...And what an imposing figure she is too, seen right after the opening credits, looking strangely imperious as she stood out looking over her "kingdom". On first glance, I found myself checking the credits to make sure "she" was a woman, and although little information was available on Anita Lhotse, I found out indeed she was, a former swimming champion who once dated Clint Eastwood. But for this fourth of the Jungle Jim series, she's presented as an evil figure, indeed referred to as a witch, although it's insinuated that she was lost in the jungle as a child (a la Tarzan) yet according to native legend without the big heart of Johnny Weismueller's earlier character. Indeed, she has a very masculine face, a severe hair style, and enough muscle tone to make Xena, Warrior Princess jealous. Like Tarzan too, she has the ability to call wild animals, but seemingly, it's not to help somebody in distress.Weismueller is joined by another former Tarzan, Buster Crabbe, quite different here as a villain searching for lost treasure. He's the type of white man that makes the natives hate all white men, even though Jungle Jim is clearly on their side. Accompanied by his puppy and baby chimp pals (who seemingly understand English), Jim finds out the truth about "the white witch", and comes across another lost city filled with a mystery of its own. In silly "native headdress", Rick Vallin hunts all of the white characters, bringing them altogether for the ultimate showdown. Silly fun for those who can stomach such nonsense, it's a fun time filler with plenty of thrills, unintentional laughs, and a not quite leading lady who only pretends to whistle to her animal pals and doesn't utter a word. Not surprising she only made one film, it's also a relief that Columbia didn't spin off a series featuring her.

I was a kid when this movie came out. In fact, it was shown as the feature during one Saturday matinée. The way the local Bijou ran Saturday matinées was that they always started at 12:30 PM. There would be a few cartoons, a comedy short (Three Stooges, Laurel & Hardy, Little Rascals, etc), another few cartoons, a serial chapter (Flash Gordon, Buck Rodgers, etc), then topped off with the feature film. One interesting thing about our Saturday matinées was that in all of the movies, no matter if they were adventures (like "Captive Girl"), a western or sci-fi movie, the good guys always won. But, the way that the Bijou ran the show, there was no "theme." But, if you were a kid like I was, you didn't care. As long as the good guy winning, we were happy. And we were home in time for dinner."Captive Girl" uses cheesy sets, phoned in dialog, stock footage and good looking actors. This movie brings back fond memories of my youth.

Captive Girl (1950) * 1/2 (out of 4) Johnny Weissmuller is back as Jungle Jim and this time he's trying to locate an evil white woman roaming the jungles. She actually turns out to be a good guy but the real bad people are a tribal witch doctor (John Dehner) and a fortune hunter (Buster Crabbe) seeking gold. CAPTIVE GIRL is mildly interesting because it features former Olympic gold medal winners and former screen Tarzan's Weissmuller and Crabbe going up against one another. You'd think that the producers would have taken advantage of this and done something fun with it but they don't. In the end this fourth installment turns out to be another very weak one and it's clear that there really isn't much hope for this series. The ultra low-budget is obvious because the majority of the screen time is either stock footage or quick cutaway shots to Jim's dog and a monkey that is constantly following him around. This here is probably the only reason to watch the film because throughout I noticed that the monkey would start being mean to the dog and then we'd get a fast edit to something else. They say working with animals is something directors hate and I'm going to guess that they had a lot of trouble here as the two co-stars obviously didn't get along well. Weissmuller fits the role nicely, as usual, but also as usual his line delivery is pretty much not there. Crabbe does what he can with his role as the bad guy and I'm sure character actor Dehner didn't like appearing in this type a role at this point in his career. Anita Lhoest plays the white girl and while she's cute that's about all she's able to do.

If you watch enough of the Jungle Jim movies, you'll realize that the stories all follow a pretty standard formula, just as Charles Starrett's Durango Kid films did in the Western genre. Which is OK on the one hand because they're entertaining in their way, but it also makes them highly forgettable once a couple of days have passed by. What's kind of interesting in this one is that Johnny Weismuller as the jungle hero is pitted against Buster Crabbe as the villain of the piece. Since both were genuine Olympic swimming champions, the stage might have been set for some sort of athletic rivalry, however since it was Weismuller's franchise, he's the only one we see doing the high dives and underwater heroics, this time against a crocodile.Central to the story is the rumored Wild Girl of Lake Pakongee, raised in the jungle and accompanied by a tiger. Her parents were murdered years earlier by the evil witch doctor Hakim, and it's Hakim's goal to kill her as well, before she can exact revenge. Interestingly, the actress portraying the Wild Girl, Anita Lhoest, appeared on screen only one time, and this was it. She too was an exceptional swimmer from California.As in all the Jungle Jim films, wild animals take center stage from time to time, but with budgets as they were back in the day, it's not too hard to pick out that monkey treetop scramble that appeared as stock footage in the prior two films ("The Lost Tribe" and "Mark Of The Gorilla"). What makes this picture fun at the finale is the wild monkey rampage that overtakes the witch doctor and his tribal goons. For those keeping track, the non African animal appearing in the story this time, besides Wild Girl Joan's tiger, is a South American cockatoo.Say, if you stay attentive, there are a couple of interesting items to stay alert for. Right after Chief Mahala (Rick Vallin) banishes Hakim from the tribal village, there's a shot of Wild Girl up on a rock ledge, just as in the start of the picture. If you look closely, you'll note that the waterfall to her left is in reverse, it's rising instead of falling! Later on in the story, listen closely and you'll hear a faint Tarzan yell during the panther/tiger scuffle. That was Weismuller's classic signature that he invented for his earlier Tarzan role.For me, I guess that's where the fun is in these Jungle Jim pictures, trying to pick up on the little idiosyncrasies thrown in by the director to make things interesting. Moving forward, we'll have to see if Tamba the Chimp becomes a regular as one of Jungle Jim's animal companions. He made fast friends with Jim's dog Skipper by trading a bone for a banana in the early filler part of the movie. Good thing too, or Jim and company would have never made it across the ravine!