Jungle Manhunt (1951)

Good concept, poorly executed.

Expected more

A Disappointing Continuation

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Johnny Weissmuller (Jungle Jim), Bob Waterfield (Bob Miller), Sheila Ryan (Ann Lawrence), Rick Vallin (Bono), Lyle Talbot (Dr Mitchell Heller), William P. Wilkerson (Maklee chief), and "Tamba", the chimpanzee.Director: LEW LANDERS. Screenplay: Samuel Newman. Based on the comic strip Jungle Jim by Alex Raymond. Photography: William Whitney. Film editor: Henry Batista. Art director: Paul Palmentola. Set decorator: Sidney Clifford. Music directed by Mischa Bakaleinikoff. RCA Sound System. Producer: Sam Katzman. Copyright 24 September 1951 by Columbia Pictures Corp. No New York opening. U.S. release: October 1951. U.K. release: 31 December 1951. Australian release: 1 February 1952. 66 minutes. Censored to 64 minutes in Australia in order to qualify for a General or Universal exhibition certificate.SYNOPSIS: A woman photographer enlists the aid of Jungle Jim in her search for an American who was lost in an Army flight over Africa nine years before. — Copyright summary. The story's about a sinister doctor who recruits slave labour from neighbouring villages to make synthetic diamonds. — Picturegoer. NOTES: Number 7 of the 16-picture "Jungle Jim" series.COMMENT: Surprise! Surprise! This entry doesn't start with the usual parade of stock library footage which a pretentious off-camera commentary tries vainly to make seem relevant and pertinent to the Boys' Own Paper adventures that follow. Instead we are treated to a bit of smart action footage employing quite a few native extras in a brisk attack scene. And after that follows the stock material — fishing — with Jungle Jim looking on and even waving to the library fishermen. The heroine then canoes into the picture via a process screen. Naturally, she falls into the water, thus enabling the producer to use the same underwater shot of Jim swimming to the rescue that figures in at least four of his other adventures. Rescue completed, the action stops dead for a long dialogue scene in which our heroine bores us all silly with much tedious filling-in of background information.Fortunately, once all this is out of the way, the picture regains momentum. True, we do take time out for a slow fight between two lizards — supposedly huge prehistoric beasts, of course — plus a more interesting encounter between a giant squid and a shark. But at least we're spared extensive monkey antics.Aside from the vigorous handling of the action spots, the direction is not only thoroughly routine but over-uses close-ups. All the same, production values are bit higher than the series' average, though it's a pity more was not made of the intriguing skeleton men.Johnny Weissmuller is his usual reticent self, Miss Ryan rates as a mildly pretty but unappealing heroine — and the same could be said for Waterfield's hero (admittedly, he doesn't have much of a role). Lyle Talbot's villain seemed to me somewhat unnecessarily restrained.

A little romance entered Jungle Jim's life in Jungle Manhunt. Not for Johnny Weissmuller mind you at least in the Tarzan films he had Jane. No the romance came for Sheila Ryan who came with camera in hand as a news reporter looking for a football player who disappeared in a presumed plane crash several years earlier. And Ryan's in need of a guide.The guy that Ryan is seeking is Bob Waterfield the Frank Tarkenton of his day. Waterfield was probably the best quarterback of his day, a very popular guy and also one of the first Christian athletes though he was far from Tim Tebow. At the time this film was made he was starring for the Los Angeles Rams. And Waterfield was also half of a very big celebrity couple of himself and Jane Russell.Anyway rumors of a white man leading a native tribe on various raids to capture men and kill all the others in peaceful tribes bring Weissmuller into the local war. Ryan tags along to see if it could be Waterfield.Instead it's Lyle Talbot playing a foreign scientist with a bit of cheesy accent who is enslaving the men to work in his uranium mine where they're prone to die real soon. Weissmuller finds the mine, finds Talbot and along the way finds Waterfield.Jungle Manhunt was fascinating to watch various acting styles employed. Lyle Talbot did what was required of him and overacted outrageously for the kid trade the target audience was and for posterity because he knew how corny this film was and knew also it would be a camp classic. Ryan was a good actress and did what was required of her to look both feminine and competent in the man's world even though she did need rescuing by Weissmuller from drowning. Weissmuller who in his first Tarzan film just got a grunt or three and some jungle gibberish for dialog, graduated to where he could handle dialog if not great at least competently. Poor Waterfield as an actor, he was great quarterback.I have to say this particular Jungle Jim feature was enjoyable even if I did laugh in the wrong spots.

I had long been curious about the "Jungle Jim" movie series after reading about it in the Leonard Maltin movie guide. So when Turner Classic Movies scheduled three of the movies one afternoon, I decided to give them a look.After watching them, I can understand why there's been little effort to resurrect this series into the minds of modern moviegoers. To be sure, there are some unintentionally hilarious things about this series. There is the frequent use of stock footage, which may not have been obvious to '50s viewers, but is very obvious today. Much of the outdoor footage is obviously not shot in the wilds of Africa, but on the desert landscape of California. Jungle Jim, on the flimsiest of excuses, goes swimming at least once in every movie, and the underwater footage is obviously filmed through the glass window of a tank. I saw the same stone staircase in *all* of the Jungle Jim movies I watched.While there are some laughs to be found in these movies, there are also some unlaughable parts. Weissmuller was starting to show his age, sometimes looking significantly older than the age he actually was. And there's the treatment of natives in the movie. Despite the fact that the movies take place in Africa, the natives are played by Caucasians! (Though considering their simple-minded nature and willing to be bossed by Jungle Jim, people of African descent might actually be thankful.) As for THIS particular Jungle Jim adventure, like the others I watched, I found it to be (overall) somewhat dull and talky, though the use of stock footage from ONE MILLION B.C. and a shark/octopus fight (in a river in Africa?????) did provide some needed laughs. But at the end, I felt like I hadn't seen anything new. As I said in my summary line at the beginning of this review, if you've seen one JUNGLE JIM movie...

Jungle Manhunt (1951) * 1/2 (out of 4) Seventh film in the popular series has a football star (real football player Bob Waterfield) going missing in the jungle so a reporter (Sheila Ryan) hires Jungle Jim (Johnny Weissmuller) to go searching for him. Soon they find a wild skeleton man tribe as well as various dinosaurs. I wasn't expecting too much going into this film but I was still left disappointed because I've become of a fan of director Landers who is probably best remembered for the Karloff/Lugosi film THE RAVEN. The director has also directed films in series such as Boston Blackie, The Whistler and various other "B" movies. He can usually turn trash into good fun but that's not the case here. This is only my second film in the series and I'm already starting to get bored with it. There are still many campy moments here including one very embarrassing goof that happens towards the start of the film. After Jim rescues the reporter she goes to look at his profile and tells him to turn his head to the right but he ends up turning it to the left. I couldn't help but feel embarrassed for ol' Johnny and this scene almost made you forget his bad but campy performance. Waterfield isn't too bad in his role and we've also got camp favorite Lyle Talbot playing a mad scientist. The dinosaur sequence, lifted from ONE MILLION B.C., is extremely silly as is another scene, lifted from yet another movie, where an octopus and shark fight in the middle of the jungle!