Jungle Jim in the Forbidden Land (1952) User Reviews

Jungle Jim meets the Wolfman...

[babeth_jr · 6/10 · 14 September 2007]

I know there are a lot of negative comments on IMDb regarding the series of Jungle Jim movies starring Johnny Weissmuller in the early 1950's. Yes, they were low budget films, and Johnny couldn't act his way out of a paper bag if his life depended on it. Nonetheless, I find these films fun, as long as you check your mind at the door while watching them.

This entry in the series has Jungle Jim (Weissmuller) helping a pretty female anthropologist, Dr. Linda Roberts, (portrayed by actress Angela Greene) find the land of the Giants, a strange group of people who snarl like lions and look like werewolves on growth hormones. Of course we have to have the requisite bad guy, who is played by Lester Matthews, a corrupt commissioner who is stealing ivory from tusks of elephants.

I love these movies because of the outrageous acts of daring do we are supposed to believe...watch Jungle Jim wrestle underwater with a 2,000 pound hippo! See Jim go one on one with a black panther, rolling on the ground with it attacking him and emerge without a scratch, his khakis as clean and starchily pressed as if he just got them from the cleaners. It's hilarious, and all in good, clean fun.

If you watch these movies knowing they are not to be believed, but just enjoyed, then you'll have a good time.

Mr.&Mrs. Missing Link

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 13 October 2012]

Jungle Jim In The Forbidden Land is about Jungle Jim refusing to take anthropologist Angela Greene to a place in the jungle where living evidence of the fabled missing link is supposed to be. At the same time another woman of less character played by Jean Willes is looking to drive elephants through the jungle pass that goes through the missing link country. So a pair of agendas send Johnny Weissmuller into the forbidden land.

Weissmuller is doing the humane thing, let these people alone. And one look at them when a man and woman get out of the jungle and start wreaking havoc on all around would convince most anyone that's a practical policy. Still both women want to get that hidden valley where Mr.&Mrs. Missing Link come from. And both are checking out Weissmuller too, for the specimen he is.

Put all that together with Jungle Jim being framed for a murder he didn't commit and you have all the ingredients for this Jungle Jim feature. This one is done a bit more tongue and cheek than some of the others so it's bearable for adults.

"Well my simian friend, a fine guide you turned out to be"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 6/10 · 17 November 2018]

There's a lot going on in this Jungle Jim adventure. An attractive anthropologist Dr. Linda Roberts wants to go to the valley of the giant people. Denise and 'Doc' Edwards want to acquire loads of illegal elephant ivory. Two giants have been captured but they only want to go home. Jungle Jim fights with a hippo and a black panther before being pumped with a truth serum. Tamba the chimp is helpful some of the time. Commissioner Kingston is confused. Not to mention scores of monkeys and elephants. A busy film that keeps ones' attention.

The actors are rather mundane though and Johnny Weissmuller as Jungle Jim is a bit more wooden than usual. Jean Willes as the villainous Denise comes off best and her demise is rather satisfying. The giant people themselves are rather endearing with furry clothes that look a little moth eaten. Like the film really, endearing and a bit moth eaten.

Slightly better than the most of the others in this dreary series.

[youroldpaljim · 12 November 2001]

The Jungle Jim movies produced by Sam Katzman and starring Johnny Weismuller were all low grade jungle adventures made strictly to fill the bottom half of a double bill. Unless you watch them out nostalgia or, are like me, a fan of Weismuller, they are pretty rough going. None of them seem to have been made with idea of making something good. The concurrent Tarzan films at RKO with Lex Barker, and the Bomba the Jungle Boy series at Monogram starring former "Boy" Johnny Sheffield, while not great, were at least reasonably well produced.

JUNGLE JIM IN THE FORBIDDEN LAND is slightly enlivened by the presence of the strange "giant people." They are not giants, just very tall. They are supposed to be some kind of missing link. The makeup by Clay Campell is surprisingly good for such a cheap picture, but the only problem is that the "giant people" look more like werewolves than some kind of "missing link". Otherwise, JUNGLE JIM IN THE FORBIDDEN is just another Jungle Jim movie with the usual perfunctory performances, light skinned Africans, Columbia backlot jungle, stock footage, Tamba's hijinks etc.

Perfunctory and silly, but still watchable if you aren't too fussy

[lemon_magic · 3/10 · 4 August 2007]

"In the Forbidden Land" seems to me to have a weaker and less focused screenplay compared to the other JJ episode I've seen (the one where he goes looking for a missing football player). Or maybe seeing another one helped me realize just how perfunctory and by-the-numbers this series really was. But the performances were about the same, and the effects and sound stages and liberal use of stock footage and white actors was about the same. Johnny himself still looked reasonably fit (for a 1950s actor who didn't know anything about modern theories of resistance training or nutrition) in his one extended shirtless scene, which is always good for a viewers' morale.

Goofy mistakes and second rate production elements abound, of course. A hippo attacks a canoe and eats one of the paddlers (aren't hippos herbivores?).Jim alternates fighting a stuffed panther with stock footage shots of a real one snarling at the camera. "Giant people" from a lost tribe turn out to resemble werewolves (rather than "missing links"). Asian elephants are outfitted with tusks and ear prostheses in an effort to resemble African elephants (at least they knew the difference). There's random footage of "Tamba" the chimp being "cute" that has no connection to almost anything else in the plot and is just there because, hey, people expect a chimp sidekick for Johnny. And every one in the plot is rock stupid. The final third of the plot involves Jim being framed for murder (apparently the commissioner was supposed to think that Jim shot himself full of pentathol and clubbed himself unconscious) but not being allowed to explain what happened because they've gagged him. (The stated reason is that they don't want him to "call for help from his animal friends". The real reason is that the plot twist wouldn't last for 30 seconds if Jim was allowed to speak).

Still, if you choose to watch a "Jungle Jim" adventure in this day and age, you either want to relive the experience of being 8 years old and watching a Saturday afternoon matinée, or else you are an archivist and collector of all similar things from that era. In either case, you parked your brain at the door at the beginning of the film. (I'm not sneering - I enjoy certain pop culture items from my childhood far more than they deserve on their actual merits.)

So here you are: enjoy!

Jungle Jim in the Forbidden Land (1952)

[jazza923 · 3/10 · 12 March 2010]

31/100. This is the eighth entry in the Jungle Jim series, and unfortunately not the last. The were profitable at the time, mainly because the had minuscule budgets. As with most in the series, the plot is lame and stupid. This time he gets entangled with a greedy and evil ivory hunter. That's not all folks, he also has to grapple with a "giant man," in bad make up, a phony looking costume and a desperate need for a dentist. As with all in the films in the series, a lot of obvious stock footage is used, and a menagerie of animals that in reality do not co-exist anywhere in the universe. The acting is, as expected, poor, the art direction painfully obvious. The film looks as though it took perhaps a week to film.

"... in the jungle, you're not always given a second chance."

[classicsoncall · 4/10 · 10 May 2007]

Gee, what would have possessed Jungle Jim (Johnny Weissmuller) to take on a hippo, and under water no less? That's one of the offerings in 'The Forbidden Land', as the jungle hero aids an anthropologist seeking the fabled Land of Giant People. When a couple of the 'giants' actually appear for the first time, my first thought was who might have raided Lon Chaney's Wolfman wardrobe. If you take all the Jungle Jim films together, this would have to be right up there with the goofiest, if not the most dangerous for Jim. He would actually have been a goner if not for chimp sidekick Tamba wielding a coconut bean ball when the male giant had him down for the count.

For trivia fans, it's finally revealed here that Jim's home is near Ingaba Lake in the Wasabi District, even though most of his earlier stories took place in the Nagandi District. Or maybe he just moved. This film more than any of Weismuller's other Jungle Jim flicks looks like it was slapped together with as many elements as possible and as little coherence necessary to pull off the story. For example - 'The Old One', the wise old man of Tiku. In the scene establishing that he was blind, he fires off the film's cleverest line - "When eyes are dead, heart must see". That advice was never needed again.

The story itself involves ivory poachers, merely tall 'giant' people, and Jim tackling the earlier mentioned hippo and a black panther. Oh yes, and he's injected with a truth serum to reveal the location of the giant homeland. It would be interesting to hear Weissmuller express his thoughts about the picture after being injected with truth serum.

Keeping track of non African animals in an African setting? This one has a South American jaguar battling a bush hog. As for that black panther, it's hilarious to watch it turn into a stuffed animal and back during it's wrestling match with Jim; as always, no blood drawn against the intrepid jungle tracker.

Second chances notwithstanding, Weissmuller tries to do as much as he can with the material he's given, but is shown to best advantage in his swimming and diving scenes. Not as trim as in his earlier Tarzan days, but still impressive enough. But can you really kill a hippo using just a knife?

Don't go searching for Jungle Jim. He'll find you!

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 6 June 2017]

All you need to be is a damsel in distress, here Angela Greene, cornered by a black panther which in Jim's arms looks like a kitten. She's a beautiful anthropologist searching for a mysterious people, giants of the jungle and as mysterious as the forbidden land itself. This has one of the better setups for the mid series, outwearing its welcome except for the kids who rushed to these on Saturday morning and the later youthful TV audiences who clamored for Tarzan, Bombs and any look back at the ever popular but dying serials so popular in those last days of the golden age of cinema. That's when they made em' fast, made em' cheap, and made em' in bulk. As long as Jim and his chimp pal Tamba cavorted through the African wilds, they could find an audience.

Smartly, this shows the raid on Greene's canoe by dangerous hippos, reminding us of the dangers of these seemingly peaceful herbivores. Johnny Weissmuller deserves credit for going as long as he could, dealing once again with on-the-warpath natives, elephant poachers and Styrofoam sets. They actually name the tribal chief "Zulu", and there's a mysterious prophet like character named "the old one". Lester Matthews and Jean Willed are the obvious bad guys, part of Jim's expedition for nefarious reasons, utilizing truth serum to find out what they need to know. This seems to be a little more polished than previous episodes which were mostly rushed. A plot twist borrowed from "Island of Lost Souls" adds to the intrigue. Danger at every turn and a steady, fun pace puts this at above average.

As far as I'm concerned the "Missing Link" can stay missing!

[sol1218 · 5/10 · 29 May 2009]

**SPOILERS** Pretty and determined lady anthropologist Dr. Linda Roberts, Angela Greene, just survived a deadly hippo attack that wiped out her entire expedition only to be spotted and attacked by a ferocious and hungry black leopard. Luckily for Linda the big cat is killed by the jungle man himself "Jungle Jim", Johnny Weissmuller, who came both running and swimming to her rescue.

Mr."Jim" or James Bradley which is actually "Jungle Jim's" real name, taken from the newspaper comic strip where the character originated from in the late 1930's, is not at all willing to help Linda find the forbidden land beyond the "Valley of the Elephant". It's there where the legendary "Giant People" are said to be inhabitants of. Linda is certain that the "Giant People" are the illusive "Missing Link" that can finally connect man to the world of primates.

What makes Jim change his mind is when he learns that a number of native ivory poachers together with Americans Doc. Edwards, William Tanner, and his girlfriend Denise, Jean Willes, are also looking for the secret land of the "Giant People"! Not for reasons of research in order to prove Darwin's' theory of Evolution but to trap all the elephants in the area and slaughter them for their precious ivory tusks!

"Jungle Jim" in trying to stop Doc & Danise together with their partner in crime the native Chief Zulu, Frederick Berest, from corralling the elephants gets himself into far more trouble then even he ever expected to be in. Jim gets into a life and death struggle with one of the "Giant People", the seven foot tall Clem Ericson, who was held together with his mate, the over six foot tall Irmgard Helen H. Raschke, captive by Doc & Denise. It's in his fight with he "Giant Man", who had Jim on the ropes, that Jim is saved by his pet monkey Tamba who brains the big guy with a rock. Jim is later knocked out could, from behind, by Doc who together with Denise framed Jim for a murder that he was totally Innocent of! That of Fred Lewis, George Eldridge, who in attempting to stop both Doc and Denise from carrying their dastardly plan ended up getting killed, by Doc, for his treat to report them to the local authorities.

Jim now a wanted man in the Fred Lewis murder has to not only prove his innocence, before he's tracked down and shot by the local native police, but at the same time stop Doc & Denise, with the help of Chief Zulu and his tribesmen,from wiping out, in order to get their hands on their ivory tusks, the entire local elephant population!

This turns out to be a job far too big for "Jungle Jim" to handle himself. But with the help of the now on the loose "Giant Man" and his pet chimpanzee Tamba and of course the threatened with extinction elephants themselves "Jungle Jim" does managed to pull it all-and thus save the day- off!

Jungle Jim Meets the Wolf Man

[Michael_Elliott · 30 May 2009]

Jungle Jim in the Forbidden Land (1952)

** (out of 4)

Insane entry in the series has Jungle Jim (Johnny Weissmuller) given "truth serum", which makes him give away the location of the "giant people", a wolf man like tribe, which lives deep in the jungle. A group of mean people want to use them to locate some elephants so that they can be killed for their ivory. This eighth film in the series is only the third one that I've viewed but I'd be really scared if any of the others were as crazy and goofy as this one. I'm really not sure why they didn't call this JUNGLE JIM MEETS THE WOLF MAN because that's pretty much what it is. The "giant people" are more like missing link creatures but you can't help but look at them as werewolves in the sun. The creature make up is actually pretty good and a lot more believable than what we saw in Columbia's THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE, which was also directed by Landers. We also get several other outrageous scenes including one where Jim fights a hippo at the bottom of a river. The hippo is incredibly fake looking but this adds to some of the goofy charm. The funniest sequence is the one where Jim must fight a black panther, which features the worst stuffed animal I've ever seen. Stock footage is added in of course but this just makes the stuffed creature look even worse and seeing Weissmuller fight it was just hilarious. In the end this is a pretty bad movie but it's just so crazy that you can't help but find yourself entertained.

More crappy Jungle Jim adventures...

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 14 November 2015]

During the 1930s and 40s, Johnny Weissmuller starred in a series of excellent Tarzan films for MGM. However, by the late 40s, Weissmuller's handsome good looks were giving way to middle age and MGM tired of the films. So, Weissmuller went looking for work and was hired to essentially play Tarzan in some very low-budget films. But, since they didn't own rights to Tarzan, the films were marketed as Jungle Jim films--Jim being a comic character which was much cheaper to license! Plus, Jim isn't exactly a jungle savage-- allowing the now paunchy Weissmuller to wear more clothes. While I love Weissmuller's Tarzan flicks, the Jungle Jim ones are not especially good...but at least they helped the aging actor to pay the bills.

Here in "Jungle Jim in the Forbidden Land", our hero is approached by a sexy scientist to go to some legendary land where there are giants. Jim knows better and refuses--especially since it involves ivory. But then he eventually is forced to go on this expedition-- one where you'll see all sorts of stock footage and crappy 'creatures'. One of my favorite is just before he agrees to go--- when Jim struggles with a vicious hippo--a hippo that clearly is rubber AND while he's supposed to be under water, Weissmuller clearly isn't and footage of water is superimposed over the scene! Talk about crappy!! There's also a wolfman sort of guy! Why? Who knows?! And then there's the Indian elephants (in Africa) with tusks taped onto it (you can see them wiggling about). The bottom line is that if you like crappy jungle films, then you will like this one. If you think it in any way approaches the quality of the classic Tarzan films, then are you in for a rude awakening! Rather awful overall...and a bit dull.

Among the best Jungle JIM

[searchanddestroy-1 · 18 December 2023]

And I will never stop repeating: never watch such items with a serious, first degree glance, that's very important. It is fun, exciting, second degree, destined to families, kids, adults with a young spirit in search of their childhood memory. This one directed by Lew Landers is better than the ones made by William Berke. That doesn't mean Landers was that better than Berke. Although.... I was very amused, never bored by this adventure action packed short film. I recommend it to any open minded moviegoers. Even TARZAN lovers will spend a good time in this TARZAN's cousin material. Forget the L. A. backlot settings.