Savage Mutiny

So Theo thinks this quaint light entertainment is offensive. He had to "research" Jungle Jim on Wikipedia. Ha, talk about an axymoron with the stress on "moron".

Here's a newsflash snowflake. The formula was baddies v goodies with no intention to offend anyone. Hell they only managed to offend logic, geography and science. The 'natives' didn't even try to emulate Africans. Most of the time the wrong animals were in the wrong places but their hearts weren't. So don't use this media to vent your whiny take on the righteousness of the depictions. It was fun. End of story.

Savage Mutiny is the Jungle Jim movie that sees him get involved with the Atomic Age. As this series of movies was made in this era, it certainly wasn't surprising to see one about nuclear testing.

Jungle Jim is assigned to relocate some natives on an island off the coast of Africa so the Americans can stage a nuclear test there. Problem is, some of them refuse to leave and there are also enemy agents interfering. After overcoming these problems, the test goes ahead.

As usual, Johnny Weissmuller plays Jungle Jim and is joined by Angela Stevens and Lester Matthews (who has several Jungle Jim movies to his credit).

Though not the best of the series, Savage Mutiny is a good way to spend around 70 minutes one afternoon or evening. Not bad at all.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

Ten years earlier, the villains would have been the Nazis, but in the fifties, instead of openly speaking of Communists agents and the red scare - as it was the case in so many films of this period - they only speak of foreign agents and the atomic bomb, more exactly atomic bomb test. It is agreeable, fun - thanks to the chimp tricks and gesture - and it is not necessary to be a hard boiled gem digger to stay till the end. The director Spencer Gordon Bennett was a serial maker in the forties for Republic Pictures, after the departure of the great William Witney, before resuming at Columbia studios,, under the tyranny of the infamous producer Sam Katzman, the same producer for Jungle Jimm series. Tarzan with clothes adventures.

Everyone remembers Johnny Weissmuller . A multi Gold Olympic champion he got his big break in cinema playing Tarzan in the 1930s and 40s . I can't remember the last time television broadcast a Weissmuller Tarzan movie but do vaguely recall it might have been about 30 years ago at the latest . I also vaguely recall that the reason for their absence might be to do with the extremely dated portrayal of Africa and its inhabitants . So much so it might make the 1970s sit com LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR look like it was written by a committee of journalists from The Guardian . I had no knowledge of Jungle Jim so went on Wikipedia to have a quick cursory glance to find out what the spiel might be . Johnny Weissmuller in an action adventure as Jungle Jim where he has to save an African tribe from an atomic test and foreign agents . Hmmm even the name SAVAGE MUTINY conjures up images of painful stereotypes that border on the offensive . If nothing else I was convinced that no matter what I wasn't going to be bored

The first thing to strike you is that Weissmuller is an athlete and no actor and an ageing athlete at that . He might be able to get away with that in the Tarzan movies but his droning monotone European accented voice is a distraction to put it mildly and as Oscar Pistorius shows athletes don't make good actors . The plot itself is rather muddled and confused . Someone wants to carry out atomic bomb tests on an Island of the coast of Africa and Jungle Jim needs to evacuate a noble but superstitious tribe to safety . At the same time a foreign power wants to carry out chemical warfare tests on the tribe . If someone ( I take it that it's America ? ) is carrying out atomic tests why not conduct it at a remote isolated area that is uninhabited ? Likewise if the foreign power ( I take it that they're

Soviets ? ) want to carry out chemical weapons tests why not do so on a tribe that aren't subject to attention via the atomic testing ? The natives themselves don't resemble Africans in anyway and look Hispanic and talk like red Indians . On top of that SAVAGE MUTINY is terminally boring and manages to live down to expectations which is no small feat

Leading a force of government troops, Jungle Jim wipes out a cell of foreign agents living in the interior. This clears the way for 'Jungle Project X'; the first atom bomb test to be made in Africa. Jungle Jim needs to relocate native people from an island where an atom bomb from the area

But some of the enemy spies are still around and plan to disrupt the project by stirring up the local population... and releasing radioactive dust...

This is one of the better Jungle Jim's ( though the ones I've seen are quite entertaining) with a topical subject for its time - atomic testing and Communists. (Incidentally, the Australians simulated atomic tests in the jungle in 1963, which was known as Operation Blowdown!).

It's a fast-paced adventure with nifty action, clever villains, a pretty Angela Stevens, and tribal conflict, which Jim has the enormity to sort out. Oddest thing is why would Jungle Jim accept this mission as an atomic bomb would wreck the jungle's plant-life and destroy animals as well as putting the tribe out of their home - after all, the jungle is Jim's domain and he's its guardian.