Recently, Balladeer’s Blog examined the 1937 Jungle Jim serial as well as the first six Jungle Jim movies starring former Tarzan actor Johnny Weissmuller beginning in 1948. Here are the remaining ten Weissmuller films as the pre-Indiana Jones and pre-Crocodile Dundee, but post-Allan Quatermain hero.
JUNGLE MANHUNT (October 1951) – This seventh Jungle Jim feature film is one of the best examples of how the franchise combined fun escapism with outlandish “So Bad They’re Good” film antics. After rescuing female reporter Anne Lawrence (Sheila Ryan) when her boat overturns, Jungle Jim agrees to guide her on her search for Bob Miller – played by real-life football star Bob Waterfield, Jane Russell’s husband.
Football hero Miller’s plane vanished over the jungle years earlier and Anne is determined to enhance her career by finding him and writing up the story. It turns out that Miller has spent the time serving as a one-man Peace Corps, helping a remote village with engineering and other efforts.
During the expedition to find the missing football player/ pilot, Jungle Jim and company get mixed up in a battle between a shark and a large octopus IN AN INLAND BODY OF FRESH WATER! The shark wins and then Jim must kill that creature in a very unconvincing underwater battle.
Our hero and Anne also encounter dinosaurs – yes, dinosaurs – in the jungle region where Bob Miller’s plane went down. Much of it is stock footage from One Million B.C. but at one point, Jungle Jim clashes with an upright-walking, man-sized dinosaur who looks like the model for the Gorn Captain fought by Captain Kirk years later. Or maybe Barney the Dinosaur.
Dinosaurs not enough for ya? Well, there’s also Lyle Talbot as mad scientist Dr. Mitchell Heller, an industrial chemist with a bad accent and a method for using uranium to transform lesser stones into diamonds. Heller employs an army of men who sport body paint (really costumes) that makes them look like living skeletons. Continue reading
Hello again from Joe Biden’s corporate fascist kleptocracy! It’s been several days of 
Because the people who run the Republican Party are clueless, outdated and utterly useless, it has taken the fluke of just happening to have two maverick billionaires around to find 
Garbage families like the Bidens, Pelosis and Clintons (Democrats) and the Bushes, Cheneys and Romneys (Republicans) have been running the country like a Mafia bust-out operation and looting the public treasury. 
This item is a reminder that
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1982) – Burbank Films of Australia produced this mediocre at best animated version of the Dickens classic. Previously I reviewed the 1969 Australian cartoon version and if you were to go strictly by this 1982 rendition of A Christmas Carol you would think that Australian animation technology had not progressed one bit since 1969.
DEATH MACHINES (1976) – Martial Arts meets science fiction meets spy antics in this odd, feverish cult film starring a young Ron Marchini. You can read my review of the movie 
HUNTERWALI – India’s films about their Zorroesque masked heroine who uses her sword and whip against a tyrannical Vazier and his men. There were Indian-made movies about the character in 1935, 1959, 1972, 1977, 1988 and 2017. 
BRUM (1991-2002): FORGOTTEN TELEVISION – A neglected children’s series from the U.K. I reviewed the adventures of the living toy car 
JIREL OF JOIRY – Female author C.L. Moore’s short stories about her 1930s sword-wielding warrior woman Jirel of Castle Joiry. 
To all my 
ELON MUSK HEROICALLY EXPOSES 
FIRST SEMIFINAL – The KEISER UNIVERSITY SEA HAWKS visited the GRAND VIEW UNIVERSITY VIKINGS (should be the Zebras) in this game. The 1st Quarter ended with the Sea Hawks up 7-0 before expanding that to a 21-7 advantage by Halftime. After the break, Keiser University outscored Grand View 17-14 for a 38-21 Upset and a trip to the title game on December 17th. 
SECOND SEMIFINAL – Up next the NORTHWESTERN (IA) COLLEGE RED RAIDERS took the field against the INDIANA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY WILDCATS. A 17-0 Red Raiders lead in the opening Quarter remained unchanged at the Half. The 3rd Quarter ended with Northwestern College on top 31-0 and the 4th in a 38-7 Red Raiders win. It will be Red Raiders and Sea Hawks in the Championship Game. 
FIRST QUARTERFINAL – The COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES OREDIGGERS faced their hosts the ANGELO STATE RAMS. The Orediggers led 14-7 in the 1st Quarter and 21-10 at the break. From there Colorado School of Mines managed a bit more separation from the Rams for a 42-24 Upset victory. 
AIR MAN 
BLUE LADY 
BLACKADDER’S CHRISTMAS CAROL – Balladeer’s Blog’s 13th Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues! Long-time readers know what a big fan I am of Rowan Atkinson’s work – especially his Blackadder programs. Hell, I’m even an enormous fan of his more serious work in Full Throttle. And I never tire of telling anyone who will listen that I think he’d make a perfect Dikaiopolis in Aristophanes’ comedy The Acharnians. 
Time for another round of Balladeer’s Blog’s recurring feature Transgress with Me. As I’ve often mentioned in the past, I used to be a Democrat before their increasing intolerance and fascism drove me to leave the party and become an Independent Voter. 
*** YOU WON’T EVER FIND THE DEMOCRATS TYING THEMSELVES IN KNOTS WORRYING ABOUT FINDING CANDIDATES THAT WILL GET PRAISED BY FOX NEWS, ONE AMERICA NEWS, NEWSMAX, BREITBART ETC. The Democrats’ greatest advantage is that their only viable rivals are the clueless, outdated and utterly useless Republican Party.
News of the disastrous reaction to screenings of the unwanted and unneeded fifth Indiana Jones movie, starring a 136-year-old Harrison Ford, caused me to reflect on the 1980s flood of Indiana Jones imitators. Studios even revived the old H. Rider Haggard character Allan Quatermain by casting Richard Chamberlin as Quatermain in a few movies. 
JUNGLE JIM (1937) – This 12 episode serial from Universal starred Grant Withers as the title character in the pith helmet. The story involved Joan Redmond, a wealthy young heiress who disappeared in the African jungle with her parents years earlier. 
