Let’s go back about a dozen years and read about the 1943 Republic serial Manhunt in the African Jungle. I had just put my thoughts down on paper… well, electronic paper, that is… and they are to be found below.
I finished watching the entire 15 chapters of Manhunt in the African Jungle. It’s the re-release version of the previously titled Secret Service in Darkest Africa from 1943. Apparently the original version wasn’t available, because when Republic released the laserdisc in late 1992 they used the Manhunt version.
A minor bit of strangeness in the title. On both the laserdisc and VHS tape covers, the title is Manhunt in the African Jungle. That’s the singular “Jungle.” And likewise in the liner notes on the back, it’s singular. But on the actual film itself, it’s plural: Manhunt in the African Jungles. And it’s consistently spelled that way in the trailer and all 15 chapters. I guess somebody back then wasn’t paying attention when they made up the posters.
I really liked this serial. I just finished transferring it from laserdisc to DVD, and so was watching every second closely in case some digital artifacts had been accidentally introduced… flaws that would require reburning the discs. It wasn’t simply running “in the background,” as some of my serial watching is done. I really watched it… every single frame. And loved it!
Our leading man
Rod Cameron plays Rex Bennett, and boy is he tall! The liner notes list him at 6′ 4,” and he looks every bit that. I’ve heard criticisms of his acting, but it didn’t seem all that bad to me. I guess having watched a lot of serials, I’ve seen worse. Much worse. He does a quite credible job playing an American agent in Casablanca during World War II.
Yes, this story is supposedly set in Casablanca. But it’s certainly unlike the Casablanca we saw in the previous year’s Humphrey Bogart movie Casablanca. In that movie, Bogart wryly mentions he originally came to Casablanca “for the waters.” Capt. Renault (Claude Rains) replied, “There are no waters. Casablanca is in the middle of the desert.” But not so in the Casablanca of this serial. Just minutes outside this serial version of Casablanca, there is a river. A river with pier, warehouse and even a riverboat which explodes in one cliffhanger. And there’s an ocean, complete with Nazi wolf-pack submarines! An ocean conveniently placed to be used in several cliffhangers.
Rex Bennett comes to Casablanca to foil a Nazi plot to trick the desert tribes into joining their ranks. To do that the evil Nazis seek an ancient religious artifact that will sway the desert people. Now if you think that sounds something like the basic plot of Raiders of the Lost Ark, you wouldn’t be alone. Many others have commented on the same thing. But that doesn’t mean the two stories are alike. Actually they are quite different, but both most enjoyable.
As the story opens…
The devilish Nazis in this chapter play have replaced the true leader of the desert tribes, Sultan Abou Ben Ali, with a look-alike Nazi officer, Baron von Rommler. So wouldn’t you expect the supreme leader of all the desert tribes to live in a sultan’s palace? Not in this serial! Here, he lives in a hotel room. Okay, it’s a suite. But still, I was disappointed. Where, I wondered, was the resplendent palace that a sultan should have? Well, the script writers apparently were anticipating my thoughts, because finally in chapter 15, we do get to see the sultan’s palace. Just as any self-respecting sultan should have!
Apparently the fake sultan likes to live at the hotel because he is closer to his Nazi agents. That plus the fact that he has a cool hidden dungeon hidden beneath the floors of his suite. The fireplace slides back, taking with it a sofa and part of the floor. Revealed are steps leading down to a dungeon where the real Sultan Abou Ben Ali is held prisoner. This is also their communications center where they can radio Berlin and hold secret meetings. Apparently, this is all done with the knowledge of the hotel owners, who must be Nazi sympathizers. It’s a pretty cool hideout that plays an important part in the final cliffhanger when Rex Bennett is trapped inside it as the whole place goes up in flames.
And speaking of cliffhangers, there are some pretty nifty ones. Many, unfortunately, are resolved all in the same way. He jumps, just in time! So by chapter 13 when the station wagon with Rex Bennett and his assistant Janet Blake hurtles off a cliff into the ocean (remember, this Casablanca has an ocean), I figured they’d just jump out in time. Imagine my surprise when at the beginning of chapter 14, they don’t! They both go over the cliff and survive the long drop to the waters below. The station wagon sinks beneath the waves, and their heads pop up out of the water as they swim towards shore.
The final verdict
But in spite of all these enjoyable little inconsistencies, or maybe because of them, I really liked this serial. Considering it was a wartime serial and that German Nazis were the enemy, it has a surprisingly small amount of slurs, even by today’s PC standards. But it has lots of action. Every chapter must have at least two fight scenes and one explosion. And it all adds up to 15 chapters of pulpy fun!
I’m told that this serial ran over budget. That was unusual for Republic Studios, which was famed for squeezing a penny so hard that Lincoln yelled. But there’s a lot of production value that shows up on the screen, and I guess they had to pay for it somehow. This was supposedly Republic’s third-most expensive serial, right behind The Lone Ranger Rides Again and Captain America. Interesting.
Unfortunately, there is no official studio-released DVD available for this terrific wartime serial. And I haven’t seen any streaming version online, either, unless you count the two-minute trailer on YouTube. But if you do an internet search, you’ll find plenty of gray-market DVDs available. This is one you really should consider adding to your serial collection. In fact, I think I’ll go back and watch it again. Yes, it’s that good!
