Jungle Man-Eaters

Ex-Olympic swimming champ and Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller hung up his loincloth in 1948, the star no longer in the tip-top physical condition necessary for the role of Edgar Rice Burroughs' legendary vine-swinger. But instead of retiring, Weismuller simply slipped on a shirt and pants to hide his gut and returned to the jungle to play African guide and adventurer Jungle Jim.

Jungle Man-Eaters, the last of Weissmuller's Jungle Jim films, featured the tag-line 'JOHNNY AGAINST THE CANNIBALS!', but is far less exciting than the capital letters and exclamation mark would have us believe. In fact, there are no cannibals; instead, we get a diamond smuggler and a warring tribe who will do anything to get their hands on a fortune in gems, all of which is frustratingly dull. Jungle Jim comes to the rescue, only taking time out from unconvincing fist-fights with the baddies to wrestle a man in a moth-eaten lion costume and a roll around in the water with a rubber croc. More padding comes in the form of comedic chimp Tamba, who eats lots of bananas (hilarious—not!), and stock footage of a variety of wild animals, some of which are obviously not indigenous to Africa.

As a big fan of Weissmuller's Tarzan series, I've long been keen to check out one of his Jungle Jim films, but if this is any indication of their quality, it might be some time before I see any more. I sure hope that the series started a lot stronger than it finished

Jungle Jim is recruited to track down a group of French diamond smugglers who seek to alter the price of diamonds through taking over a secret diamond field. The smugglers not only murder the original owners of the diamond field but set up inter-tribal warfare to prevent any intruders from learning of the diamond field.

There's a jungle but no man-eaters in this Jungle Jim entry, obviously the filmmakers thought a rather dramatic name would pull in the punters- no need really as this is a good entry, less fantasy and men in gorilla suits. The threat is more earthy- diamonds smuggling. The villain is quite scheming. The plot is quite hectic, the peril ramped up, but what I liked most was how the heroes -jungle Jim, Richard Stapley, Karin Booth and the future Starsky and Hutch police boss Bernie Hamilton - work together to bring down the bad guys. There's the usual stock footages, but it's a b-film after all; Tamba the chimp is also at hand helping ( and consequently making things worse; he knocks Jim out when throwing a rock aimed at the bad guys!!) as well as winding up the beautiful Karin Booth by wearing her medical equipment.

If you are familiar with the Johnny Weismuller Tarzan films then you'll know what to expect from a Jungle Jim film. It's essentially the same as Tarzan but with Weismuller this time donning clothes.

There is plenty of stock footage used, much like the earlier Tarzan adventures, which do add a certain charm to the film. Jungle Jim does pretty much what Tarzan did, fight some wild animals and help stop the greedy bad guys.

This is a pretty standard adventure film which doesn't look like it was made on much of a budget. However there is enough going on to keep your interest until the predictable finale.

If you are already not a fan of these films then this is unlikely to interest you but for Weismuller fans this is a pleasant enough way to pass the time.

Jungle Man-Eaters (1954)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

This was the thirteenth and final film in the Jungle Jim series, although three more films would follow but the Jungle Jim name would be dropped. This time out Jim (Johnny Weissmuller) must try and locate some diamond smugglers who are using an evil jungle tribe to scare off the good tribes in the jungle. Soon Jim is fighting men, lions, crocs and various other beasts while trying to impress a girl (Karin Booth). Like so many of these old series, I'm having to watch this one out of order but I've seen enough to realize all the negative things I've heard are pretty much try. It's rather amazing to see how much stock footage and cheese is throughout this thing and I really have to wonder if the studio checked to see how much stock footage they had and then just built a story around it. As bad as this film is I can't help but almost recommend it simply due to its campy nature and at times god-awful acting. God bless Weissmuller but it's clear he wasn't any type of actor outside the Tarzan image. His line delivery here is pretty bad but then again I'll give him credit because it's actually better than some of the earlier films in the series. He was also getting up their in age and there are times where it seems like he's in pain trying to (slowly) run yet we're suppose to believe he has the strength to fight a wild lion or a crocodile. Speaking of the lion scene, we're treated to quite a bit of stock footage including some with the lion fighting a bull and getting knocked around pretty badly. This is some rather interesting footage and I'm sure it's not going to sit well with some viewers. When Jim finally gets to fight this same lion thankfully he's turned into a fake rug by then. Supporting players Booth, Richard Wyler and Bernie Hamilton aren't much better as they zip in and out of stock footage and poorly added scenes trying to fit in with it. Just check out the sequence where one of the villages are burned and we see footage of various animals trying to escape the smoke. The fake smoke added to the stock footage just shows how cheap this movie and series was. Again, this is an incredibly poorly made film but it remains mildly charming simply because of the camp value. This is third-rate material all the way but producer Sam Katzman probably laughed his way to the bank.

Johnny Weissmuller moved from Tarzan to Jungle Jim movies which itself is based on a comic strip. Weissmuller was getting a bit long in the tooth and a bit pot-bellied to swing on some vine-ropes.

Jungle Man Eaters is less to do with man eating lions and more to do with diamond smuggling. Although Weissmuller gets in with a few scuffles with some wild animals or stuffed animals just to remind the audience that this is a Tarzan wannabee complete with plenty of stock footage from Africa and other safari films.

The stock footage looks like padding, the plot is silly as the leader of the gang somehow manufactures diamonds with some mumbo jumbo science and the fight scene with the lion looks stupid as Weissmuller is unscathed despite getting pushed around by the lion.

I heard about the Jungle Jim films for years but only recently saw them and they certainly lack the charm of the Tarzan films.