Mark of the Gorilla

This film begins with LOTS of stock footage--much like other cheap African films of the era. In addition, like these other cheap films, it intermingles footage of BOTH African and Asian animals! So, you'll see African and Indian elephants as well as lions and tigers! It makes no sense at all to anyone with passing familiarity with these animals and it's obvious they were cramming in any film they could find--whether it made sense or not.

The plot involves rogue gorillas doing evil things. It's obviously some guys in gorilla suits and they look little like gorillas. The only saving grace of this is that you learn that these are supposed to be guys dressed up like gorillas in order to fool the natives. But, judging by their outfits and Jungle Jim's difficulty noticing how phony they are, you must assume all these folks are amazingly stupid. But why? Why dress up like gorillas and kill people coming into this territory? What are these wicked men looking for and exactly who are they? Well, the answer is a bit silly--at least in regard to who they are. Tune in to this silly little film if you care....though I must admit that I really didn't the more I watched "Mark of the Gorilla".

All in all, this film is exactly what most jungle films were of this time--badly written adventure films that were made on a shoestring budget. Clearly these Johnny Weismuller films are NOT the same quality of his better Tarzan films. Aside from lousy stock footage, some very uneven acting and a remarkably silly plot sink this one.

How wonderfully silly. Johnny Weissmuller stars as Jungle Jim, getting himself in a serialisation of a character not a million miles away from the Tarzan role that would define his film career. Plot has Jungle Jim going about his jungle business, hunting in the wild and larking about with his animal pals, when he is suddenly thrust into a mystery involving dubious Gorillas, stolen Nazi treasure and the protection of a couple of babes. Nefarious treasure hunters will stop at nothing to get the treasure, but they hadn't counted on Jim and his animal pals. Hooray!

What follows is a blend of stock wildlife footage with Jungle Jim wrestling a number of fake creatures, including men in Gorilla suits who are about as subtle as a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. Dummies are flung off of cliffs when the chance arises, the human acting is about as useful as a brick built toilet at the Rhinoceros swamp, and Jim's indestructible being puts Captain Scarlet to shame. The animals are really cool, with Caw Caw the crow smarter than your average Gorilla and Skipper the dog capable of fighting off a lion and celebrating with a good smoke when survival of the fittest is assured.

Crappy but honest with it, a good time assured for those of us who trawl the lowbrow splinter of jungle based adventures... 6/10

This Jungle Jim advenrure flick is not better nor worse than the other ones. It is only the best example of what Sam Katzman's productions for Columbia are able to make. It is laughable without being funny, lousy, amusing under the condition you watch it with the proper glance, the proper spirit, state of mind. Don't expect too much, if you have never seen any Jungle Jim before. Concerning me, I prefer Tarzan movies, even the RKO ones. For those who already know Jungle Jim, I repeat, there is nothing special here, you can easily confound it with the other ones, they are all alike. Maybe the giant lizards struggle is worth watching and not predictable. Keep fun, that's all.

There are good reasons why I watched the Weissmuller Tarzan films as a kid and not the Jungle Jim films. The television stations were too embarrassed to show them.

This film starts with stock footage of wild animals from Africa and Asia, I guess at the time most people did not notice the difference.

Jungle Jim investigates Gorilla attacks in an area where there should be not gorillas and although these gorillas look like men dressed up in a gorilla costume, it is because they are men dressed up as gorillas and trying to frighten other humans.

The reasons being that some dastardly Nazis are trying to retrieve some Nazi gold hidden during the war.

Weissmuller looked old and flabby, the plot is flimsy and silly. Even as a B film this is just bad.

Stock footage shown in the preview, is the same stock footage used in the Ramar Of The Jungle episodes. Suzanne Dalbert starred in the Lady Of The Leopards.

Apparently all these stock shots have been traded around in pretty much every early "Jungle" movie. It would be nice to know where they came from and who made all these inserts.

It's going to be tough coming up with additional commentary on the use of completely unrelated scenes, dropped into movies, that do not look fake as all get-out. The constraints of miniscule budgets severely limit any additional shooting schedules, which leaves few alternatives.