Jungle Man

If you're a fan of random stock footage of animals from the early 20th Century, this is the movie for you. At least half of the film is taken up with clips of animals that are so poorly shot, it's often difficult to see what you're looking at. Animals that in nature are continents apart are presented as if they live in the same African jungle. I swear that some of the animals even appear to be in zoos or other unnatural settings. Piece these clips together, throw in a nonsensical story about the search for a lost city by some bored rich dudes, and add an even more nonsensical plot line where Buster Crabbe is searching for a cure to a deadly disease by slaving over a Bunsen burner in the jungle - you've got Jungle Man. By the time our heroes come down with the illness, I had long ceased to care about any of it. I was rooting for their deaths as it might mean the movie would end faster. It's all a total bore. The one hour run-time feels more like an eternity. If you can't tell, I didn't care much for Jungle Man.

The lone highlight for me was seeing Buster Crabbe and Charles Middleton together on screen. I'm not much a fan of the old Flash Gordon serial, but I realize it's historical significance. Seeing Flash and Ming together here was pretty cool.

Bruce Kellogg travels with his fiance Betty, her father, and Bruce's assistant Andy to unexplored Africa to search for the City of the Dead (apt reference to the movie). They arrive at the camp of Father Jim, who happens to be Betty's uncle and Dr. Hammond (aka Junga), who is working on a cure for a deadly jungle fever. Basically the "plot" has Bruce, Andy, and the guide Buckthorn going searching for the lost city, while Junga and Betty remain to save a village from the jungle fever and "get to know each other better". Blame for the dreck should be put on the shoulders of director Fraser, who turns this film (with a decent cast) into a home made 8mm movie version of a Ramar of the Jungle episode (apologies to Ramar), but also aided by an incompetent crew. Crabbe, Middleton, (how did these two get in here one year after Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe?), and Darcy all come off as listless and just waiting out the week this film must have been made in, but still better than the rest of the cast who can't deliver dialog or act, especially Barnett as the safari guide. Since its a poverty row jungle film, we have an overabundance of silent stock footage of native ceremonies and safaris. A black mark on everyone involved. Rating, 1.

"An African expedition searching for the 'City of the Dead' finds them facing many perils along the way. Natives, wild animals, and deadly diseases are met by the explorers as they look for the lost city and a long lost missionary. A doctor working on a cure for the jungle illness joins the expedition in the hopes their combined forces can meet the challenges they face," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

Director Harry Fraser shows some humor by panning busty Sheila Darcy (as Betty Graham) just before she coincidently utters her line, "Two heads are better than one." This film (also known as "Drums of Africa") intercuts "stock" animal/jungle scenes unconvincingly with hunky jungle doctor Buster Crabbe (as Robert "Junga" Hammond) and the visiting expedition. Sub-standard Saturday matinée stuffing.

** Jungle Man (9/19/41) Harry Fraser ~ Buster Crabbe, Sheila Darcy, Charles Middleton

Drums of Africa (1941)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

A group of people head out into the jungles of Africa in search of the "City of the Dead" but think jungles, the wild life and natives cause several problems. Buster Crabbe leads the cast and adds a little excitement to this film but overall it drags for the most part. There's a lot of stock footage of various jungle animals and this stuff is fun to watch but the actual "story" of the film is a dull and boring mess. Not to mention that the whole set up never really pays off.

The film is on various public domain labels under the title Jungle Man.

This is the third jungle adventure I have seen from director Harry Fraser. The other two were The White Gorilla and The Savage Girl. This one, Drums of Africa, is at best marginally better than those other two. Harry sure knew how to knock out shoddy product in this genre. Like the other two films, this one is full of stock footage of wild animals. Although I don't really mind this as this footage is always kind of quite good fun to watch. In fact some of the scenes with the lions and tigers were actually pretty good, especially where some guy wrestles with them. Impressive stuff. My main gripe about the movie would most probably be its rubbish story line. There's a thread about a lost city, a fatal disease and a multiple lion attack. Nothing wrong with having a few things going on, but with the exception of the lion attack, the other story elements are dealt with very half-heartedly. The lost city turns out to be, you guessed it, more stock footage; this time hilariously it's shots of Angkor Wat which is of course in Asia. It just goes to show the things that they could get away with back in the 40's. Also, on that subject, I could never quite understand why there was a tiger in the middle of the African jungle. I think they just included it because they had it. The deadly killer disease is the other plot thrust of the story. And it's this that explains the presence of Buster Crabbe's doctor character in the middle of the jungle. He's there to find an antidote and help the natives. But this too is pretty lacklustre, and it really is hard to care very much about this plot element at all.

Drums of Africa is a pretty poor jungle adventure overall. It's not completely devoid of entertainment though.