TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Ortiz Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

mark.waltz I can just imagine the 1950 help wanted sign from Columbia's Z unit, "Calling all dwarfs! Must be white!" Yes, this Jungle Jim series focuses on a white Pygmy tribe in Africa, under investigation for murder, and dealing with villains disguised in gorilla suits, as other weird looking supposedly native African tribe costumes, and adventuress Ann Savage ("Detour") aiding in the investigation by hiding on a leaf covered raft as she floats down stream with a very enthusiastic little person. Jungle Jim and his friendly baby chimp have an encounter with the bad guy in the gorilla suit on a swinging bridge that collapses with Jim attached, little white pygmy's swing from tree to tree, and really bad backdrops of waterfalls where the water looks frozen decorates the set. This is worse than the lower budget Bomba the Jungle Boy series, laughable in every manner. David Bruce and Stefan Geray are the stereotypical bad guys, and all of the white pygmy's seem to be over caffeinated and over exercised to give them muscle bulk to go along with their enthusiasm for being cast in a big Hollywood epic. This one makes "The Terror of Tiny Town" look like "High Noon".

JohnHowardReid Instead of some tired old jungle footage, this one starts off with a really ancient disappearing scientist montage (no offscreen narration whatever until Selmer Jackson introduces Jungle Jim via a flashback). All the same, this should have been one of the better entries in the series: The pygmies could have been colorful. The introductory shots of the bush devils show promise and Ann Savage should have been an interesting heroine. Instead she is totally colorless and ranks as one of the dullest in the entire series. The climax, despite some exploding firecrackers is tame and the other main action highlights such as the underwater fight with the croc and the tangle with the phony gorilla on the bridge have obviously been lifted from the stock library. Fortunately, Steve Geray makes a superior villain – in the process of which – with seemingly casual ease – he puts every other member of the cast – and most especially Johnny W. – distinctly in the shade! Incidentally, Selmer Jackson plays the Commissioner in my credits, but maybe he's also an army officer at the Pentagon?

Michael_Elliott Pygmy Island (1950) ** (out of 4) The fifth film in the series has Jungle Jim (Johnny Weissmuller) helping rescue a woman (Ann Savage) who went into the jungle and never returned. It turns out that a group of white men are racing against the government trying to locate a mysterious rope that can't burn and this here starts up a war with a group of midgets led by Makuba (Billy Curtis). If you're expecting any type of "quality" from a Jungle Jim movie then you're going to be disappointed. I'm sure kids back in the day were thrilled and terrified to see Jungle Jim fight a rubber alligator but when seen today you can't help but view it as nothing more than camp. What's shocking is that they were able to squeeze out sixteen of these films and their quality might not have ever gotten too high but the camp value is usually there. The actual story here is certainly better than some of the entries in the series as the groups are trying to locate this mysterious plant, which will allow them to make a fireproof rope. All is good as we get several fights, an elephant stampede, crocodiles attacking and we get the highlight involving a large gorilla. In the film's best scene Jungle Jim and his friendly chimp are crossing one of those bridges that connect two cliffs and of course there's a long fall to your death if you go over the side. When Jim gets over the bridge he's attacked by a large gorilla (man in a suit of course) and their battle is downright hilarious. Seeing Weissmuller having to fight a gorilla is worth sitting through the entire film. As you'd expect, the performances are all bland to bad with Weissmuller showing that he was more image than acting talent. Savage appears to be asking yourself what she's doing in this type of film but at least Curtis is fun as the midget leader. At 69-minutes the film still seems way too long but if you're into these types of "B" movies then you might find this one a tad bit better than some but at the same time that's really not saying much.

mikeval412 I can't believe how much fun Jungle Jim movies really are! I stayed up very late to watch this one and it's a real gem! Anything with... Johnny Weissmuller, Billy Curtis (wearing a black long wig), jungle settings, tons of stock footage, Johnny fighting a rubber crocodile and a guy in a gorilla suit (is that Crash Corrigan? Looks like his suit.)...is well worth it. This is one that should not be missed! Too bad Johnny only made 16 Jungle Jims.