Saturday, January 27, 2007

Movie review – Jungle Jim #1 - “Jungle Jim” (1948) **

When Johnny Weismuller got too old and fat to fit into Tarzan’s loin cloth he managed to prolong his career by putting on khakis and becoming Jungle Jim. In the first few minutes of this he dives off a cliff into the water and fights and kills a leopard – only now he does it with clothes on. It’s weird hearing him talk in full sentences.
There’s a lost civilization and an expedition which includes a rutheless exploiter (George Reeves). Virginia Grey, looking very fetching in slacks and glasses, plays a professor who is feisty and feminist when we meet her, then promptly pays: she runs out of puff on the march, forcing litter bearers to carry her; a crocodile attacks her, forcing Jim to come to the rescue; rocks fall on her, forcing Jim to come to the rescue goes for a swim and is almost eating, forcing Jim to come to a rescue.
There’s no chimp, but there is a cute dog (but who wants them in an Africa movie?), a tribe who try to sacrifice our hero. There is a decent moment where Jim hangs off a cliff, and the final battle at the end is pretty good, but its all a bit uninspired and cheap.

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