Captive Girl (1950)

Why so much hype?

Pretty Good

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

When Johnny Weissmuller started getting too old to play Tarzan, he put on some khakis and returned to the African wilds as Jungle Jim. The Tarzan films allowed Weissmuller to disguise the fact that he wasn't all the great of an actor, since Tarzan only spoke in broken English, but with him now being required to deliver normal dialogue reveals him as a painfully wooden actor.. However, Weissmuller does have screen charisma and that's enough to carry this routine jungle adventure that has a dash of sex appeal, with it's story about Jungle Jim saving a jungle girl captured by an evil witch doctor, while also fighting a treasure hunter played by Buster Crabbe (who also played Tarzan in the 1930s).

I was a kid when this movie came out. In fact, it was shown as the feature during one Saturday matinée. The way the local Bijou ran Saturday matinées was that they always started at 12:30 PM. There would be a few cartoons, a comedy short (Three Stooges, Laurel & Hardy, Little Rascals, etc), another few cartoons, a serial chapter (Flash Gordon, Buck Rodgers, etc), then topped off with the feature film. One interesting thing about our Saturday matinées was that in all of the movies, no matter if they were adventures (like "Captive Girl"), a western or sci-fi movie, the good guys always won. But, the way that the Bijou ran the show, there was no "theme." But, if you were a kid like I was, you didn't care. As long as the good guy winning, we were happy. And we were home in time for dinner."Captive Girl" uses cheesy sets, phoned in dialog, stock footage and good looking actors. This movie brings back fond memories of my youth.

What girl no matter her age can resist anything that has both Johnny Weissmuller and Buster Crabb in it? Just seeing Johnny Weissmuller in anything is reward enough. He was absolutely captivating in all of the Tarzan movies. He was also fun in the Jungle Jim television shows too. It is time well spent even if the movies and plots may seem weak. Better than what is out there now. At least the men are attractive and worth looking at. What is interesting is that both Johnny and Buster were competitive in the Olympics. And then they were competitive in the movies. Another neat movie with both of them in it is Swamp Fire. More competition but all for the love of a lady. These are just fun escapism movies back when men were men and women were lucky!

If you watch enough of the Jungle Jim movies, you'll realize that the stories all follow a pretty standard formula, just as Charles Starrett's Durango Kid films did in the Western genre. Which is OK on the one hand because they're entertaining in their way, but it also makes them highly forgettable once a couple of days have passed by. What's kind of interesting in this one is that Johnny Weismuller as the jungle hero is pitted against Buster Crabbe as the villain of the piece. Since both were genuine Olympic swimming champions, the stage might have been set for some sort of athletic rivalry, however since it was Weismuller's franchise, he's the only one we see doing the high dives and underwater heroics, this time against a crocodile.Central to the story is the rumored Wild Girl of Lake Pakongee, raised in the jungle and accompanied by a tiger. Her parents were murdered years earlier by the evil witch doctor Hakim, and it's Hakim's goal to kill her as well, before she can exact revenge. Interestingly, the actress portraying the Wild Girl, Anita Lhoest, appeared on screen only one time, and this was it. She too was an exceptional swimmer from California.As in all the Jungle Jim films, wild animals take center stage from time to time, but with budgets as they were back in the day, it's not too hard to pick out that monkey treetop scramble that appeared as stock footage in the prior two films ("The Lost Tribe" and "Mark Of The Gorilla"). What makes this picture fun at the finale is the wild monkey rampage that overtakes the witch doctor and his tribal goons. For those keeping track, the non African animal appearing in the story this time, besides Wild Girl Joan's tiger, is a South American cockatoo.Say, if you stay attentive, there are a couple of interesting items to stay alert for. Right after Chief Mahala (Rick Vallin) banishes Hakim from the tribal village, there's a shot of Wild Girl up on a rock ledge, just as in the start of the picture. If you look closely, you'll note that the waterfall to her left is in reverse, it's rising instead of falling! Later on in the story, listen closely and you'll hear a faint Tarzan yell during the panther/tiger scuffle. That was Weismuller's classic signature that he invented for his earlier Tarzan role.For me, I guess that's where the fun is in these Jungle Jim pictures, trying to pick up on the little idiosyncrasies thrown in by the director to make things interesting. Moving forward, we'll have to see if Tamba the Chimp becomes a regular as one of Jungle Jim's animal companions. He made fast friends with Jim's dog Skipper by trading a bone for a banana in the early filler part of the movie. Good thing too, or Jim and company would have never made it across the ravine!