JUNGLE JIM TV SERIES

Johnny Weissmuller

JUNGLE JIM (syndicated 1956 television series. 26 half hour episodes.

After Johnny Weissmuller finished playing Jungle Jim (or himself) in 16 films, he starred in a TV series featuring the character. In the show, Jim had a son named Skipper (Martin Huston)  and a manservant named Kaseem (Dean Fredericks), who was a combination housekeeper and butler. Tamba the chimp got up to mischief on a regular basis, and Paul Cavanagh showed up now and then as Commissioner Morrison. A number of talented black actors were cast as natives.

Dean Fredericks; Martin Huston 

In "Safari Danger" a couple hire Jim to guide them into territory where they can capture  a proboscis monkey, but wind up trying to capture a pygmy instead. In "Gift of Evil" a magical elixir given to the natives only gives them swamp fever. In "White Magic" some natives refuse to let an educated native doctor operate on a little girl who will die if the surgery isn't performed. In "The Deadly Idol" natives worship a totem which turns out to be a live bomb that fell from an airplane and could go off at any minute. "Land of Terror" features a lost prehistoric world where the characters are menaced by dinosaurs. 

"The trouble is most people don't think."

Secret cities figure in two episodes: "Treasure of the Incas" takes place in Brazil with a host of headhunters, and "Power of Darkness" occurs in Nepal where there is a lost city inside of a mountain. There are searches for a lost daughter ("The Silver Locket") and the ever-popular elephant's graveyard ("Fortune in Ivy"), as well as a kidnapping plot ("Precious Cargo") and a story in which precious diamonds are lifted from the eyes of a native idol ("Eyes of Manobo"). "Blood Money" features a wealthy tourist whose spoiled teenage daughter stupidly runs off with a lion cub. Natives sacrifice girls to a giant clam or pearl god in "Lagoon of Death," and Tamba takes center stage in "Code of the Jungle," in which the chimp becomes jealous of a dog that Skipper adopts.

Like the movies, the Jungle Jim TV series is a lot of "B" movie-type fun. While never what one could call a great actor, Weissmuller is perfect as Jim; wide-eyed young Huston makes an appealing sidekick for him; and Fredericks is dignified and professional as Kaseem. 

Verdict:  Entertaining series that makes the most of its low budget. ***.