Fury of the Congo (1951)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

The bad white man is back, after the mysterious okongoe for something in their system that apparently makes a fabulous narcotic. OK, that's a strange premise on its own, but the way that this "Jungle Jim" series is presented is a lot more intelligent than the previous four entries in the series, minus the very good first entry. Unfortunately, it's missing the unintentional humor in those films, and that makes this a bit slow at times. OK, there is the obviously painted mule made to look like a zebra and a slithering spider like creature the size of a man (no rival to the creepy ones of "Cat Women of the Moon"), plus a scary sandstorm that comes out of nowhere. Of course, there's also the obligatory fall into quicksand, a staple of practically every entry in the series. Sherry Moreland is the lucky starlet out of a tribe of Amazon like women to be the female lead, although I would say her creative discovery of makeup among non jungle plants seems quite ingenious.

The 6th of Johnny Weissmuller's forays into Jungle Jim's khaki shorts proves to be a damp squib. It's low on ideas and crudely constructed by director William Berke. OK, lets not beat around the jungle bush, for the very young film fan there is more than enough here to keep them rooted to the sofa. From hilariously bad spider designs to recycled animal fights, there's no denying that young eyes can enjoy whilst feasting on their burgers. Hell, the plot even has some intelligence to it, even if it's a touch bonkers as drug lords seek to extract narcotic tinged glands from the Okongo, a half horse/zebra/antelope thingy that the makers have made up. But this is all told one of the weakest of the series and feels old hat as regards familiarity breeding contempt. 4/10

If you've seen more than a couple of Johnny Weismuller's 'Jungle Jim' movie adventures, you won't have any trouble spotting the scenes repeated from earlier films in the franchise. "Fury Of The Congo" has at least two, utilizing Jim's wrestling match with a leopard from the first film of the series ("Jungle Jim"), and later on there's a view of Tamba the chimp in a vine swing over a ravine from the prior picture, "Captive Girl". Come to think of it, those shots of the mountain top pass might have been the ones used in "The Lost Tribe" as well. That's one thing the Poverty Row producers of the era did well, and that was to economize wherever possible.At least a little more creativity went into this story than we've seen before. The plot deals with a rare jungle animal called the 'Okongo', described as a cross between an antelope and a zebra. That of course presumes that interspecies breeding is possible, but since it isn't, it's at this point you can leave your thinking cap on the couch. Curiously, dark Okongos have a pattern of white stripes, and light colored ones have the same pattern in black stripes, in a way that zebras just can't duplicate. It gets better. The Okongos feed on a rare narcotic plant (sounds like 'madro'), and then produce a glandular drug that has an even more concentrated effect. That makes them a prime target for drug smugglers who want to capture the Okongos for illicit trade. I found it pretty interesting that with all the rare animals they might have come up with to use in a story line, it's probably best that the writers made this all up.The creativity doesn't end there either. This is the first time out we see Jungle Jim use a bolo as a weapon, and with great accuracy of course. Besides the leopard mentioned earlier, Jim also defeats a giant hairy tarantula-like spider in an awkward looking battle where he's on his back the entire time. You know, you can say all you want about Superman, but the real Man Of Steel was Jungle Jim. In film after film, going hand to claw with lions, tigers, leopards and crocodiles, Jim never came away with even a scratch!Of course there's never any doubt that Jungle Jim prevails in this one too, the downside however being that most of the finale in a violent desert storm goes on a lot longer than it needed to, much like the filler between Skipper and Caw-Caw in previous films. Which is another downside to the story, they're both not here, giving way to Tamba as Jim's animal companion in this one. I think he might have lost points for knocking Jim into a pool of quicksand though. But at least there's a pretty girl around as in the prior films; Sherry Moreland is effective as Jim's native guide to locate the Okongo.

I obtained a copy of Fury of the Congo from the same source as the Bomba movies I have.In this one, Jungle Jim, a native woman and another man who is pretending to be their friend and is actually a hunter go and track down a group of hunters who have kidnapped all the native men. These hunters are after a rare breed of horse, the Okongo and want the native men to help them to kill the Okongoes as they are a source of a kind of drug. During the expedition, Jim and his companions face several dangers including dust storms and, best of all, a giant desert spider. The hunters are captured at the end, some of them killed and the native men are reunited with their wives. The Okongoes are safe and well too.As always, Johnny Wiessmuller plays Jungle Jim and the rest of the cast includes Lyle Talbot and William Henry.Fury of the Kongo is worth a look at if you get the chance. Quite hard to get hold of.Rating: 3 stars out of 5.