Jungle Manhunt (1951)

One of my all time favorites.

From my favorite movies..

Excellent but underrated film

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

More Jungle Jim silliness had him searching for football hero Bob Waterfield. Komodo dragons, men in Woolworth Halloween costumes and other assorted ridiculousness pad out this programmer, the seventh in a series. It's like an edited 1930's serial with a fat Tarzan without the loincloth, an adorable chimp and a brave but vulnerable to danger photographer (Sheila Ryan) on the hunt for the missing football hero and finding much more. An evil leader (Lyle Talbot) sends out men in cheap five and dime skeleton outfits to do his evil bidding, a plot twist that comes out of nowhere and has little impact on the plot other than for some violent native attacks and explosions. The Saturday matinée kiddy crowd went crazy for these types of films that aren't at all challenging, yet filled with action, adventure, unnecessary romance and silly humor. The bad guys are one dimensional, Wakefield a handsome athlete (yet a lousy actor) and the animals either manipulated to be easy to defeat or just so darned adorable. When Ryan dones a sarong, it sets series lead Johnny Weismueller up for more unconditional romance that will end upon the film's closing titles. Cheesy fun, especially with two magnified lizards fighting and a later stock shot of a giant octopus duking it out with a great white shark. Every now and then, I'll return to these for a passable time filler that you'll never catch on anybody's "best of" list.

the most interesting thing about the movie is the performances. There mostly pretty bad. Johnny Wessimieser may have had one really goodgreat movie but here hes barely wood-perhaps because he actually has to talk in the movie he acts as if he is afraid of it . Everyone Else to Bob mMller as a football player is also bad-the natives the villain everyone is pretty much terrible. That said Shelia Ryan, is pretty great in the movie-either that or she is just head or heals better then anyone else in the movie that it just looks great. Shes spunky, generally funny and has a good late 40s sense of power and accomplishment even if she just mostly gets dragged around in the film. its not in any means a good movie, yet i can't hate it.

A little romance entered Jungle Jim's life in Jungle Manhunt. Not for Johnny Weissmuller mind you at least in the Tarzan films he had Jane. No the romance came for Sheila Ryan who came with camera in hand as a news reporter looking for a football player who disappeared in a presumed plane crash several years earlier. And Ryan's in need of a guide.The guy that Ryan is seeking is Bob Waterfield the Frank Tarkenton of his day. Waterfield was probably the best quarterback of his day, a very popular guy and also one of the first Christian athletes though he was far from Tim Tebow. At the time this film was made he was starring for the Los Angeles Rams. And Waterfield was also half of a very big celebrity couple of himself and Jane Russell.Anyway rumors of a white man leading a native tribe on various raids to capture men and kill all the others in peaceful tribes bring Weissmuller into the local war. Ryan tags along to see if it could be Waterfield.Instead it's Lyle Talbot playing a foreign scientist with a bit of cheesy accent who is enslaving the men to work in his uranium mine where they're prone to die real soon. Weissmuller finds the mine, finds Talbot and along the way finds Waterfield.Jungle Manhunt was fascinating to watch various acting styles employed. Lyle Talbot did what was required of him and overacted outrageously for the kid trade the target audience was and for posterity because he knew how corny this film was and knew also it would be a camp classic. Ryan was a good actress and did what was required of her to look both feminine and competent in the man's world even though she did need rescuing by Weissmuller from drowning. Weissmuller who in his first Tarzan film just got a grunt or three and some jungle gibberish for dialog, graduated to where he could handle dialog if not great at least competently. Poor Waterfield as an actor, he was great quarterback.I have to say this particular Jungle Jim feature was enjoyable even if I did laugh in the wrong spots.

Jungle Manhunt (1951) * 1/2 (out of 4) Seventh film in the popular series has a football star (real football player Bob Waterfield) going missing in the jungle so a reporter (Sheila Ryan) hires Jungle Jim (Johnny Weissmuller) to go searching for him. Soon they find a wild skeleton man tribe as well as various dinosaurs. I wasn't expecting too much going into this film but I was still left disappointed because I've become of a fan of director Landers who is probably best remembered for the Karloff/Lugosi film THE RAVEN. The director has also directed films in series such as Boston Blackie, The Whistler and various other "B" movies. He can usually turn trash into good fun but that's not the case here. This is only my second film in the series and I'm already starting to get bored with it. There are still many campy moments here including one very embarrassing goof that happens towards the start of the film. After Jim rescues the reporter she goes to look at his profile and tells him to turn his head to the right but he ends up turning it to the left. I couldn't help but feel embarrassed for ol' Johnny and this scene almost made you forget his bad but campy performance. Waterfield isn't too bad in his role and we've also got camp favorite Lyle Talbot playing a mad scientist. The dinosaur sequence, lifted from ONE MILLION B.C., is extremely silly as is another scene, lifted from yet another movie, where an octopus and shark fight in the middle of the jungle!