Panther Girl of the Kongo (1955)

i must have seen a different film!!

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

"Panther Girl of the Congo" is one of the last serial turned out by "the serial factory", Republic Pictures. At this time studios were turning out films about over sized or mutant creatures. This one deals with an over-sized (now get this) craw fish.Mad scientist Dr. Morgan (Arthur Space) is creating mutant craw fish in order to frighten the local natives away so that he and his cronies, Cass (John Day) and Rand (Mike Ragan) can mine diamonds from an abandoned mine. International Wildlife Federation Representative Jean Evans (Phyllis Coates) is filming wildlife in the jungle when she comes upon one of the mutant creatures. Evans summon hunter/guide Larry Sanders (Myron Healey) for assistance.Over 12 chapters, the pair escape life threatening situations each chapter as they battle with the bad guys. For some reason Evans is called Panther Girl. We don't actually see a panther in the story except at the end of each chapter. What we do see is the fetching Ms. Coates in a micro mini skirted costume each time she goes into the jungle. She swings across the jungle on vines in sequences I'm sure I've seen in other Republic serials. She also gets to ride an elephant from time to time and battle a rubber crocodile as well..It was refreshing for me to see long time western villain Healey in a leading role. This may have been his only starring role. Space, Day an Ragan make formidable villains. Oddly enough neither the heroes or villains can hit the broad side of a barn with their rifles. Although the Lydecker Brothers do their best with the monsters, I can't help but wonder why a rogue panther wasn't considered as the, pardon the expression, elephant in the room.Not one of their best but still a competently made serial nonetheless.

Aside from a punch-out between hero and villains in Chapter One, the action in Republic's second last serial is little more than a seemingly endless succession of shoot-outs between the worst shots in the jungle. And most of this action is sadly truncated at that! In addition, the process work is extremely ropey and the only good stock shots are repeated many times! The villains are talkative and unattractive. Only Phyllis Coates, swinging through the jungle in a delightfully unsuitable mini, manages to hold the interest of the viewer. The rest of the players are well below par. Ten out of ten for Miss Coates. Zero for everybody and everything else including the laughable cray fish that supposedly metamorphoses into a giant menace. Available on an excellent Grapevine DVD.

Most criticisms of this serial are valid. The pace in the middle episodes slows down to a crawl. It relies on cheap special effects and stock footage, and it's padded with "flashbacks" to previous episodes. So why did I give it 7 out of 10 stars? Two words: Phyllis Coates. She is to my mind one of the sexiest Jungle Girls ever in her tailored buckskin leopard belted mini dress (an exact duplicate of Frances Gifford's outfit in "Jungle Girl")It's not a matter of looks alone. The Panther Girl is a different kind of Jungle Girl, not a mysterious goddess of some lost world or a waif growing up in the wilds.She is a career woman with a real job. She is a cinematographer of wild animals. A feisty, hard nosed business woman. Absolutely fearless, she can swing through the trees like Tarzan, swim like a fish, run like a gazelle, and dispatch dangerous predators with gun or knife. And you know at the end she will make a well deserved profit selling her footage of the "Claw Monsters". And why not? She is an example of capitalism at its best. She risks her life to save the jungle from the dastardly villains and is entitled to a profit. She is a prototype of the modern woman but feminine enough to accept the help of her stalwart friend played by WW2 vet Myron Healy. If they do develop a romantic relationship you know it would be as equals. A few caveats. I would not try to watch it straight through. A couple of episodes a night might be best, and have the fast forward button ready for some of the middle episodes.

Despite the title, this is a guy show more than anything else, if I remember correctly, Panther Girl is the only girl in it, all the other characters, or cartoon figures, are male. There is no characterisation in the whole run of the serial, every word is spoken to advance the story, only in the final frame of the last chapter does someone make a jaw-dropping bit of non-plot driven talk. But that is not a negative comment on this serial.I actually like the no non-sense way this serial, and other serials, present themselves (Irwin Allen's The Time Tunnel would later copy this all the way).The claw monster in this serial was created by the Lydecker brothers, and one of the Lydeckers - Howard - would be associated (with LB Abbott) in the effects for TV's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea...a series that featured many miniature and full scale monsters, with or without a claw.Panther Girl is a fine serial, and when seen in full on video in 1997 it was a knockout, but beware of repeat viewings, for some reason this serial does not go over too well when you look too close.