King of the Jungle ** (1933, Buster Crabbe, Frances Dee, Sidney Toler, Nydia Westman, Robert Barrat, Irving Pichel, Douglass Dumbrille) – Classic Movie Review 12,257

The mildly amusing escapist 1933 American adventure film King of the Jungle is directed by H Bruce Humberstone and Max Marcin, and stars Buster Crabbe, Frances Dee, Sidney Toler, Nydia Westman, Robert Barrat, Irving Pichel and Douglass Dumbrille.

As Kaspa the Lion Man, Larry Buster Crabbe is a dead ringer for Tarzan in this amiably daft tale of a jungle man’s capture and presentation in the US as a circus attraction.

Former Olympic swimmer Crabbe performs with the required straight face and strapping body and he went on to feature as a real Tarzan in the same year’s film serial (and feature) Tarzan the Fearless, his sole appearance as Tarzan, rejected by MGM in favour of his fellow swimmer Johnny Weissmuller.

King of the Jungle is written by Charles Thurley Stoneham, Max Marcin, Fred Niblo, Jr and Philip Wylie.

It was released by Paramount Pictures on 10 March 1933.

It runs 73 minutes.

The cast are Buster Crabbe as Kaspa the Lion Man, Frances Dee as Ann Rogers, Sidney Toler as Neil Forbes, Nydia Westman as Sue, Robert Barrat as Joe Nolan, Irving Pichel as Corey, Douglass Dumbrille as Ed Peters, Sam Baker as Gwana, Patricia Farley as Kitty, and Ronnie Cosbey as Kaspa aged three, Thomas Amos, Florence Britton, Don Brodie, Leonard Carey, Nora Cecil, William R Dunn, Harold Farley, William J Kelly, Sam Farrell, Fred Kelsey, F M Pitts, Warner P Richmond, Mabel Stark, and George Turner.

King of the Jungle is directed by H Bruce Humberstone and Max Marcin, runs 73 minutes, is made and released by Paramount Pictures, is written by Philip Wylie, Fred Niblo Jr, Charles Thurley Stoneham and Max Marcin, based on Charles Thurley Stoneham’s story The Lion’s Way, is shot in black and white by Ernest Haller, and scored by Karl Hajos, John Leipold and Rudolph G Kopp.

H Bruce Humberstone went on to make a trio of Tarzan movies in the Fifties: Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957), Tarzan’s Fight for Life (1958) and Tarzan and the Trappers (1960), all with Gordon Scott.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,257

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com