"The Lion Man"'s claim to fame was that it put Jon Hall on the road to exotic adventure films. To add to the romance his mother was a Tahitian princess. He is mostly remember for a series of Universal Technicolor adventures in which he co-starred with Maria Montez. Before that he was busy with South Sea Island adventures starting with "The Hurricane" (1937) with Dorothy Lamour, but the year before he was given the title role in "The Lion Man" - a poverty row production from Normandy Pictures Corp. (they only produced 3 films). There are a few uncredited women in the cast - it would be really nice to know who they were!!!
Young Master Chapman (Bobby Fairy, who walks through the film in a daze) is taken by his father, Sir Ronald Chapman (Eric Snowden), on a business expedition in a very dangerous part of Arabia (who knows why!!!) to mine tungsten. The sheik seems friendly but behind the curtain is ????? (first uncredited female). She knows the sheik's friendliness is a sham - she came with a party, who, at first, were shown kindness, only to be killed while she was taken captive. She now escapes and is on her way to warn the party but she is too late. The only survivor is the child, who she places in the care of "The Lion Man", before she dies.
The boy grows up to be "El Lion" (Jon Hall), a protector of the innocent, who guides caravans out of danger. Eulilah (Kathleen Burke) is courted by the evil Youseff but she has a secret yearning for "El Lion", even though she has never seen him!!! She finally meets him when he rescues her from Youseff's marauders. "El Lion" meets an English girl - again another uncredited girl, whose part seemed to have been cut. The actress looked very familiar. Eulilah becomes jealous but not for long!! The end features a big fist fight between the hero and villain. When "El Lion" realises that Youseff killed his father many years ago, he throws him off the cliff.
For a cheap production it is pretty good. The story is exciting and with better production values, a bit more length and some Technicolor, it would have been a top class film. Kathleen Burke was almost at the end of her career. She had started in spectacular fashion as the winner of a nationwide search by Paramount to find "Panther Woman" for the film "The Island of Lost Souls" (1932).
Recommended.
Young Master Chapman (Bobby Fairy, who walks through the film in a daze) is taken by his father, Sir Ronald Chapman (Eric Snowden), on a business expedition in a very dangerous part of Arabia (who knows why!!!) to mine tungsten. The sheik seems friendly but behind the curtain is ????? (first uncredited female). She knows the sheik's friendliness is a sham - she came with a party, who, at first, were shown kindness, only to be killed while she was taken captive. She now escapes and is on her way to warn the party but she is too late. The only survivor is the child, who she places in the care of "The Lion Man", before she dies.
The boy grows up to be "El Lion" (Jon Hall), a protector of the innocent, who guides caravans out of danger. Eulilah (Kathleen Burke) is courted by the evil Youseff but she has a secret yearning for "El Lion", even though she has never seen him!!! She finally meets him when he rescues her from Youseff's marauders. "El Lion" meets an English girl - again another uncredited girl, whose part seemed to have been cut. The actress looked very familiar. Eulilah becomes jealous but not for long!! The end features a big fist fight between the hero and villain. When "El Lion" realises that Youseff killed his father many years ago, he throws him off the cliff.
For a cheap production it is pretty good. The story is exciting and with better production values, a bit more length and some Technicolor, it would have been a top class film. Kathleen Burke was almost at the end of her career. She had started in spectacular fashion as the winner of a nationwide search by Paramount to find "Panther Woman" for the film "The Island of Lost Souls" (1932).
Recommended.