Not A Poe Film

WAR GODS OF THE DEEP-1965-After Ben Harris (Tab Hunter) finds the body of Mr. Penrose washed ashore, he's attacked by a scaly creature. Later a sailor talks about an undersea city called Lyonese. Ben meets Penrose's daughter Jill (Susan Hart) and her eccentric friend Harold (David Tomlinson who complains about a sketch he made of Jill having disappeared. Ben thinks it's all connected somehow. At night Jill is captured by the same creature that attacked Ben. Following, Ben and Harold find a secret passage that leads to some caves and they see a man chained to a pole who drowns when the cave fills with water. Later they meet The Captain (Vincent Price) who rules over an underground city threatened by a volcano. He and the rest of the populace are all over 100 years old! They live near the legendary lost city where the sea creatures are the last inhabitants. To top it off The Captain thinks Jill is his late wife. The trio want to leave but aren't allowed. They plan their escape which leads to an unusual and long underwater chase/fight in clunky diving suits. They make it back to the surface but The Captain and his gang follow them. The volcano makes some statues break up and fall trapping them and The Captain. After another encounter with “the gill men”, they get to the surface. So does The Captain who quickly ages and dies. The volcano erupts and destroys both cities. 

These days WAR GODS OF THE DEEP is known CITY IN THE SEA. British writer Charles Bennett, who wrote several films for Alfred Hitchcock, wrote the original screenplay which was heavily rewritten by producer Louis Heyward in England where this was filmed. It seems to try and capitalize on the AIP-Poe films Vincent Price was starring in at the time and uses lines from the poem “City In The Sea” by Poe at the beginning and end. 

This was the last film directed by Jacques Tourneur (CAT PEOPLE, I WALK WITH A ZOMBIE) who had worked previously with Price on THE COMEDY OF TERRORS in 1963.

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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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