King of the Congo centers around a U.S. Air Force captain and his quest to find missing microfilm containing information vital to the United States government. His journey takes him across the Atlantic all the way to a jungle in Africa.

Plot

Captain Roger Drum (Buster Crabbe) shoots down an enemy plane carrying microfilm while on its way to Africa to deliver it to an enemy of America. Intent on revealing this subversive group for whom the microfilm's message is intended, Drum assumes the enemy pilot's identity. He flies his twin-engine aircraft across the Atlantic, where he is forced to crash it in a remote African jungle. Drum is rescued by the all- female Rock People, led by Princess Pha. He is renamed Thunda, King of the Congo, after he repeatedly rings a temple gong using a large stone mallet, sounding the alarm to an attack by the primitive, all-male Cave Men. With the subversives believing Thunda is their missing pilot, and with the Rock People under constant attack from the Cave Men, Captain Drum plots to bring down the subversives who are searching for a new metal more radioactive and powerful than Uranium. At the serial's conclusion, Thunda (Drum) clears the jungle of America's enemy and is able to reunite, as one tribe, the all-female Rock People and all-male Cave Men.

Cast

{{cast listing|

Buster Crabbe as Thunda/Capt. Roger Drum
Gloria Dea as Princess Pha
Leonard Penn as Boris
Jack Ingram as Clark
Rick Vallin as Andreov
Nick Stuart as Degar
William Fawcett as High Priest
Rusty Wescoatt as Kor
Alex Montoya as Lipah
Frank Ellis as Ivan
Lee Roberts as Lt. Blake
Neyle Morrow as Nahee

}}

Chapter titles

Mission of Menace
Red Shadows in the Jungle
Into the Valley of Mist
Thunda Meets His Match
Thunda Turns the Tables
Thunda's Desperate Charge
Thunda Trapped
Mission of Evil
Menace of the Magnetic Rocks
Lair of the Leopard
An Ally from the Sky
Riding Wild
Red Raiders
Savage Vengeance
Judgment of the Jungle

_Source:{{cite book

| last = Cline

| first = William C.

| title = In the Nick of Time

| url = https://archive.org/details/innickoftimemot00clin

| url-access = registration

| year = 1984

| publisher = McFarland & Company, Inc.

| isbn = 0-7864-0471-X

| pages = [https://archive.org/details/innickoftimemot00clin/page/253 253]

| chapter = Filmography

}}

Production

King of the Congo was both the last Tarzan-style serial made and last serial to star Buster Crabbe.{{cite book

| last = Harmon

| first = Jim

|author2=Donald F. Glut

|author2-link=Donald F. Glut

| author-link = Jim Harmon

| title = The Great Movie Serials: Their Sound and Fury

| year = 1973

| publisher = Routledge

| isbn = 978-0-7130-0097-9

| pages = 138

| chapter = 6. Jungle "Look Out The Elephants Are Coming!"

}} Crabbe starred in nine serials between 1933 and 1952:

Tarzan the Fearless (1933) as Tarzan
Flash Gordon (1936) as Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938) as Flash Gordon
Red Barry (1938) as Red Barry
Buck Rogers (1939) as Buck Rogers
Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940) as Flash Gordon
The Sea Hound (1947) as Captain Silver
Pirates of the High Seas (1950) as Jeff Drake
King of the Congo (1952) as Captain Roger Drum and "Thunda"

Filming locations

Iverson Movie Ranch, Chatsworth, Los Angeles.

References

External links

[http://www.b-westerns.com/crabbe4.htm Buster Crabbe filmography]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20071115102247/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/39033?view=synopsis BFI - Film & TV database]
{{IMDb title|id=0044800|title=King of the Congo}}

{{succession box

| title=Columbia Serial

| before=Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere (1951)

| years=King of the Congo (1952)

| after=Blackhawk (1952)}}

Category:1952 films

Category:American fantasy adventure films

Category:1950s English-language films

Category:Columbia Pictures film serials

Category:1950s fantasy adventure films

Category:American black-and-white films

Category:Films based on American comics