Jungle Man-Eaters (1954) User Reviews

Standard jungle drama

[MattyGibbs · 5/10 · 26 July 2014]

If you are familiar with the Johnny Weismuller Tarzan films then you'll know what to expect from a Jungle Jim film. It's essentially the same as Tarzan but with Weismuller this time donning clothes.

There is plenty of stock footage used, much like the earlier Tarzan adventures, which do add a certain charm to the film. Jungle Jim does pretty much what Tarzan did, fight some wild animals and help stop the greedy bad guys.

This is a pretty standard adventure film which doesn't look like it was made on much of a budget. However there is enough going on to keep your interest until the predictable finale.

If you are already not a fan of these films then this is unlikely to interest you but for Weismuller fans this is a pleasant enough way to pass the time.

"Take much time going but return with speed"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 6/10 · 20 May 2019]

Jungle Jim tackles a diamond smuggler. It's a simple plot but a busy film with warring natives, kidnapping. jungle fires, a French detective, stampeding animals, chimpanzee romance and to finish off a mighty explosion bringing half a mountain down. It has stock footage enough for any fan of jungle films and Jim gets to fight a lion and a crocodile to add to the action. So not great but not bad.

Johnny Weissmuller as Jim runs and swims around and sorts out problems in his usual way aided by Tamba the chimp. The rest of the cast are adequate. There is an early appearance by Bernie Hamilton, better known later in his career as excitable Captain Dobey on 'Starsky and Hutch.' The director Lee Sholem had already made two Tarzan films in 1949 and 1950 but with Lex Barker not Johnny as the vine swinger.

In the film there is a fight between a bull and a lion that looks grim. The lion gets tossed about alarmingly and seems like it just wants to escape the stockade in which it is trapped. These things don't normally trouble me but it did look cruel.

And as other reviewers have commented, there are no man-eaters to be seen.

What jungle? What man-eaters? Since when have diamond smugglers been man-eaters?

[JohnHowardReid · 6/10 · 3 November 2017]

Johnny Weissmuller (Jungle Jim), Karin Booth (Bonnie), Richard Stapley (Bernard), Bernard Hamilton (Zuwaba), Lester Matthews (Commissioner Kingston), Vince M. Townsend jr (Chief Boganda), Louise Franklin (N'Gala), Gregory Gaye (Latour), Paul Thompson (Zulu), and "Tamba".

Director: LEE SHOLEM. Screenplay: Samuel Newman. based on the "Jungle Jim" comic strip created by Alex Raymond. Photography: Henry Freulich. Film editor: Gene Havlick. Art director: Paul Palmentola. Set decorator: Sidney Clifford. Music directed by Mischa Bakaleinikoff. Unit manager: Herbert Leonard. Special effects: Jack Erickson. Assistant director: Charles Gould. Sound recording: Josh Westmoreland. Producer: Sam Katzman. Original theatrical prints processed in sepia.

Copyright 30 March 1954 by Columbia Pictures Corp. U.S. release: June 1954. No New York opening. U.K. release: December 1954. Australian release: 17 February 1955. 7 reels. 67 minutes.

NOTES: Number 13 of the 16-picture "Jungle Jim" series.

COMMENT: This entry has little to with jungle man-eaters at all. Instead the story is about Mr. Jim smashing a ring of diamond smugglers. The investiture scenes, inserted to cash in on the stock footage from "Sanders of the River", seem more than a little ludicrous in this day and age.

Like most of the Jungle Jims, this one would benefit from a fair amount of judicious trimming, particularly of several dialogue- cluttered sequences near the beginning.

The villain is adequately played, Johnny Weissmuller is his usual self, but the sub-hero and the native players are, as usual, something of a liability.

OTHER VIEWS: Jungle Man-Eaters takes the prize for using more stock footage than other Jungle Jim. Extensive clips are employed from both old Tarzan features and the British Sanders of the River. The fight with the croc has been revived for about the fifth time in the Jim saga. True, some of these library extracts still make good viewing, but they don't match the glossy studio photography of the new sequences. And as the new material is, for the most part, rather flatly directed — a sole exception is the escape sequence with its preliminary shadows on the tent — J-M-E emerges as a very mediocre support indeed.

Aging Johnny Weissmuller seems very obviously doubled for most of the stunts. The director exercises less than usual care in keeping the double's face away from the camera. Still, there's enough action to please the unsophisticated audience at which this entry is obvious aimed.

An unlikely jungle doctor, Karin Booth still makes for an attractive heroine. - JHR writing as George Addison.

Just another Jungle Jim movie.

[youroldpaljim · 2 June 2001]

Well just about. This one is the only Jungle Jim movie that actually features black Africans as natives. Most of the other Jungle Jim movies featured natives that looked like south sea islanders. The story deals with an evil diamond smuggler who teams up with an evil native tribe to drive a peaceful tribe off their land. The film is heavily padded with stock footage. Also the title is a cheat. You would think a film with "man eaters" in the title would feature a man eating lion(s) or a cannibal tribe. The film features neither.

"Never mind the monkey business Tamba!"

[classicsoncall · 4/10 · 25 June 2007]

The Jungle Jim series of movies starring Johnny Weissmuller came to somewhat of an ambiguous close with "Jungle Man-Eaters", as there were none of those to be found in the entire movie, unless you consider the lion that did battle with the penned bull in the early part of the story. It was an ignominious defeat for the king of beasts, gored unremittingly by the enraged bull, only to be stabbed to death by Jim attempting to save the less than sure footed Zuwaba (Bernie Hamilton) who fell into the pen. Remarkably, Jim made it to the end of the series without ever shedding a drop of blood in encounters with all manner of jungle beasts and underwater denizens of the deep.

The film has probably the most wild animal footage of any in the franchise, virtually all stock footage, including a quick peek at a South American aardvark who must have lost his way. Not only did this flick continue the tradition of inserting non-native African animals at least once in the picture, but there was also a major gaffe in terms of geography. At one point Jungle Jim mentions to Inspector Bernard (Richard Wyler) that in just a few more miles they'll hit the coast just below Nairobi. The intrepid explorer should have consulted a map this time, because Nairobi lies many miles inland, with the country of Tanzania to the south, although in the 1950's, it was called Tanganyika.

The story involves a diamond smuggling operation and meanders back and forth between a warring tribe led by Zulu of the Moro's, and that of Zuwaba of the Kambazi's. The discovery of a new diamond mine threatens to flood the market, and it's incumbent upon Inspector Bernard to stop the smugglers and preserve the value of diamonds for his syndicate. It all sounds pretty impressive, but geez, can you ever have too many diamonds on the world market? Apparently not, as one of Weissmuller's next movies also involved stolen diamonds in 1955's "Jungle Moon Men", another film having nothing to do with the title.

All of the Jungle Jim pictures were pretty brainless as far as plot and story goes, but they served as entertainment for an earlier era with a great deal less sophistication. Watching them today makes for interesting curiosity pieces if only to see how far film making has come. As if to underscore that point, there's a scene in this picture when Jim guesses the identity of the white man inciting the warring Moro's. Commissioner Kingston's (Lester Matthews) reply says it best - "It all fits Jim". If only that were so.

Jim of the jungle

[Prismark10 · 3/10 · 14 August 2014]

Johnny Weissmuller moved from Tarzan to Jungle Jim movies which itself is based on a comic strip. Weissmuller was getting a bit long in the tooth and a bit pot-bellied to swing on some vine-ropes.

Jungle Man Eaters is less to do with man eating lions and more to do with diamond smuggling. Although Weissmuller gets in with a few scuffles with some wild animals or stuffed animals just to remind the audience that this is a Tarzan wannabee complete with plenty of stock footage from Africa and other safari films.

The stock footage looks like padding, the plot is silly as the leader of the gang somehow manufactures diamonds with some mumbo jumbo science and the fight scene with the lion looks stupid as Weissmuller is unscathed despite getting pushed around by the lion.

I heard about the Jungle Jim films for years but only recently saw them and they certainly lack the charm of the Tarzan films.

Sadly, no cannibals were involved in the making of this film.

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 27 December 2015]

Ex-Olympic swimming champ and Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller hung up his loincloth in 1948, the star no longer in the tip-top physical condition necessary for the role of Edgar Rice Burroughs' legendary vine-swinger. But instead of retiring, Weismuller simply slipped on a shirt and pants to hide his gut and returned to the jungle to play African guide and adventurer Jungle Jim.

Jungle Man-Eaters, the last of Weissmuller's Jungle Jim films, featured the tag-line 'JOHNNY AGAINST THE CANNIBALS!', but is far less exciting than the capital letters and exclamation mark would have us believe. In fact, there are no cannibals; instead, we get a diamond smuggler and a warring tribe who will do anything to get their hands on a fortune in gems, all of which is frustratingly dull. Jungle Jim comes to the rescue, only taking time out from unconvincing fist-fights with the baddies to wrestle a man in a moth-eaten lion costume and a roll around in the water with a rubber croc. More padding comes in the form of comedic chimp Tamba, who eats lots of bananas (hilarious—not!), and stock footage of a variety of wild animals, some of which are obviously not indigenous to Africa.

As a big fan of Weissmuller's Tarzan series, I've long been keen to check out one of his Jungle Jim films, but if this is any indication of their quality, it might be some time before I see any more. I sure hope that the series started a lot stronger than it finished

More silliness from the land of rubber crocodiles, gymnast chimps and Styrofoam mountains.

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 29 November 2017]

The mixture of the flesh eating Mora tribe and some nasty French diamond smugglers, combined with the standard collection of feisty heroines, noble natives and of course Johnny Weismueller as the increasingly portly title character turns this into more standard weekend early matinée boy's club fare. Tamba gets his hands on a gun, shoots first and covers his eyes later. He's just a little too cute to be believable, and it's obvious that in the final scene, he'll be wearing something, handing over something or jumping around in a zany way that will have him jumping around, leaving Jim and his friends to laugh again as the lady with the Columbia torch lights the end. This cliché ended up being spoofed on many classic cartoons for years, most recently "Family Guy". Shots of headhunters agitating a fighting bull and lion lead into Weismueller's underwater roll with the a hungry crock. Shootouts, drum beating natives and fights on presumably high cliffs are intermingled with familiar stock footage of wildlife escaping from a man-made fire. As I've watched this series in chronological order and am nearly done, it's easy to see why, with TV adding old westerns and action films to their early morning Saturday schedule, why this ended. It's obvious that it was long past due that Weismueller's days in the pith helmet were way past their welcome.

Yet More Stock Footage with a Little Jim Thrown In

[Michael_Elliott · 28 March 2011]

Jungle Man-Eaters (1954)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

This was the thirteenth and final film in the Jungle Jim series, although three more films would follow but the Jungle Jim name would be dropped. This time out Jim (Johnny Weissmuller) must try and locate some diamond smugglers who are using an evil jungle tribe to scare off the good tribes in the jungle. Soon Jim is fighting men, lions, crocs and various other beasts while trying to impress a girl (Karin Booth). Like so many of these old series, I'm having to watch this one out of order but I've seen enough to realize all the negative things I've heard are pretty much try. It's rather amazing to see how much stock footage and cheese is throughout this thing and I really have to wonder if the studio checked to see how much stock footage they had and then just built a story around it. As bad as this film is I can't help but almost recommend it simply due to its campy nature and at times god-awful acting. God bless Weissmuller but it's clear he wasn't any type of actor outside the Tarzan image. His line delivery here is pretty bad but then again I'll give him credit because it's actually better than some of the earlier films in the series. He was also getting up their in age and there are times where it seems like he's in pain trying to (slowly) run yet we're suppose to believe he has the strength to fight a wild lion or a crocodile. Speaking of the lion scene, we're treated to quite a bit of stock footage including some with the lion fighting a bull and getting knocked around pretty badly. This is some rather interesting footage and I'm sure it's not going to sit well with some viewers. When Jim finally gets to fight this same lion thankfully he's turned into a fake rug by then. Supporting players Booth, Richard Wyler and Bernie Hamilton aren't much better as they zip in and out of stock footage and poorly added scenes trying to fit in with it. Just check out the sequence where one of the villages are burned and we see footage of various animals trying to escape the smoke. The fake smoke added to the stock footage just shows how cheap this movie and series was. Again, this is an incredibly poorly made film but it remains mildly charming simply because of the camp value. This is third-rate material all the way but producer Sam Katzman probably laughed his way to the bank.

Jungle Jim excellent yarn

[searchanddestroy-1 · 20 December 2023]

It helped a lot, to appreciate it, to watch this item is such a good copy. I don't think that any Jungle Jim episode is really unbearable; they are on the contrary all fun, entertaining and this one makes no exception. Good acting and the directing is OK from the ambitionless Lee Sholem. Diamond smugglers are here the villains instead of atom scientists and spies, ivory seekers or wild animals hunters. I have the feeling that this movie is a bit better than usual, maybe because of the copy quality. Just notice Bernie Hamilton the futur chief of STARSKY AND HUTCH. So, that's a good episode of this movie series to be watched without any serious expectations.