User Reviews

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.

Johnny Weissmuller (himself), Jean Byron (Ellen Mackey), Helen Stanton (Oma), Bill Henry (Bob Prentice), Myron Healey (Mark Santo), Billy Curtis (Damu), Michael Granger (Nolimo), Frank Sully (Max), Benjamin F. Chapman jr (Marro), Kenneth L. Smith (Link), Ed Hinton (Regan), and "Kimba".

Director: CHARLES S. GOULD. Screenplay: Dwight V. Babcock, Jo Pagano. Allegedly based on a story by Jo Pagano inspired by the comic strip Jungle Jim, created by Alex Raymond. Actually based on the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by James Hilton (the screen rights to which were owned by Columbia). Photography: Henry Freulich. Film editor: Henry Batista. Art director: Paul Palmentola. Music directed by Mischa Bakaleinikoff. Assistant director: Eddie Saeta. Special effects: Jack Erickson. Unit manager: Leon Chooluck. Sound recording supervisor: Josh Westmoreland. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Sam Katzman. Original theatrical release prints processed in Sepia.

Copyright 1955 by Columbia Pictures Corp. No New York opening. U.S. release: April 1955 Australian release: 26 January 1956. 6,251 feet. 69 minutes. Censored to 67 minutes in Australia in order to qualify for a General or Universal exhibition certificate

SYNOPSIS: Johnny Weissmuller (himself) escorts Ellen Mackey (Jean Byron), an expert Egyptologist, into the country of the pygmy Moon Men, where they are captured. Taken to the underground temple of the Moon Goddess, they discover that Priestess Oma (Helen Stanton) has discovered the secret of eternal life.

NOTES: Number 15 of the 16-picture "Jungle Jim" series, is a re-make of "Lost Horizon" and "She".

COMMENT: One of the least impressive entries in the series, this inferior re-make of "Lost Horizon" has little more than curiosity to recommend it.

Although it opens in the same fashion as most of the other entries — with a montage of stock footage laboriously described by an off- camera narrator — and then teases us with a tiny bit of action, it quickly deteriorates into a repetitiously tepid series of doleful antics from the chimp, followed by even more tedious and indescribably yawnful dialogue. "You see, for several years," an unlikely female scientist yaks off, continuing to mouth away, bending Johnny Weissmuller's ears right back, until she finally ends up with "secrets of life."

Still all in the one drearily dull, relentlessly static two- shot take, the scene continues on its mercilessly lackluster way with the entrance of two of the most insipid stooges in the world, Bill Henry and Myron Healey.

SHE: They even claim to have discovered the secret of eternal life.

BILL: You mean they could live for ever?

If you think that little exchange a high point of low conversation, how about Johnny's undertaking later on into the action: — JOHNNY: You can't take the law into your own hands. You have my word: — Justice for the death of your son!

It seems the screen-playwrights are more interested in providing standing-still, clichéd dialogue than action opportunities. Johnny Weissmuller in fact has very little to actually do. Just one tame fist fight with Myron Healey is his limit. In this outing, he doesn't tussle with any animals at all. Oh yes, he does pick up one of the midget moon men. And oh yes, yes, he's pricked by a few darts.

The tedium of the screenplay — its lack of pace and excitement — is only equaled by Gould's totally flat, listless direction and the poverty of the picture's production values. Count them: — a few mangy moon men, two or three warriors, a bit of who- cares actual location lensing, topped by a couple of underground scenes in Columbia's standing tunnel sets (in which the photographer has managed a mere one or two middlingly effective shots).

Drastic cutting — at least twenty minutes — might make the picture a trifle more tolerable. The re-editor should especially target those crude, tasteless sequences in which wild animals are slaughtered with bow and arrow whilst Johnny Weissmuller smiles benignly in the background. Ancient stock items (including a few snips from Stanley and Livingstone) would not be missed either.

Acting is on the same flavorless level as script and direction. True, Misses Byron and Stanton are not too insipid to look at, but even they grow wearisome in these tinpot surroundings. Frank Sully's part is tiny, whilst Johnny Weissmuller, even considering the comparative unimportance of his role, projects a boredom that will disappoint even his most supportive fans.

OTHER VIEWS: Preposterous and in some respects rather distasteful, this Johnny Weissmuller "as himself" picture insults the intelligence of the most tolerant spectator. — Monthly Film Bulletin.

And with lollipop guild leader Billy Curtis as one of the pygmy leaders, the similarities increase. This is the second to last Jungle Jim movie (minus that name because of legal issues concerning the character) and it is not an entry too late, for the plots have reached their nadir on this one. The pygmy's obviously are not either real pygmy's or moon men, just a band of little people living a jungle "Terror of Tiny Town" under the thumb of an evil high priestess searching for a high priest and using a poison with an anecdote ready to serve once she receives the package of her heart's desire. Billy Curtis, as the captured pygmy, is treated with little respect, used as entertainment and patronizing condescension by the oh too adorable chimpanzees Kimba. You know you're considered the lowest of the low when you're the prop of a monkey! Kimba is talented, but if he (or she) could be trained to roll her eyes back because of the outrageously bad story, then he (or she) would be worthy of an Oscar!