King of the Congo

King of the Congo is a 1952 American 15 chapter movie serial, the 48th released by Columbia Pictures. It was produced by Sam Katzman, directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet and Wallace Grissell, and stars Buster Crabbe. The serial also co-stars Gloria Dea, Leonard Penn, Jack Ingram, Rick Vallin, Nick Stuart, William Fawcett, and Rusty Wescoatt. King of the Congo was based on the comic book character "Thun'da", created by Frank Frazetta, and published by Magazine Enterprises.

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.

Chapter titles
Source:
 * 1) Mission of Menace
 * 2) Red Shadows in the Jungle
 * 3) Into the Valley of Mist
 * 4) Thunda Meets His Match
 * 5) Thunda Turns the Tables
 * 6) Thunda's Desperate Charge
 * 7) Thunda Trapped
 * 8) Mission of Evil
 * 9) Menace of the Magnetic Rocks
 * 10) Lair of the Leopard
 * 11) An Ally from the Sky
 * 12) Riding Wild
 * 13) Red Raiders
 * 14) Savage Vengeance
 * 15) Judgment of the Jungle

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