Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

GrimPrecise I'll tell you why so serious

Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

GarnettTeenage The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

JohnHowardReid Aside from a punch-out between hero and villains in Chapter One, the action in Republic's second last serial is little more than a seemingly endless succession of shoot-outs between the worst shots in the jungle. And most of this action is sadly truncated at that! In addition, the process work is extremely ropey and the only good stock shots are repeated many times! The villains are talkative and unattractive. Only Phyllis Coates, swinging through the jungle in a delightfully unsuitable mini, manages to hold the interest of the viewer. The rest of the players are well below par. Ten out of ten for Miss Coates. Zero for everybody and everything else including the laughable cray fish that supposedly metamorphoses into a giant menace. Available on an excellent Grapevine DVD.

vespatian75 Most criticisms of this serial are valid. The pace in the middle episodes slows down to a crawl. It relies on cheap special effects and stock footage, and it's padded with "flashbacks" to previous episodes. So why did I give it 7 out of 10 stars? Two words: Phyllis Coates. She is to my mind one of the sexiest Jungle Girls ever in her tailored buckskin leopard belted mini dress (an exact duplicate of Frances Gifford's outfit in "Jungle Girl")It's not a matter of looks alone. The Panther Girl is a different kind of Jungle Girl, not a mysterious goddess of some lost world or a waif growing up in the wilds.She is a career woman with a real job. She is a cinematographer of wild animals. A feisty, hard nosed business woman. Absolutely fearless, she can swing through the trees like Tarzan, swim like a fish, run like a gazelle, and dispatch dangerous predators with gun or knife. And you know at the end she will make a well deserved profit selling her footage of the "Claw Monsters". And why not? She is an example of capitalism at its best. She risks her life to save the jungle from the dastardly villains and is entitled to a profit. She is a prototype of the modern woman but feminine enough to accept the help of her stalwart friend played by WW2 vet Myron Healy. If they do develop a romantic relationship you know it would be as equals. A few caveats. I would not try to watch it straight through. A couple of episodes a night might be best, and have the fast forward button ready for some of the middle episodes.

Mike-764 Jean Evans, known in the jungles of Africa as the Panther Girl, is filming wildlife when she encounters what appears to be a giant crawfish in the jungles, which frightens the natives. The monster is the creation of chemist Morgan who has been feeding crawfish growth hormones. The reason for this is that Morgan has discovered a diamond mine, and with his two henchmen Cass and Rand, want to drive out the natives so they can work the mine unknown to everyone. Jean calls in her friend Larry Sanders, a big game hunter, to destroy the claw monster, but they also have to tackle Cass, Rand, and whatever idea Morgan can come up with to stop them. This is not a bad serial considering the era of the serials in 1955, but the serial seems flat and the performances only fair. Only when does the serial splice in footage from Jungle Girl does the serial seem to take on any life. The claw monster idea was probably novel in 1955 since there were plenty of mutated monster flicks at the time. Rating, based on serials, 4.

Teenie-1 I remember this serial from the Saturday double features at our neighborhood theatre. This was one of my favorites since it featured a woman (gorgeous Class-A actress Phyllis Coates)who could kick butt pre-Tomb Raider. I don't mean with fancy weapons and stuff - I mean who could handle a high-powered rifle, wrestle and knock out a a man twice her size, and even square-off face-to-face with a lion, armed with only a knife and a lion's headdress.(!) For its time it was pretty good. My kids got a kick out of the storyline - giant crawdads invading Africa! The Panther Girl (who is actually dressed in a leopard suit) must get to the bottom of this and stop it (with the help of Class-Z ham Myron Healey). If you're up for something corny but fun in its own way, then get this serial. Oh, for a laugh or two, check out the scene when the natives are gathered and are about to set safari after seeing the giant crawdads in action and getting the stew scared out of them. One of the actors is off-cue and is staring at someone on the crew and laughing, then gets back into character after the scene has started with everyone else looking scared, but you have to look quickly. It's worth a look - even the kids might get a laugh or two. Nothing offensive whatsoever.