Forbidden Land
Jungle Jim in the Forbidden Land

USA 1952
produced by
Sam Katzman for Columbia
directed by Lew Landers
starring Johnny Weissmuller, Angela Greene, Jean Willes, Lester Matthews, William Tannen, George Eldredge, Frederic Berest, John Hart, Clem Erickson, Irmgard Helen H. Raschke, Frank Jaquet, William Fawcett
screeenplay by Samuel Newman, based on a comic strip by Alex Raymond, musical direction by Mischa Bakaleinikoff

Jungle Jim, Jungle Jim (Johnny Weissmuller)

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Jungle Jim number 8:

In the jungle, Jungle Jim (Johnny Weissmuller) meets Doc Linda (Angela Greene), an anthropologist who asks Jim to take her to the Land of the Giant People for her studies, something which Jim outright refuses, since the Giant People are way too savage. Later, Commissioner Kingston (Lester Matthews) asks Jim for the same thing to save some elephants, but Jim even turns him down because if the elephants cross the Giant People's country, he fears the Giant People would retaliate by attacking neighbouring tribes.

But there is a third party who wants to go to Giant People country, evil elephant hunters/ivory merchants Denise (Jean Willes) and Doc Edwards (William Tannen) who want to set a trap there for the elephants to shoot them for the ivory. Naturally, Jim opposes this, so soon enough the two of them have him arrested for murder that they actually committed, then they set the only two giant people in captivity free to make them lead them to their land ...

Fortunately, Doc Linda is on hand to set Jim free, but unfortunately, he walks right into a trap of Denise and Doc Edwards, who, having lost the Giant People out of sight, inject him a truth serum to tell them the way - and everything seems lost.

In the end though, Jim can not only clear his name but also, by means of a landslide, keep the elephants from stampeding through Giant People Country, make sure that Denise and Doc Edwards get their just desserts, and convince anthropologist Doc Linda that the Giant People are too savage a tribe to explore ...

Jim gets to fight a hippo in this one.

Cheap and cheesy, this film is about as funny as it's bad, however it unfortunately doesn't take full advantage of its premise, and the Giant People (made up to look like cheap versions of Lon Chaney jr's Wolf Man) appear in this film way too briefly, and actually, despite the title, Jungle Jim never gets to the Forbidden Land. Still, if you are into cheap and cheesy jungle films like I am, you should find this one worth a laugh or two.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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