Even by the standards of 1930s serials, this one is not too hot. The basic plot is a party of Americans searching East Africa for the heroine's lost brother, who in turn was searching for a legendary buried cache of ivory. A Russian trying to establish an empire in the jungle also wants the ivory, as do an unscrupulous adventuress and a treacherous Greek. There's also a man-ape named Zungu running around, who is officially the Jungle Mystery of the title.
The serial is heavy on stock footage of animals (some not native to Africa), often used in rather foolish ways. Whenever a character sets foot in even a puddle, we get a stock shots of crocodiles sliding into the water. However, almost never is this followed by any actual crocodicular menace to anyone. It's kind of like a punctuation mark, not an actual plot element.
Based on a Talbot Mundy novel, the screenwriters ran out of invention rather quickly, and the serial degenerates into a series of captures of some subset of the heroes by the Russian villain and their escape from him, interspersed with fights with one or another jungle creature, frequently lions or leopards, occasionally a guy in a gorilla suit. When seen one episode a week, this might have passed muster, but viewed close together, the episodes get dull fairly quickly. Zungu the "jungle mystery" is never really treated as an important plot element, and is just used as a mechanism to extract heroes from serials' typical certain dooms.
The character writing is also weak, with muddled motivations and behaviors. The treacherous Greek is at least given unique dialog, but it's also repetitive. He peppers his dialog frequently with phrases like "By the seven seas!" and "Gosh-a-rimini!", which wears on the ear. The poor guy playing Zungu, the titular mystery, unfortunately chose a shriek that sounds like he is suffering from extreme indigestion. He repeats it often. Very often.
The acting is also quite weak. Tom Tyler, the hero, is wooden. Philo McCullough, playing the treacherous George Coutlass, is ridiculous. Cecilia Parker, the heroine, is stuck with particularly foolish lines and actions (such as repeatedly wandering off into the jungle alone, where she is invariably attacked by some animal), and fails to carry them off. Noah Beery Jr. has a rather pointless role as the hero's sidekick. Frank Lackteen, a fourth string character actor who frequently appeared in parts too small to be billed, gives a perfectly adequate performance as the faithful guide, lifting him head and shoulders over the rest of the cast.
Of course, being a 1930s product set in Africa, it's not politically correct. It could be worse, but the black characters are almost all set decoration, and there is no sense that these people who have lived in the jungle for centuries know what they're doing there, much less that they have their own culture worthy of respect.
I don't ordinarily enjoy films based on laughing at their inadequacies, but I made an exception here. There is a certain entertainment value, despite all of the weaknesses I've outlined, some coming from particularly silly moments in the serial. But don't watch it expecting the quality of even one of the lesser Tarzan films.
The serial is heavy on stock footage of animals (some not native to Africa), often used in rather foolish ways. Whenever a character sets foot in even a puddle, we get a stock shots of crocodiles sliding into the water. However, almost never is this followed by any actual crocodicular menace to anyone. It's kind of like a punctuation mark, not an actual plot element.
Based on a Talbot Mundy novel, the screenwriters ran out of invention rather quickly, and the serial degenerates into a series of captures of some subset of the heroes by the Russian villain and their escape from him, interspersed with fights with one or another jungle creature, frequently lions or leopards, occasionally a guy in a gorilla suit. When seen one episode a week, this might have passed muster, but viewed close together, the episodes get dull fairly quickly. Zungu the "jungle mystery" is never really treated as an important plot element, and is just used as a mechanism to extract heroes from serials' typical certain dooms.
The character writing is also weak, with muddled motivations and behaviors. The treacherous Greek is at least given unique dialog, but it's also repetitive. He peppers his dialog frequently with phrases like "By the seven seas!" and "Gosh-a-rimini!", which wears on the ear. The poor guy playing Zungu, the titular mystery, unfortunately chose a shriek that sounds like he is suffering from extreme indigestion. He repeats it often. Very often.
The acting is also quite weak. Tom Tyler, the hero, is wooden. Philo McCullough, playing the treacherous George Coutlass, is ridiculous. Cecilia Parker, the heroine, is stuck with particularly foolish lines and actions (such as repeatedly wandering off into the jungle alone, where she is invariably attacked by some animal), and fails to carry them off. Noah Beery Jr. has a rather pointless role as the hero's sidekick. Frank Lackteen, a fourth string character actor who frequently appeared in parts too small to be billed, gives a perfectly adequate performance as the faithful guide, lifting him head and shoulders over the rest of the cast.
Of course, being a 1930s product set in Africa, it's not politically correct. It could be worse, but the black characters are almost all set decoration, and there is no sense that these people who have lived in the jungle for centuries know what they're doing there, much less that they have their own culture worthy of respect.
I don't ordinarily enjoy films based on laughing at their inadequacies, but I made an exception here. There is a certain entertainment value, despite all of the weaknesses I've outlined, some coming from particularly silly moments in the serial. But don't watch it expecting the quality of even one of the lesser Tarzan films.
