Savage Mutiny (1953) User Reviews

Jungle Jim gets caught up in the Atomic Age

[chris_gaskin123 · 7/10 · 11 July 2006]

Savage Mutiny is the Jungle Jim movie that sees him get involved with the Atomic Age. As this series of movies was made in this era, it certainly wasn't surprising to see one about nuclear testing.

Jungle Jim is assigned to relocate some natives on an island off the coast of Africa so the Americans can stage a nuclear test there. Problem is, some of them refuse to leave and there are also enemy agents interfering. After overcoming these problems, the test goes ahead.

As usual, Johnny Weissmuller plays Jungle Jim and is joined by Angela Stevens and Lester Matthews (who has several Jungle Jim movies to his credit).

Though not the best of the series, Savage Mutiny is a good way to spend around 70 minutes one afternoon or evening. Not bad at all.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

"I hope I can make them understand the atom bomb"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 6/10 · 15 November 2018]

Jungle Jim is tasked with getting some natives off an offshore island called Tulonga and onto the mainland as their island is going to be used to test an atom bomb. It's a British and American project to see what happens to the island's fauna after an atomic bombing. Then after a couple of weeks the natives will be allowed back to their island. Hmmm, yes. Am not sure the script writer knew much about atom bombs. The explosion seen at the end probably obliterated the whole island. It's not that big an island! Enemy agents try to use the bombing for propaganda purposes.

As Jungle Jim films go it isn't bad. The cast do their best. Johnny Weissmuller as Jungle Jim doesn't usually get the girl but there seemed to be some kind of spark between him and Angela Stevens as Dr. Joan Harris but in the end it goes nowhere. Tamba the chimpanzee does his usual back flips at which he is very adept. A different kind of Jungle Jim story but none the worse for that.

How hard is it to move an endangered tribe in atom bomb testing time?

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 6 June 2017]

That's the basic plot line of this Jungle Jim entry (10th in the series) which attempts to be socially relevant and ends up a laughable bore. It's more tribal rebellion, animal fights (a hyena vs. a bear), man vs. cat (black panther snarls once again) and various other attempts to stall this exodus from taking place. Johnny Weusmueller seems to just be walking through this as if he just wanted it to all be over, and Angela Stevens provides the standard, boring female participant. Cute chimp Tamba continues to steal scenes, doing backflips, shaking hands with new human friends, and predictably, gets the final standard site gag in the last seconds that results, predictably, in everyone present in laughing uncontrollably. With the advent of TV growing at this time, the second feature or Saturday morning kiddie matinée was quickly ending, and the writers didn't really seem to care about stories or scripts anymore. Quantity and lack of quality killed the B movie, not that big box in the living room.

Not Even Offensive Enough To Be Entertaining

[Theo Robertson · 4/10 · 28 April 2014]

Everyone remembers Johnny Weissmuller . A multi Gold Olympic champion he got his big break in cinema playing Tarzan in the 1930s and 40s . I can't remember the last time television broadcast a Weissmuller Tarzan movie but do vaguely recall it might have been about 30 years ago at the latest . I also vaguely recall that the reason for their absence might be to do with the extremely dated portrayal of Africa and its inhabitants . So much so it might make the 1970s sit com LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR look like it was written by a committee of journalists from The Guardian . I had no knowledge of Jungle Jim so went on Wikipedia to have a quick cursory glance to find out what the spiel might be . Johnny Weissmuller in an action adventure as Jungle Jim where he has to save an African tribe from an atomic test and foreign agents . Hmmm even the name SAVAGE MUTINY conjures up images of painful stereotypes that border on the offensive . If nothing else I was convinced that no matter what I wasn't going to be bored

The first thing to strike you is that Weissmuller is an athlete and no actor and an ageing athlete at that . He might be able to get away with that in the Tarzan movies but his droning monotone European accented voice is a distraction to put it mildly and as Oscar Pistorius shows athletes don't make good actors . The plot itself is rather muddled and confused . Someone wants to carry out atomic bomb tests on an Island of the coast of Africa and Jungle Jim needs to evacuate a noble but superstitious tribe to safety . At the same time a foreign power wants to carry out chemical warfare tests on the tribe . If someone ( I take it that it's America ? ) is carrying out atomic tests why not conduct it at a remote isolated area that is uninhabited ? Likewise if the foreign power ( I take it that they're

Soviets ? ) want to carry out chemical weapons tests why not do so on a tribe that aren't subject to attention via the atomic testing ? The natives themselves don't resemble Africans in anyway and look Hispanic and talk like red Indians . On top of that SAVAGE MUTINY is terminally boring and manages to live down to expectations which is no small feat

Snowflakes make me laugh

[steve-667-10190 · 8/10 · 22 January 2019]

So Theo thinks this quaint light entertainment is offensive. He had to "research" Jungle Jim on Wikipedia. Ha, talk about an axymoron with the stress on "moron".

Here's a newsflash snowflake. The formula was baddies v goodies with no intention to offend anyone. Hell they only managed to offend logic, geography and science. The 'natives' didn't even try to emulate Africans. Most of the time the wrong animals were in the wrong places but their hearts weren't. So don't use this media to vent your whiny take on the righteousness of the depictions. It was fun. End of story.

new reading for the 21st century

[den09 · 9/10 · 13 September 2014]

I am only voting because IMDb demands it . This short movie is jaw-droppingly naive, so much so that it is almost essential viewing for would-be movie-makers today. An entire group of people are moved from their island home so that the kindly USA can drop an atom bomb on the island( in order to benefit the cause of peace on earth and to test the effects of fallout on the flora and fauna). Jungle Jim has a plan to persuade the islanders to the mainland and is left to do, with the assistance of a female doctor, by the government agents.

The bomb will be dropped and the natives can move back in " within a few days" . They are even aero dusted with contaminated dust by the bad guys to make them a bit sick at one point.

Just try reading , for example: Green-Peace in the role of the opposition. Some of the detail and casting is a wonder as well. I loved the sexy dancers in the village !

Cold war interferes with Jungle Jim

[searchanddestroy-1 · 30 November 2023]

Ten years earlier, the villains would have been the Nazis, but in the fifties, instead of openly speaking of Communists agents and the red scare - as it was the case in so many films of this period - they only speak of foreign agents and the atomic bomb, more exactly atomic bomb test. It is agreeable, fun - thanks to the chimp tricks and gesture - and it is not necessary to be a hard boiled gem digger to stay till the end. The director Spencer Gordon Bennett was a serial maker in the forties for Republic Pictures, after the departure of the great William Witney, before resuming at Columbia studios,, under the tyranny of the infamous producer Sam Katzman, the same producer for Jungle Jimm series. Tarzan with clothes adventures.