For all intents and purposes this is another in a string of Jungle Jim adventure movies, except that Johnny Weissmuller appears in this one using his own name. Most of the typical JJ scenarios are presented except for Weissmuller wrestling some hapless stuffed animal or underwater blow up creature. Otherwise it's pretty standard stuff, with Weissmuller guiding author Ellen Marsten (Jean Byron) into the jungle in search of book material. The moon men of the title turn out to be pygmies from the Baku country, with no connection to other worldly environs. If I didn't know better, I might have considered them as the inspiration for George Lucas's Ewoks, but with faces exposed and not as hairy. You might recognize their leader Damu as Billy Curtis who almost two full decades later appeared as Clint Eastwood's diminutive ally Mordecai in "High Plains Drifter".
To give you an idea how much thought went into these flicks, consider an early scene when native Marro (Ben Chapman) is attacked by the band of pygmies in order to drug and capture him. He's struck by a poison dart on an area of his upper chest that was covered directly by his shield!
Of course, there must be villains, and this time out Myron Healey does the honors as the evil Santo. He and his gang follow Johnny into the Baku country in hopes of discovering a large cache of diamonds. The trail ends at the cave of the high priestess Oma (Helen Stanton), revealed to have discovered the secret of eternal life. That gives one a pretty good idea of how Oma meets her demise - hint, she can't leave the cave into direct sunlight - Oops!
In keeping with the Jungle Jim tradition, a North American mountain lion makes an appearance in the film, demonstrating that wild animals in pictures don't honor geographic boundaries. As for Johnny's sidekick, he's got a chimp named Kimba, who could have been Tamba from his earlier pictures, they all look alike you know. Or maybe not, Tamba was pretty adventurous, but in this picture, it seemed like Johnny carried the chimp around everywhere they went.
To give you an idea how much thought went into these flicks, consider an early scene when native Marro (Ben Chapman) is attacked by the band of pygmies in order to drug and capture him. He's struck by a poison dart on an area of his upper chest that was covered directly by his shield!
Of course, there must be villains, and this time out Myron Healey does the honors as the evil Santo. He and his gang follow Johnny into the Baku country in hopes of discovering a large cache of diamonds. The trail ends at the cave of the high priestess Oma (Helen Stanton), revealed to have discovered the secret of eternal life. That gives one a pretty good idea of how Oma meets her demise - hint, she can't leave the cave into direct sunlight - Oops!
In keeping with the Jungle Jim tradition, a North American mountain lion makes an appearance in the film, demonstrating that wild animals in pictures don't honor geographic boundaries. As for Johnny's sidekick, he's got a chimp named Kimba, who could have been Tamba from his earlier pictures, they all look alike you know. Or maybe not, Tamba was pretty adventurous, but in this picture, it seemed like Johnny carried the chimp around everywhere they went.