCULES VS. THE MOON MEN-1964-After the success of the two Hercules movies imported from Italy and starring Steve Reeves, many sequels and imitations followed. This originally followed the exploits of Maciste but for US audiences his name was changed to Hercules. He’s played by Alan Steel (real name: Sergio Ciani of Italy). Herc battles alien rock men on “The Mountain of Death”. A local Queen teams up with them but is no match for the legendary strongman. There’s a strange ape like creature with fangs thrown in too.

It’s pretty entertaining despite the bad dubbing and cheesy SFX. Director Giacomo Gentilomo had been making movies (GOLIATH VS. THE VAMPIRES) since 1937 but MOON MEN was his last. He retired from filmmaking and became a painter. The DVD I saw (from Alpha Video) also included a “Hercules Gallery” of posters and lobby cards.



THE PHANTOM CREEPS-1949-This is a highly condensed feature version of the crazy 1939 serial starring Bela Lugosi as the mad genius Dr. Zorka. He invents a lot of gadgets including a huge monster robot with a big head (it was resurrected in the Rob Zombie video “Living Dead Girl”). He also has an invisibility belt, poison gas gun and a new exploding element he discovered. A scene from THE INVISIBLE RAY (in which Lugosi co-starred with Karloff in 1936) is shown when Zorka explains how he found the new element. But if you look closely you’ll see Karloff’s eyes through the mining suit! Bela sneers a lot and really hams it up as he tries to rule the world with only the help of one lone escaped con who betrays him constantly. Even so, Zorka keeps taking him back and trusting him with different jobs! (Maybe the budget didn’t allow for more actors..???) Robert Kent (who also acted as Dennis Bleckly) is the government agent out to stop him who’s nearly killed in every other scene and Bela’s DRACULA co-star Edward Van Sloan plays the leader of some foreign spies who Zorka runs a foul of.



THE HUMAN DUPLICATORS-1965-Gigantic Richard Kiel (soon after EEGAH!) is Dr. Kolos, a visiting alien who’s ordered by his superior (some guy shown only in negative) to clone human beings and conquer the Earth. Doesn’t really seem like a sound plan; guess that’s why it fails. He makes genetic scientist Dr. Dorn-hiemer (George Macready) and his staff his slaves and begins cloning various scientific types to do some sabotage. But he makes a mistake by kind of falling in love with Dorn-hiemer’s blind granddaughter (Dolores Faith) leaving her free will intact. Wiseass govern-ment agent Glen Martin (ROBOT MONSTER’S George Nader) is sent to snoop around the scientist’s mansion while his grouchy boss (LEAVE IT TO BEAVER dad Hugh Beaumont) and girl Friday (Barbara Nicholls) stand around wondering where he is. Later on the clones rebel again Kolos and Nader has to fight a duplicate of himself (who’s missing an arm). When the clones fall down during fights their ceramic like heads break into pieces. Richard Arlen (who had co-starred in the silent film classic WINGS in better days) is another government agent who hangs around and acts grumpy too.

It’s pretty boring but Kiel’s acting is funny especially when he’s “talking tough” with commands like “Do as I say or I will destroy you!”. Fortunately THD was the last movie made by director Hugo Grimaldi (he only made 3 anyway). He was mostly an editor who dubbed foreign films into English (including GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN).

Screenwriter/producer Arthur C. Pierce wrote several low budget films in the early 60’s including DESTINATION INNER SPACE and CYBORG 2087.

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