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Framed for the killing of an Indian Rajah by Dakka (Mischa Auer) - the actual
killer - & big game hunter Harris (Tom Santschi), Robert Grant (Walter
Miller) is arrested & convicted, but can escape prison, & from now on,
disguised as an Arab, pursues Harris - who holds a letter that proves that Grant is not the
killer.
Somewhere in Africa, Grant hooks up with shady Arab Mustapha (Boris
Karloff), who has some dealings with Harris as the 2 of them want to cheat
young American Tom (Carroll Nye) out of a diamond mine. Somehow Grant gets
entangled in their affairs - without Harris recognizing him - & confides in
Muriel (Nora Lane), Tom's sister & thus the only one knowing his real
identity.
Mustapha soon comes up with the idea that the best way to get to Tom's mine
is through a woman, & uses Mrs LaSalle (Dorothy Christy), who is deeply in
his debt, to that end. Unfortunately she & Tom soon get into a fight, &
she shoots him. Mustapha realizes the opportunity & convinces Miss LaSalle
Tom is dead - which he isn't - & she has to flee the country, even
providing her with a passage, & then goes on & convinces Harris Mrs
LaSalle has fled with Tom on the ship.
Soon, Mrs LaSalle, Harris & his pet, the missing link (really) Bimi
(Cyril McLaglen), Grant & Muriel all find themselves aboard a ship, plus
old spinster Mrs Colby (Martha Lalande) - who is revealed to the audience as an
secret service agent - & Scandinavian big game hunter Peterson (Victor
Potel), as Mrs LaSalle is shot, & of course all of the involved
are under suspicion, when the ship is wrecked by heavy waters, & all of
the involved can make it to the coast only just, where they, in a native
village, meet Mustapha again, who keeps Tom hidden away in a tent.
Mustapha though wants to get rid of the others & thus kills the natives'
king, blaming the white people for his death. They manage to escape the
clutches of the natives, if only just. On their escape though, Muriel, Mrs
Colby & Peterson also discover Tom's diamond mine, but at first make little
use of their discovery, since escape seems to be a priority ... & after a
few more brushes with Mustapha's men, & with Grant helping Muriel to free
her brother they even make it to the next city, where Grant, having obtained
the letter that proves his innocence from Harris, gives himself up to the
police, if only to clear his name, while Tom reports the location of the
diamond mine to the same officer ... who is shot soon afterwards, & of
course, everyone involved - Grant, Harris, Peterson, Muriel & a mysterious
man in dark glasses - is under suspicion, while both the letter proving Grant's
innocence and the location of the diamond mine are stolen once again, leading
to many more hunts through the jungle, & brushes with both Mustapha &
his men, & the natives, while the letter changes hands quite frequently
between Mustapha, Harris, Grant & Peterson, who turns out to be a spy of
evil Dakka.
In the end though, Grant, Harris & Muriel are captured by the natives to
be executed, while the letter proving Grant's innocence is to be burned -
wasn't it for Mrs Colby, who frees Muriel, who in turn gets hold of the letter,
while Nimi once again scares away the natives. & soon too, the local
police arrive, trying to figure out who the real villain - besides all the
obvious villainy by both Harris & Mustapha - is. It turns out to be ... The
Man with the Dark Glasses, who uin turn turns out to be ... Mrs Colby, a
vicious diamond thief who has killed Miss LaSalle - who really was a Secret
Service agent - to get her credentials in order to get information about the
mine. Of course, he/she is arreested, as well as Mustapha, while Grant is freed
of his charges on account of the retrieved letter, & Harris, while
desperately trying to escape his capture, is accidently killed by his own ape
man Bimi. Though the story is almost ridiculously complex for a
serial, King of the Wild manages to stay quite enertaining throughout
thanks to action aplenty, frequent change of locations & a flair of the
exotic - all of which cause the actual plot to take a back seat anyways. Originally,
Mascot hired Harry Carey & Edwina Booth to star in the lead roles,
as they had just starred in the somewhat similar themed Trader Horn by
MGM, & Mascot was hoping to profit from the publicity campaign
of that film. However, when shooting of this serial was about to start, Carey
& Booth were unavailable due to massive reshooting on Trader Horn,
so Mascot had to settle for Walter Miller & Nora Lane. Carey & Booth
would co-star however in 2 later Mascot serials, The Vanishing Legion
(1931) and Last of the Mohicans
(1932).
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find King of the Wild at adultvideouniverse.com
