Directed by Lew Landers
Produced by Sam Katzman
Written for the Screen by Samuel Newman
Director Of Photography: William Whitley
Film Editor: Henry Batista
Musical Director: Mischa Bakaleinikoff
Cast: Johnny Weissmuller (Jungle Jim), Bob Waterfield (Bob Miller), Sheila Ryan (Anna Lawrence), Rick Vallin (Matusa Chief Bono), Lyle Talbot (Dr. Mitchell Heller), Tamba
Jungle Manhunt (1951) is one of my favorites of the Jungle Jim movies. It seems to have everything you need for a picture like this: “deadly skeleton men,” lizards pretending to be dinosaurs, copious amounts of stock footage, Lyle Talbot, LA Rams quarterback Bob Waterfield, the lovely Sheila Ryan, Johnny Weissmuller in Corriganville’s Jungle Jim Pool and, of course, Tamba doing flips.
When Jungle Jim (Weissmuller) plucks photographer Sheila Ryan out of the river, he gets involved in her search for missing football star and war hero Bob Miller (Waterfield) — the “man who throws thunder with his hands.” Meanwhile, Jim is trying to get to the bottom of a series of attacks on friendly villages, with a “renegade white man” (Lyle Talbot) and a group of skeleton men leading an army of hostile natives.
Weissmuller, Ryan and Waterfield head deep into the jungle. First, they discover dinosaurs — thanks to footage lifted from 1940’s One Million BC (which Weissmuller had already encountered in Tarzan’s Desert Mystery back in 1943).
Then they find out what’s going on with the skeleton men. Lyle Talbot is using igneous rocks, magma and sugar to create synthetic diamonds. The raw materials are radioactive so the natives he sends into the mines eventually get sick and die. Therefore, the attacks and kidnappings are part of his recruitment plan to keep the diamond makings flowing. Jim can’t let such civil rights violations continue.
It’s a shame the scene with Jungle Jim duking it out with a small dinosaur (above) was cut — there’s a second or two of it in the trailer and it turns up in stills and posters. While it doesn’t appear too convincing, I’d love to see it — the 10-year-old me would’ve probably proclaimed it amongst the coolest things ever. (Don’t hold your breath waiting for a Director’s Cut.)
Sam Katzman’s team on this one — director Lew Landers, DP William Whitley and editor Henry Batista — churned out another fun way to spend 63 minutes. 
One of the things that really makes the Jungle Jim movies are the actresses that turn up in them. Weissmuller got to wander around the jungle (or at least Corrigan Ranch) with some of the coolest ladies to grace the B Movies of the 50s — Virginia Grey, Ann Savage, Lita Baron, Karin Booth and Angela Stevens. This time, it’s Sheila Ryan. She had been a contract player at 20th Century Fox, where she did Cisco Kid, Charlie Chan and Laurel & Hardy pictures. Leaving Fox, she was in a steady stream of B movies, from Song Of Texas (1943) with Roy Rogers and four Gene Autry movies to Gold Raiders (1951) with George O’Brien and The Three Stooges. She married Pat Buttram in 1951 and pretty much gave up on the movies.
Bob Waterfield was an LA Rams quarterback, producer, sometimes actor — and the husband of Jane Russell. In Jungle Manhunt, he shows why it’s a good thing he focused on producing. And for a man who’s been lost in the jungle for years, his t-shirt sure is white.
Katzman fave Rick Vallin plays a native chief here. Vallin came to the US from Russia and ended up appearing in dozens and dozens of Sam Katzman movies. Now that’s my idea of the American Dream, folks!
Jungle Manhunt is one of the six films in The Jungle Jim Movie Collection from Critics’ Choice Collection. They all look terrific and the price is right. This one’s so, so easy to recommend! I’d love for Critics’ Choice to complete the series. There’s 10 movies left.
The Hannibal 8 