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Jungle Jim number 15 (though technically, this is not a
Jungle Jim film because Johnny Weissmuller plays a character called Johnny
and has a different chimp in an effort by producer Sam Katzman to avoid
paying license fees while still continuing a profitable series):
One of these female scientists (they seem to pop up in every other Jungle Jim
movie), Ellen Marsten (Jean Byron), wants to persuade Jungle Jim ... oh,
I'm sorry, Johnny Weissmuller to take her to the land of the moonman, a
tribe of white pygmies who seem to still worship the ancient Egyptian
Moon-Goddess Baku. Because he deems it too dangerous for a woman, Johnny
refuses, but then his friend chief Nolimo (Michael Granger) tells him that
his son Marro (Ben Chapman) was killed by the Moon Men, and all of a
sudden, Johnny is willing to go there, and he takes Ellen with him because
she seems to know quite a bit about their culture ... and before you know
it, they are joined by Ellen's boyfriend Bob (William Henry) ... but are
also pursued by a quartet of baddies, led by Santo (Myron Healey), who
want the Moon men's diamonds and who are soon down to a duo when Santo
gets trigger-happy.
The Moon Men soon enough kidnap Bob and try to dissuade Jim and Ellen
as well as Santo's party from following by shooting them with narcotic
darts - but to no avail, and before long, Jim and Ellen and Santo and
companion are all prisoners of the Moon Men and their blonde (!) female
High Priestess Oma (Helene Stanton), who thanks to Baku has lived for
millenia and who now wants Bob to be her new high priest. Somehow, Johnny
tries to persuade her to let the others go while he promises to stay with
her in Bobby's stead, to which Oma even agrees, but then, thanks to
Santo's greed, instead everybody ends up in a lion's cage to be devoured
by the lions ... if it wasn't for Johnny's chimp Kimba, who releases the
lions from their cages and onto the Moon Men and their High Priestess and
frees Johnny, his friends and even his enemies - but of course, Santo and
companion meet their end by the teeth and claws of a lion.
Johnny, Bobby and Ellen meanwhile persuade the High Priestess to show
them the secret esccape route from her realm, and due to the lions
threatening everything within the realm, they take Oma with her ... but
once she, immortal Priestess of the Moon Goddess, is touched by the rays
of the sun, she falls to dust ... and the Moon Men, freed of their evil
ruler, promise to be friendly from now on.
A cheap and cheesy jungle film crammed with unconvincing Egyptian sets,
white pygmies and a blonde immortal High Priestess ... you might either
call it simply a bad movie or high camp, you might just hate it or for
some strange reason love it. I loved it. One of the funniest films of the Jungle Jim
series.
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