Famous animal trainer Clyde Beatty and his old friend Grant (Stanley
Farrar) take a stroll through the jungle to hunt whatever animals ... when
they run across cages upon cages of black maned lions - animals so
beautiful they make even Clyde envious - and their ownder, animal hunter
Jo Carter (Phyllis Coates). But before you know it, her cages are burned
down thanks to a native playing with a lighter, and literally, her
business goes up in flames. And once the smoke ahs cleared, Jo's only
competitor, evil Gorman (John Doucette), makes her an offer to by
her out. But with famous Clyde Beatty on her side she gets courageous and
tells Gorman they are now hunting for a gorilla, which will pay for
everything she has lost ...
So Jo, Clyde and Grant set out to catch the gorilla, and really do so,
but Gorman is close behind to also catch a gorilla or even steal Jo's ...
when he's suddenly mauled by a gorilla and only just saved by Clyde.
Anyways, Jo's business is saved thanks to this.
Later, Clyde and Grant go even deeper into the jungle to hunt for
black-maned lions when they bump into Grubbs (Leonard Mudie), a ruthless
treasure hunter who has found a fortune in jewels with a local tribe which
he controls through the tribe's Boy King (Shelby Bacon) ... and since
Grubbs is a greedy bastard who thinks everybody is after his jewels, he
has Clyde and Grant captured by his natives in no time ... but somehow,
Clyde manages to free himself, take the Boy King and Grubbs as hostages
and take off in a canoe, an escape during which Grubbs is hit by a
native's spear. When they are out of reach, Clyde lets the Boy King go,
who immediately sees the good in Clyde, but Grubbs he bings to justice ...
The episodic structure of this film, and the linking devices that do
not always make too much sense make me guess this was actually intended as
a TV-series that never got off the ground, centered around lion-taming
acts of Clyde Beatty - there is one in each sequence, but they are
unimpressively shot. The production values of this film are strictly
pedestrian, and even though I am into cheap and cheesy jungle flicks, this
one is rather dull, with both its stories told way too hastily, without
imagination and offering no variations on their basic storylines. Beatty,
who was a brilliant lion tamer, was no actor, and it shows here as well as
in his earlier movies, still, if you want to see him playing with lions,
see some of his stuff from the 1930's instead of this one.
|