Let's be realistic.

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

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.

I enjoy a good pulp adventure story with an exotic setting, but it's been a long time since I've seen one as silly as this.The sets are ultra-silly to begin with: other than yonder copse of trees, the background is largely devoid of vegetation, which is awfully strange for the jungle deep in darkest Africa. It doesn't take very long until we see our first tiger battle (tigers being an Asian cat, mark ye well)--and the tiger takes on a domestic Philippine water buffalo, no less. To be honest, we're positively overflowing with tigers, which is silly, insofar as any ecosystem is awfully thin on apex predators and quite heavy on prey animals.From the outset, Buster Crabbe's acting is beneath terrible. Frankly, it sounds as if he's reading from a canned script--and applying just about as much interest: I expect him to next say, "Yes, Jim, let's head over to the . . . hold up while I flip the page here . . . the, um, Lagoon of the Dead." Realism is scarcely contributed by the lily-white staff of his hunter's cabin (the term for "hunter" is "shikari," but I can't remember the spiffy Swahili term for his cabin) or by the Polynesian or Hawaiian-looking dude who bangs drums Hawaiian style: I expected him to presently dig into some coconuts and pineapples! Pretty soon, we're off to the native village, where the Viking-helmeted witch doctor (Vikings didn't actually have horned helmets: let that be our little secret) is leading some inscrutable ritual involving sticks. Oh, and the witch doctor's name is Hakeem--which, when I last checked, is, like, extremely Arabic. Of course, Jungle Jim (I guess he's searching for his buddy, Mountain Jim) is climbing boulders and steep cliff sides and such with the help of a sturdy lapdog that appears to be a Maltese or a Wheaten terrier or something (it's always handy to bring a hardy work dog with you on an African mission). The dog does provide comic relief, admittedly, when Jim's pet chimpanzee is upset by something and wants to hide his eyes behind something warm and fluffy. Whoa, suddenly we have an alligator battle! Unfortunately, the alligator (or was it a crocodile?) is the most obvious rubber model I've ever seen: it doesn't even fight back, and--when Jungle Jim sticks his hunting knife into it--it doesn't even condescend to bleed. (This must be thanks to Jim's other buddy, Veterinarian Jim.) By this point, I lost interest entirely. I apologize if this review seems somewhat jumpy, but it's honestly reflective of the jumpy nature of the story.Whoops . . . I spoke too soon: we have now suddenly discovered a "sacrificial temple," replete with beautiful native girls who--despite an evidently high order of civilization--think that it's appropriate to march through the underbrush in bare feet, snakes and thorns notwithstanding.Yecch.

***SPOILERS***Campy but entertaining Jungle Jim, Johnny Weissmuller, flick that really has two things in it that keeps it from sinking into the "Lagoon of the Dead": The watery grave in the movie that the local natives preform human sacrifices for their Gods. First there's the strikingly beautiful jungle girl Joan Martindale played by California swimming champ Anita Lhoest and last but not least the films final sequence. That's when hundreds of wild and shrieking monkeys, lead by Jungle Jim's pet chimpanzee Tumba, come to Jungle Jim as well as Joan and the deposed, by Witch Doctor Mahala played by Rick Vallin, former village chief the collage educated Harkim's, John Dehnrer, rescue. To make things a bit more interesting there's also former Olympic swimming champ,like Johnny Weissmuller, Buster Crabbe playing the greedy and fortune hunting Barton. A role that the clean cut all American boy, or now man, Crabbe of Flash Gordon fame rarely if ever was cast in.Nothing really new here with the stock footage, mostly shot by big game hunter and trapper Frank "Bring em back alive" Buck, about the most exciting scenes in the film. It was jungle girl Joan who had it in for the Witch Doctor Mahala in him having her parents's, who were American archaeologists, done in an leaving her an orphan. Surviving in the jungle with the help and support of her animal friends especially her pet tiger, a tiger in darkest Africa?, Joan is the only person who witnessed Mahala murder her parents! And it's her testimony before a colonial court that can end up leaving Mahala hanging at the end of a rope!***SPOILERS*** Jungle Jim together with Joan the Jungle Girl have a number of close calls in the movie but in the end their captured,together with former chief Hakim, by Mahala & Co. where their to be dumped as human sacrifices into the "Lagoon of the Dead" laden with gold jewelry to make sure that they reach the bottom and never float to the surface! It's then that all hell breaks loose with Tumba the Chimp and his band of monkeys putting an ends to Mahala's dreams of staying village chief and avoiding justice in the murder of Joan's parents! Tumba and his monkeys also saved the local colonial authorities the trouble and money of a trail for Mahala by doing him,and his followers,in themselves!

What girl no matter her age can resist anything that has both Johnny Weissmuller and Buster Crabb in it? Just seeing Johnny Weissmuller in anything is reward enough. He was absolutely captivating in all of the Tarzan movies. He was also fun in the Jungle Jim television shows too. It is time well spent even if the movies and plots may seem weak. Better than what is out there now. At least the men are attractive and worth looking at. What is interesting is that both Johnny and Buster were competitive in the Olympics. And then they were competitive in the movies. Another neat movie with both of them in it is Swamp Fire. More competition but all for the love of a lady. These are just fun escapism movies back when men were men and women were lucky!