More Weissmuller

JUNGLE MOON MEN-1955-Johnny Weissmuller plays Johnny Weissmuller who bares a strong resemblance to Jungle Jim in this low budget adventure (it's because the studio lost the rights to the JJ character). He helps a woman writer (Jean Bryon) try and find the source of life but instead runs into a tribe of “little men” (lead by Billy Curtis). Myron Healey is a trouble making guide looking for diamonds. The small safari captures the little leader and ties him to a tree. At night the rest of the tribe (Angelo Rossetto is there) disguises themselves as trees to save their leader. They also kidnap Bryon's macho boyfriend Bob (Bill Henry) and tie him to a tree. It turns out the tribe is working for “the moon goddess Oma (Helen Stanton from THE PHAN-TOM FROM 10,000 LEAGUES the same year)) a blond haired white woman with ties to ancient Egypt! She wants to make Bob her high priest. In the end runaway lions ruin her empire and “Ra, the sun god” turns Oma into dust. 

This typical Sam Katzman Columbia production seems to choose the most un-African sets it can find (this was filmed on stuntman Crash Corrigan's ranch). JUNGLE MOON MEN is one of only a handful of movies Charles S. Gould directed as he was a busy assistant or second unit director.

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Bungle With Jungle Jim

JUNGLE MANHUNT-1951-In a strange African jungle where all the natives look like a combination of American Indians and Polynesians, a happy tribe is attacked and their village burned down by another tribe lead by some guys in skeleton costumes. The chief however is shot by a mysterious white gunman. We then learn this is another entry in the “Jungle Jim” series of low budget films, because Jim (Johnny Weissmuller) is watching some boat men while his annoying pet chimp Tamba fishes. In a flash Jim is in the water to save a lady reporter Ann Lawrence (Sheila Ryan) when her boat overturns. She looking for a missing quarterback/war hero Bob Miller who disappeared into the jungle years before. Jim and Ann investigate with the help of Bono (Rick Vallin), a local chieftain. After escaping when another village is attacked the trio meets the elusive Miller (real life football player Bob Waterfield) who throws a loaded football at the bad guys! It seems Miller is now leading a tribe himself so they go deeper into the jungle and encounter stock footage giant lizards (from 2 MILLION YEARS BC). Later we learn that the evil tribe is run by bad white guy Dr. Heller (Lyle Talbott) who's using kidnapped natives as slave labor to dig up igneous rock to make phony diamonds. 

This Sam Katzman production is just another typical episode in this now very formulaic series. It was directed with speed by Lew Landers and unfortunate to say but it only clocks in at 66 minutes yet seems much longer!

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JJ Strikes Again

JUNGLE JIM IN THE FORBIDDEN LAND-A scientist Dr. Linda Roberts (Angela Greene; Tess Trueheart in the short lived DICK TRACEY TV show) goes to find Jim (Johnny Weissmuller). Unfortunately her raft is attacked by a hippo and her small crew is killed. She survives and wanders the jungle and is lucky enough to be rescued by Jim when a panther attacks. He kills it with his trusty knife (it's a stuffed animal). Dr. Roberts is looking for "The Land of The Giant People". Jim takes her to see "The Old One", a ancient blind white haired guy who talks like Master Po. On their way a hippo attacks again and Jim kills it (a silly looking model). Later he helps out a man who is legally dealing in ivory. His ward (Jean Willes) causes trouble. Somehow she and a phony doctor convince a commissioner to use two captured "giant people" to find their hidden land. They look like wolf people and aren't very gigantic. Jim is shot with truth serum and reveals where the giants hang out. Then he's framed for murder. Good of course triumphs in the end and Tamba the monkey gets its name in the credits!

Director Lew Landers started directing (under his real name Louis Friedlander) in the early 30's and made THE RAVEN with Karloff & Lugosi in 1935. Among his over 100 credits (!) he made THE BOOGIE MAN WILL GET YOU (with Karloff & Lorre), THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE (with Lugosi) and THE MASK OF DIJON (with Erich Von Stroheim).  Like many "work-aholic" directors he later went into TV. He died in 1962. I'd like to see his last movie TERRIFIED. 

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Little People, Big Hero

PYGMY ISLAND-1950-Some army officers (one of them is Selmer Jackson)  in DC discuss a jungle plant that could replace rope while newspaper headlines report the disappearance of Capt. Kingsley who was looking for the source of the plant. A flashback then tells us that this is another Jungle Jim adventure as Jim (Johnny Weissmuller) finds the captain's missing dog tags. No sooner does the real story start then Jim is in the water fighting an alligator! While investigating the death of a pygmy Jim discovers the plant is fireproof. The flashback ends and the US army (with THE MAD GHOUL's David Bruce) shows up in Bugandi (?) to check out a group of white Pygmy people and find the missing captain who we also learn is a woman (Ann Savage). She's hiding out with them. Meanwhile a tribe of "bush devils" threatens the little people. A local trader named Marco (Steven Geray) is also after the plant. The bush devils start an elephant stampede and of course it turns out "the devils" are actually foreign agents (lead by Tris Coffin). A gorilla (probably the same one from MARK OF THE GORILLA) attacks Jim and destroys a bridge (with Jim on it!). Billy Curtis leads the little natives (who include Billy Barty & Angelo Rossitto) who save the day when Jim is taken captive. William Tannen and Tommy Farrell are also in it. This is one of the few JJ movies that contains non-jungle scenes. 

Director William Berke was a veteran of low budget movies (and later TV) since 1934. His last work was on 1958's THE LOST MISSILE.

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Jungle Jim

MARK OF THE GORILLA-1950-Johnny Weissmuller as Jungle Jim returns! After a narrator (un-billed Holmes Herbert) tells us about a jungle preserve, a gorilla kills a messenger carrying an important letter. Fortunately Jim's faithful crow retrieves the letter. It turns out a million dollars is buried on the preserve and some unscrupulous bad guys led by Onslow Stevens (HOUSE OF DRACULA) as Brandt want it so two of them disguise themselves as apes. It's a switcheroo! This time it really is suppose to be a man in a gorilla suit! A princess (Trudy Marshall) also gets involved looking for the lost treasure of her people. Jim gets to fight a lion, leopard and has a underwater fight with a giant snake. The princess is taken prisoner by the phony gorilla men but Jim saves her by donning his own gorilla suit! 

Much of this Sam Katzman production was filmed at the famous Bronson Canyon in LA. Director William Berke would do several more in the series.

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Jungle Jim 2

THE LOST TRIBE-1949-This was the second installment of the Jungle Jim series starring ex-Tarzan Johnny Weissmuller. ]

A travelogue opening uses stock footage to explain the various local animals. 

When Jim rescues Li Wanna (Elena Verdugo the doomed  gypsy in  HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN), a native girl from rampaging animals he learns she is from a lost city “beyond the mountains”. Her tribe needs Jim's help because “white men” want the tribe's stash of diamonds. When a lion attacks a gorilla and it's baby, Jim wrestles the king of the jungle and kills it with his knife. He seems none the worst for wear except he loses his hat but the gorilla (man in a suit) seems grateful. Jim also gets help from Kaw-Kaw, a crow and Skipper, a dog. 

A guy named Calhoun (Joseph Vitale) is after the diamonds and fortunately Li Wanna's brother Chot (Paul Marion) is sweet on Norina (Myrna Dell) who is in cahoots with Calhoun and a ship captain (Ralph Dunn) to obtain the mother lode. Later (in a badly staged scene) Jim kills a shark threatening some pearl divers. I liked the introduction Jim gives to Norina when she asks his name : “Jim. Just Jim”. Most of this is Jim running back and forth from the jungle to the town then swimming to the ship and going back to the jungle. He has a lot of fights but never runs out of energy. Finally when he's forced to lead Calhoun and his men to the lost city, a gang of gorillas kill the intruders. Jim's relationship with the apes is kind of funny!

The weirdest thing about this Sam Katzman low budget production is the “un-Africa” like setting. There are no black natives. Most seem Asian or Polynesian!

Johnny Weismuller's last Tarzan appearance was in 1948's TARZAN AND THE MERMAIDS. Except for one movie in 1947 (SWAMP FIRE with Buster Crabbe, another film Tarzan) the only movies he'd make would JJ films until 1977 when had a cameo in WON TON TON: THE DOG THAT SAVED HOLLYWOOD! 

THE LOST TRIBE was directed by William Berke, the veteran low budget director who'd helm a few more in the series.

I reviewed the first Jungle Jim entry here: http://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2010/01/jungle-jim-jumps-in.html

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