Jungle Man (1941)

Simply A Masterpiece

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

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.

weak jungle adventure has a rich heiress, her fiancé, her father and assorted others going to Africa instead of their normal vacation haunt, in order to visit her father's brother and to find the lost city of the dead. Once there they run into Buster Crabbe who is trying to cure an epidemic, hostile natives and wild animals.Incredibly silly and cheap film has tons of stock footage padding out the proceedings. Who am I to ponder what Asian temples are doing in Darkest Africa? Its a mess. Blame the script and the direction which doesn't seem to know what to do or how real people behave. I mean Crabbe goes around with his shirt half open, out heroine prances around in sarongs for no good reason, the natives just look embarrassed. The cast is wildly uneven with some of the interlopers behaving badly while on the other end of the spectrum Charles Middleton as the uncle in the jungle turning in one of his best performances.This film is a mess. Recommended only for bad movie fans.

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.

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.