Jungle Goddess

Jungle Goddess is a 1948 American action/adventure crime film starring George Reeves, Ralph Byrd, and Wanda McKay. Directed by Lewis D. Collins, the film was based on an idea by producer William Stephens.

Jungle Goddess was later featured in a Season 2 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

In Africa, pilot Mike Patton is persuaded by his business partner, Bob Simpson, to conduct a search for a missing heiress whose plane supposedly went down in the jungle, resulting in her never being seen again.

Encountering an indigenous tribe of natives, Bob recklessly shoots a man. He is taken before a woman, Greta, who is being treated like a high priestess. Bob is sentenced to die, but when she gets Mike off to herself, Greta pleads with him to help her escape.

During a struggle, a gun goes off and a guard is left dead. With the tribesmen in pursuit, Mike and Greta are betrayed by Bob, who has gone mad. But after he is killed by a spear, Mike and Greta make it to the plane and safely get away.

The film was the first to be produced by Robert L. Lippert's independent production company, Lippert Pictures.[1]

Lippert borrowed George Reeves to star and filming began in June 1948.[2]

A Los Angeles Times reviewer who saw the film in a theater called it "so corny" that the audience "died laughing when they weren't razzing on it."[3] Despite this reaction, the film was widely seen, as one of the most watched movies in what were then all 48 states.[4] In 1950 the film was shown as part of a double feature with Treasure Island at the Five Points Theatre in Birmingham, Alabama as well several other theaters around the state.[5] In 1954 Jungle Goddess was shown as part of a double feature with a re-airing of The Lawless Nineties in several media markets.[6]

The film was popular enough for a follow-up Green Gold which became Thunder in the Pines.[7]

In 2006, Jungle Goddess was released on Region 1 DVD in the United States by VCI Home Video. The film was paired with another title starring George Reeves, Thunder in the Pines (1948).[8]