Devil Goddess (1955) User Reviews

Dumb and Dumber

[malcolm-68 · 2/10 · 18 March 2012]

Columbia Pictures failed to renew the rights to the "Jungle Jim" character so Johnny Weissmuller plays a character with his own real name in the final three. Wiley Tightwad alias producer Sam Katzman pre-sold titles to exhibitors prior to a single scene of these films being shot so he covered his costs beforehand. This explains why "Devil Goddess" involves neither a Devil nor a Goddess. Instead the ramshackle story such as it is concerns a bunch of superstitious natives whose encampment is about to be buried in lava from a volcano and some idiot treasure hunters. The main plot element involves two scientists played by Selmer Jackson and Angela Stevens searching for an old explorer who has disappeared on an earlier safari. Johnny Weissmuller is hired as their guide and protector. So dumb are the plot machinations that they end up protecting him! To slash costs even more, not only does this entry incorporate stock footage of wild animals but also recycles scenes from earlier "Jungle Jim" movies which have no relevance to this film. They also had to hire comely Angela Stevens again, who had been in the previous superior "Savage Mutiny", wearing the same clothes so they could match the stock shots. Perfunctory direction of the new scenes is by old pro Spencer Gordon Bennett. Most of the cast is strictly third division.The good news is that this is the last of the series. The bad news is that subsequently a television series was shot. This film is only of interest to those who have seen the rest of the film series. As to the rest of the potential audience, this film should come complete with a label warning against puerile films.

The last and the least

[searchanddestroy-1 · 27 December 2023]

I guess it is the last film of the JUNGLE JIM series. And this time, unlike the other movies, proves that the pace and inspiration begins to run out of breath. It remains agreeable but it's a good news that there will be no more because there is nothing new anymore. The villains are not uninteresting however, they are as "juicy" as ever, if not better than in other episodes. But besides this, sorry, I searched but could not make it. The natives are always shown in the same manner, clichés galore and I think of all those naive, nearly idiotic audiences to whom it was destined. But it was JUNGLE JIM, and BOMBA film series was more or less the same.

Lots of monkeying around in the last of the Jungle Johnny's.

[mark.waltz · 1/10 · 1 December 2017]

From a man in an app suit to fellow baby chimp and orangutan friends of Kimba, this is one hairy episode. Baby bears fight hyenas and a huge rope bridge is just missing Laurel and Hardy trying to push a piano across it when the gorilla appears. Johnny's trying to help a lady scientist get a vaccine to her father while natives look on in awe as a Moses lookalike stands atop a flame infested mountain range.

While the movie is watchable in a guilty pleasure sort of way, I can't rate it any higher due to seemingly deliberate insipidness and a ton of ridiculous clichés. Typical white villains try to cause trouble in a mining claim and of course look as smarmy as the fraud they're perpetuating, trying to get into an area forbidden to entry by strangers.

Now that I've reached the end of the series, I've decided that the only way to watch them again is to create a drinking game. Every time Kimba (or one of his/her predecessors) does a back flip or puts its hands over the eyes, I chug. And if the movie ends with the cast laughing at one of the chimp's antics, I do a double!

for nostalgics

[Kirpianuscus · 4 February 2018]

It is strange to expect more than an adventure film, simple, nice, silly. because it represents the only purpose of director. the jungle, the scientist, the naive people and few antagonists, a treasure and a man option for the noble simple life with few drops of magic, a volcano and a cimpanzee. traces of Tarzan and Johnny Weissmuller. and it is enough for a seductive trip in past for nostalgics who are yet seduced by a sketch of story and well known events.