Everyone remembers Johnny Weissmuller . A multi Gold Olympic champion he got his big break in cinema playing Tarzan in the 1930s and 40s . I can't remember the last time television broadcast a Weissmuller Tarzan movie but do vaguely recall it might have been about 30 years ago at the latest . I also vaguely recall that the reason for their absence might be to do with the extremely dated portrayal of Africa and its inhabitants . So much so it might make the 1970s sit com LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR look like it was written by a committee of journalists from The Guardian . I had no knowledge of Jungle Jim so went on Wikipedia to have a quick cursory glance to find out what the spiel might be . Johnny Weissmuller in an action adventure as Jungle Jim where he has to save an African tribe from an atomic test and foreign agents . Hmmm even the name SAVAGE MUTINY conjures up images of painful stereotypes that border on the offensive . If nothing else I was convinced that no matter what I wasn't going to be bored
The first thing to strike you is that Weissmuller is an athlete and no actor and an ageing athlete at that . He might be able to get away with that in the Tarzan movies but his droning monotone European accented voice is a distraction to put it mildly and as Oscar Pistorius shows athletes don't make good actors . The plot itself is rather muddled and confused . Someone wants to carry out atomic bomb tests on an Island of the coast of Africa and Jungle Jim needs to evacuate a noble but superstitious tribe to safety . At the same time a foreign power wants to carry out chemical warfare tests on the tribe . If someone ( I take it that it's America ? ) is carrying out atomic tests why not conduct it at a remote isolated area that is uninhabited ? Likewise if the foreign power ( I take it that they're
Soviets ? ) want to carry out chemical weapons tests why not do so on a tribe that aren't subject to attention via the atomic testing ? The natives themselves don't resemble Africans in anyway and look Hispanic and talk like red Indians . On top of that SAVAGE MUTINY is terminally boring and manages to live down to expectations which is no small feat
The first thing to strike you is that Weissmuller is an athlete and no actor and an ageing athlete at that . He might be able to get away with that in the Tarzan movies but his droning monotone European accented voice is a distraction to put it mildly and as Oscar Pistorius shows athletes don't make good actors . The plot itself is rather muddled and confused . Someone wants to carry out atomic bomb tests on an Island of the coast of Africa and Jungle Jim needs to evacuate a noble but superstitious tribe to safety . At the same time a foreign power wants to carry out chemical warfare tests on the tribe . If someone ( I take it that it's America ? ) is carrying out atomic tests why not conduct it at a remote isolated area that is uninhabited ? Likewise if the foreign power ( I take it that they're
Soviets ? ) want to carry out chemical weapons tests why not do so on a tribe that aren't subject to attention via the atomic testing ? The natives themselves don't resemble Africans in anyway and look Hispanic and talk like red Indians . On top of that SAVAGE MUTINY is terminally boring and manages to live down to expectations which is no small feat