hwg1957-102-265704 'Jungle Man' or 'Drums Of Africa' is a low budget adventure set somewhere in Africa with a busy plot taking in a search for a lost city (a misplaced Angkor Wat!), a search for a cure for a tropical disease, a tribe on the warpath (though that plot line never develops) and a pack of lions invading a village, not to mention a vague love triangle. All flavoured with stock footage of cute or cantankerous animals. All that you want in a jungle picture. Except excitement.Buster Crabbe shows off his manly chest, Sheila Darcy shows off her womanly legs and Vince Barnett shows off his fine beard. Buster gets a chance also to show his swimming skills. Charles Middleton is rather sweet in a good performance as Rev. James, though to see him and Buster Crabbe sit down together in amity and not war with each other in interstellar space in a Flash Gordon serial was rather strange.Not that good but there are nice shots of elephants and hippos if you like that sort of thing.

dbborroughs weak jungle adventure has a rich heiress, her fiancé, her father and assorted others going to Africa instead of their normal vacation haunt, in order to visit her father's brother and to find the lost city of the dead. Once there they run into Buster Crabbe who is trying to cure an epidemic, hostile natives and wild animals.Incredibly silly and cheap film has tons of stock footage padding out the proceedings. Who am I to ponder what Asian temples are doing in Darkest Africa? Its a mess. Blame the script and the direction which doesn't seem to know what to do or how real people behave. I mean Crabbe goes around with his shirt half open, out heroine prances around in sarongs for no good reason, the natives just look embarrassed. The cast is wildly uneven with some of the interlopers behaving badly while on the other end of the spectrum Charles Middleton as the uncle in the jungle turning in one of his best performances.This film is a mess. Recommended only for bad movie fans.

JohnHowardReid The synopsis for "Drums of Africa" (1941) certainly sounds noirishly inviting: "Buster Crabbe leads an expedition to the heart of Africa in hopes of finding the fabled City of the Dead." The movie's USA release title was "Jungle Man". And according to the synopsis in the TV Source Book, "Tarzan (Buster Crabbe) foils the man-eating beasts that are trailing a beautiful girl (Sheila Darcy) in the jungle." Both synopses are wrong on all counts! Buster is not Tarzan. Nor does he lead a safari! Yet, would you believe, The New York Daily News gave this one two stars! For those not in the know, that particular newspaper was not over-generous with stars. "King's Row" received only three stars, "Gone With the Wind", four! Well, this compendium of wild life stock shots is not worth half a star, let alone two! True, Mr Crabbe smiles a lot and flexes his muscles for his fans, while Miss Darcy commendably puts into practice her belief that the proper attire for jungle wear is a South Seas sarong. Charles Middleton, none the worse for his previous encounters with Buster, is no longer Ming, the Merciless, but Missionary, the Lovable! And of course we never see the City of the Dead. All we get instead are two postcard photos of Angkor Vat! There needs to be a rating less than zero for a minus film like this one!

Chris Gaskin I've just watched Jungle Man for the first time and found fairly enjoyable, despite reading some bad reviews about it.A party, including a woman and her dad set off to Africa to search for The City of the Dead, located in the depths of one of the jungles there. They have to face several dangers on their way including lions, tigers, snakes and head hunters. When they do find it, they discover it a ruin and explore and take some film of it. On the way back to camp, the woman finds a lion cub and decides to take it with her. A big mistake as several lions then attack the camp looking for it. Everybody is OK at the end though.Jungle Man has extensive stock footage of animals and natives dancing but that didn't spoil my enjoyment.The cast includes former Tarzan actor Buster Crabbe, Charles Middleton and Sheila Darcy.Though not brilliant, Jungle Man is a good way to spend an hour one afternoon.Rating: 3 stars out of 5.