JUNGLE JIM IN THE FORBIDDEN LAND (1952)
Article 2843 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-18-2009
Posting Date: 5-26-2009
Directed by Lew Landers
Featuring Johnny Weissmuller, Angela Greene, Jean Willes
Country: USA

Jungle Jim joins forces with a female anthropologist to do battle with poachers intent on wiping out a herd of elephants located near the forbidden land of the giant people.

The first half of this movie is marred by muddled and tiresome exposition. It’s not until we get to meet a couple of captive giant people (the male looks like a tall relative of Universal’s Wolf Man, while the female looks like a tall version of Paula the Ape Woman) that the movie starts to get moving, and from that point on, it’s fairly entertaining in a low-budget “Jungle Jim” kind of way. The giant people add some of the spice to the movie, though their leopard voices are pretty unconvincing. I also couldn’t help noticing that Jungle Jim can be something of a jerk on occasion. Part of this is no doubt due to the fact that he’s somewhat inspired by the character of Tarzan, but he occasionally exhibits a juvenile petulance which, though forgivable in a man raised by apes and unused to civilization, is rather annoying in someone who isn’t. Tamba the chimp provides the ersatz Cheeta here. All in all, pretty standard for the series.