"Post No. 639"

Speaking of George Reeves, I recently rewatched the first Johnny Weismuller "Jungle Jim" feature, made in 1948, a good three years before Reeves would ever star as "the man of steel". Rolicking good fun, but Ghad! So cheesy were the (and I hate to refer to them as such) special effects that they were laughable even in the standards of that time.

The plot to the first JJ flick was a female scientist employing him to take her to find this proverbial "lost city" due to a vial of poison Jim found on a native. The poison refined and in small doses, however, was a cure for infantile paralysis. Reeves hears of this and decides to trail the safari after discovering the vial was of pure gold, and thus thinking the city contained other treasure.

Naturally, he being avillian in this flick, tries to kill Jim several times with everything from an elephant stampede to pushing bolders off a cliff towards him, and even shoving Jim off the side of a cliff.

But the topper to this corn was when the female scientist was swimming and what was supposed to be a crocodile grabbed her with its tail! That's right! Crocodiles in that part of Africa had prehensile tails, "Arf! Arf!" And the extra cream to this was that it wasn't even a rubber crocodile but some dime store lizard used in the scenes. So very obvious was this that my wife, not a big fan of special effects, even commented on how fake it all appeared (and she wasn't even paying half attention to the movie).

Natives, by the way, all go down with just one punch and obviously when thrown into fire are highly combustable! And lions being animals of tall, grassy regions? Forget it! They all prowl in dense jungles. Oh yeah...the native girls are all white-skinned as well.

(*sigh*)

Reeves must have really needed the work.


"If I haven't read it then it's NEW To Me" Dept.:

Picked up the following comics which are slated for reviews:

The Adventures of Superman (DC) 494, The Battle for Bloodhaven limited series (DC) 1-4, Code of Honor limited series (Marvel) 1, Doctor Strange Sorcerer Supreme (Marvel) 88, 89, Forever Maelstorm limited series (DC) 1, Justice League Europe (DC) 1, Marvel Adventures (Marvel/2nd. series) 5, Night Force (DC/ 2nd. series/1996) 1, Salvation Run limited series (DC) 2.

Actually, I have already read some of these some years ago, but got them in a lot and have decided to re-read them all, and will post said reviews as time allows.