No doubt you have heard about the famous tribe of White Pygmy people in Africa.
The Munchkins apparently escaped from the Land of Oz and made their way south
deep into the jungle to escape the Wicked Witch. They now find themselves
caught in the middle of the Cold War but thankfully ally themselves with
America in their wish to be Good Neighbors. Their ropes made from some indigenous
plant is practically indestructible and may have greatly contributed to the
breakup of the Soviet Union and their defeat in Afghanistan. We salute
them.
An army captain has heard of the plants and gone looking for them and disappeared.
It must have been a slow news week because every newspaper headlined it and
the Pentagon is worried. Fortunately, Jungle Jim is wandering around chasing
after his chimp and comes across the captain's dog tags and a dead pygmy.
I was a little annoyed that he felt it necessary to kill a crocodile to save
a dead pygmy. Come on. Crocodiles have to eat too. Any way, the army sends
over a squad of soldiers who do absolutely nothing of value. The Russkies
also have sent men headed by Marko, as evil a name as you can find in the
phone book. He is played by Steven Geray who shows up in tons of films playing
Eastern Europeans. That is because he grew up in Hungary - did Hitler and
Mussolini impersonations on the stage - got beat up for it - and decided
to go to England. Now he is in a Jungle Jim film. Better to be impersonating
Hitler.
Jim learns to his great shock that the captain is a she. "Did you say she"
he asks incredulously. Not only a she but one played by Ann Savage who played
a bunch of hard-bitten tough blondes. I thought maybe this time Jim was finally
going to get it on with a female - with a name like Savage it would be perfect.
Nope. As I said the army is useless so it is up to Jim and his Pygmy friends
to stop the Commies. I thought this was slightly better than most of the
Jungle Jim films I have seen - silly as a cow with a party hat on but there
is always something happening - even a shot of one of the Pygmies going from
vine to vine to vine - shown four times because who can remember the same
shot from ten minutes ago. Among the Pygmies are the famous Billy Curtis,
Billy Barty, Angelo Rossitto and of course Steve Calvert played the Gorilla.
