Jim della jungla

Oh, how I enjoyed the Jungle Jim movies and television show when I was a youngster. Action, adventure, a far away ___location, wild animals and well trained and entertaining pet animals - what more could a kid ask for? The shows were perfect entertainment. Of course, now I see a lot of stock footage, silly plot, unbelievable fight scenes, and stereotypical characters. And, of course, Johnny Weismuller has to be the most famous bad actor. But his Tarzan and Jungle Jim characters were so affable, so good, and so competent who cares he couldn't act? This series entry was fun for three reasons: the antics of the marvelously well trained crow (Caw Caw) and the dog, Skipper; 2) it features a woman searching for a cure for polio - played by the always good actress Virginia Grey and 3) the chance to see Superman George Reeves as a villain. A harmless, pleasant diversion that brings back fond childhood memories. I like Jungle Jim still.

Jungle Jim was Johnny Weismuller's vehicle after he became too old to play Tarzan, and passed the mantle to younger actors. As Jungle Jim, he stays in his African milieu, dons safari clothes and has a series of numbskull adventures mostly saving ladies in distress. This is the first of the series, in which Jungle Jim helps a lady scientist discover a cure for polio (remember that Jungle Jim is made in 1948 before the discovery of the Salk vaccine). In this, it may be ahead of its time; first having a smart female character, and second, finding cures to disease in tropical plants. The villain is played by the pre-Superman George Reeves.

Where Jungle Jim is behind the times is its portrayal of Africans, in this case Masai, who look like white people, and the idiotic portrayal of wildlife. Nonetheless, it's a laugh. But if you're looking for something serious pass it by.

JUNGLE JIM (Columbia, 1948), directed by William Berke, introduces Olympic swimming champion, Johnny Weissmuller, in the title role based on Alex Raymond's comic strip character. After a span of sixteen years and twelve films enacting his most famous one of all, that of "Tarzan" for both Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1932-42) and RKO Radio (1943-48), Weissmuller, assumed a new jungle hero in another theatrical series. Though not in the same league as the "Tarzan" adventures, especially those made over at at MGM, "Jungle Jim" served as the type of entertainment popular for the Saturday matinée crowd. Although "Jungle Jim" was first introduced on screen in a weekly 12-chapter serial format for Universal in 1936 starring Grant Withers, it's the one portrayed by Weissmuller that's better known to many.

In this initial entry, which opens with off-screen narration, a frightful native is seen running through the jungle, soon attacked by a leopard, as witnessed by monkeys sitting on trees. Jungle Jim (Johnny Weissmuller), a white hunter, arrives too late to rescue him. Noticing the dead man's hand still clutching onto a small golden vile inscribed with hieroglyphic writing, Jim has it analyzed. The vile, revealed by Geoffrey Marsden (Holmes Herbert), a district commissioner of Nagandi, to be from ancient times containing gummy dark substance, a poison that's not only a cure for infantile paralysis, but the key to the hidden treasure buried in the temple of Zimbalu. Jungle Jim is soon hired as a guide for Hilary Parker (Virginia Grey), a scientist out to obtain the valuable drug in Zimbalu for her experiments. Also on the expedition are tribesmen, Kolu (Rick Vallin) and his sister, Zia (Lita Baron), a native dancer with a crush on Jim. Trouble lurks when Bruce Edwards (George Reeves), a photographer who had squandered away his fortune appears, staging a series of "accidents" to rid Jungle Jim and the safari in order to obtain the treasure for himself.

With a new character in familiar surroundings, Jungle Jim is very much like Tarzan, only fully clothed and conversing in complete sentences. The screenplay carries on in the "Tarzan" tradition by having Jungle Jim battling leopards, sea serpents, crocodiles and a hungry lion inside a pit; saving damsels in distress from wild animals, elephant stampedes (through stock footage) and sphere throwing natives; and attempts saving tribesmen, held captive hanging upside-down by their rope tied ankles before being sacrificed. As a reminder from the "Tarzan" movies, Jim does underwater swimming (in bathing suit instead of loincloth)  with Zia (Lita Baron)in the manner Tarzan did with his mate, Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan), at MGM. While Tarzan had a chimpanzee named Cheta as comedy relief, much of the same is devoted to Jungle Jim's animal companions, Caw Caw (the large black crow) and Skipper (a dog). Without their antics, this 73 minute adventure might have served as a 55 minute featurette.

What makes JUNGLE JIM watchable is not only the pairing of Weissmuller and George Reeves, but having Reeves, best known as TV's "Superman" from the 1950s, as a villain. Virginia Grey, as a serious-minded scientist sporting pulled back hair and glasses, logging her daily report on a typewriter (amusingly key pecked by Caw Caw at one point), makes her third and final appearance with Weissmuller, following TARZAN'S NEW YORK ADVENTURE (MGM, 1942) and Weissmuller's first non-Tarzan role of SWAMP FIRE (Paramount, 1946). With Grey's character not being Jim's "idea of a scientist," their differences of opinion finds them at odds with one another, adding some amusement to the screenplay by Carroll Young. Grey's Hilary Parker breaks away from her librarian appearance by showing off her womanly figure in bathing suit in her attempt to attract Jungle Jim's attention away from Zia. JUNGLE JIM is most enjoyable when not taken seriously, as indicated by its situations at hand.

While many of the plots provided in subsequent "Jungle Jim" adventures were offbeat and forgettable, the one provided here is satisfactory, especially by the presence of troublesome Reeves. After the series expired, Weissmuller turned out to be the logical choice resuming his "Jungle Jim" role in television series that premiered in 1955, keeping him much in the public eye as "King of the Jungle." 

The sixteen "Jungle Jim" movies, having been absent on the television screen since the 1970s (commonly broadcast on New York City's WNBC, Channel 4, between 1968 and 1972, as part of its late movie lineup of "The Great Great Show"), were brought back in later years on American Movie Classics (1997-2000). Turner Classic Movies brought forth three in the series May 27, 2009: JUNGLE MANHUNT (1951), THE FORBIDDEN LAND (1952), and of course the one that started it all, JUNGLE JIM. Next installment: THE LOST TRIBE (1949) (**)

I Don't know about you, but I am tired of all the flak given to Johnny Weissmuller for gaining a few pounds in the latter Tarzan and Jungle Jim films. like all of us...he got older...so get over it and just be glad he graced our lives doing these entertaining movies. Nuff said!

Other reviews here say pretty much all that need be said about the merits of this silly film, so I'll merely add a few observations on peculiar details in the film.

--Like many of the early Tarzan films, this film contains stock footage of Asian elephants wearing ill-fitting rubber ears in a failed attempt to make them resemble African elephants. Why bother? The movie was obviously shot in Chatsworth, Calif., and there are scarcely any actors in the film who resemble Africans. Incidentally, it would be interesting to know why so many Tarzan, Bomba, and Jungle Jim films didn't employ African Americans to play Africans instead of using nonblack actors wearing makeup to give them a dusky appearance. (By the way, that Chatsworth lake in which the characters swim in the film became known as "Jungle Jim Lake." It must have been used in more than one JJ film.)

--Speaking of that lake, the scene in which the characters are swimming is confusing. Virginia Grey is attacked by some kind of aquatic beast. It looks vaguely like an alligator with a head similar to that of the lizard man whom Capt. Kirk fights in STAR TREK, but the pictures of it are so fuzzy it sometimes resembles a nearby floating log. And is that a tentacle or a tail that grabs Grey by the leg? Whatever it is, it doesn't look like it belongs on the swimming lizardgator.

--Considering that Virginia Grey's character is an all-business medical researcher intent on finding a paralyzing poison" that may cure cancer, it was a bit surprising to see that she thought of bringing a swimming suit and even a swimming cap on the expedition. Equally surprising is the championship diving form she displays.

--One of the comic highlights of this film is a scene in which an ostensible crocodile is chasing Virginia Grey. The animal is obviously an American alligator, but it's dressed up in a way I don't recall ever seeing in a film before. A key distinction between crocodiles and alligators is that the lower teeth of alligators can't be seen when the animals' mouths are closed--like those of the animal in this scene

--Almost every action scene is sped up. I've never understood why movie makers did this sort of thing, as it succeeds only in making the action look unnatural. Johnny Weismuller looks awkward when he's running at normal speed, but he looks ridiculous when his running scenes are accelerated. The sped-up stampeding elephants look equally silly.

--George Reeves's character, we discover, has ingratiated himself with the evil "native" tribe by taking photographs of the tribesmen and giving them prints. He carries a camera with him, but how he produces prints is a mystery. The film came out in 1948, the same time when the Polaroid Land company was starting to produce instant-print cameras; however, Reeve's camera is obviously not a Polaroid. In one scene, toward the end of the film, he snaps a group picture of the evil tribesmen (who mug for the camera like a bunch of drunken fraternity boys), then goes off, saying he needs a moment to "develop the film." Moments later, he returns with nice, dry prints of the pictures he has just taken. I don't know what he was doing in the interim, but I when I used to print photographs, I had to unload my camera in a darkroom, chemically develop the film, allow it dry, and then use an enlarger to project the negatives on printing paper. The exposed paper, in turn had to be submersed in a chemical solution, rinsed, and then soaked in a fixing solution and dried. Oh, Reeves's prints are very glossy, so he must have dried them on a ferrotype plate. So, how did Reeves do all that so quickly? He wasn't even carrying all the necessary equipment with him.

--Women may enjoy this film's heavy-handed feminist message. Grey's character, Dr. Hilary Parker, is constantly miffed because people are surprised she is a woman. Even Jungle Jim is unliberated. When he meets her, he shakes his head and says something along the lines of "You're not exactly my idea of a doctor."

--After watching the whole film inattentively, I sped through it a second time to review some details. I see that the "native" bearers are supposed to be Masai. Yeah, right. Most of them are European Americans or perhaps South Asians, and some are wearing turbans. Not exactly traditional Masai accoutrements.

--Did I mention low production values? Much of JJ's fight with a leopard is hidden behind a big log, and the climax of his fight with a lion is hidden in a recess of a pit. Well, actually the latter scene has some justification, as it leaves us wondering (for about 30 seconds) whether JJ has survived his fight.

--One final observation: JJ is often seen with a big raven on his shoulder. What I'd like to know is why his shirt is always clean and well pressed. In fact, it looks freshly pressed immediately after his struggle with a lion and his free-for-all brawl with the evil tribesmen in the temple of Zimbalu. Perhaps the raven did something requiring Weismuller to change his shirt before the final scene.