Perils of the Jungle

American explorer Grantland Cunningham shows footage of his African safari to his niece Mary and nephew Bob, and explains that he will finish editing the film after returning from his next safari with expedition leader and circus operator Clyde Beatty. Shortly afterward, Grant and Clyde, who is hunting for lions to bring back to his circus, travel to the Belgian Congo. Their safari takes them through the jungle where they meet wild animal dealer Josephine Carter, who has inherited her business from her father. While they are talking, one of Jo's employees finds a lighter that Grant dropped, and accidentally starts a fire near the lion cages. Clyde and Grant restrain Jo when she attempts to save the lions and an injured assistant. Clyde then rescues the assistant, who was being attacked by a lion, and fends off other escaping lions. After the fire is doused, Jo laments that the fire has destroyed her business. When Jo's business rival, Gorman, who was her father's partner, stops by to offer to buy her property, he scoffs at her claim that she could earn enough money to save her business by trapping and selling a gorilla. Later, Clyde and Grant offer to help her capture a gorilla, and they leave on safari the next day with her assistant Korjah and some African porters. That night while camping, Korjah learns from nearby tribal drumming that they are being followed by another safari, presumably led by Gorman. When Korjah finds gorilla tracks, Clyde instructs the porters to dig a trap. Gorman soon arrives and asserts that he has the right to hunt for gorillas in the vicinity. A gorilla falls into the trap moments later and after it is snared in a net, a disgruntled Gorman goes on his own hunt. When Gorman is attacked by a gorilla, Clyde saves him by shooting the animal. His wounds bandaged, Gorman grudgingly thanks Clyde and departs. The safari then returns to Jo's house where she thanks Clyde by offering him two lions for his circus. Continuing to a nearby village with Clyde, Grant encounters Gorman at a trading post owned by a Scotsman named Mac. Gorman, who has been looking for Clyde, reveals that he wants to repay Clyde for saving his life by telling him where he can find black-maned lions. Although they were about to leave Africa, Clyde and Grant travel to Salisbury, the capital of Southern Rhodesia, to obtain permits to hunt the lions. The commissioner grants the permits but warns that the territory in which they will travel, the habitat of the dangerous Wambasi tribe, contains the tsetse fly, which carries sleeping sickness. After a week in the Rhodesian jungle, Clyde's scout Kenny spots a pride of lions. When they attempt to capture one, however, Clyde's gun jams and he is forced to kill the animal with a handgun in order to save Grant and his porters, Steak and Chops, who were acting as bait. Not long after Grant is bitten by a tsetse fly, he collapses on the trail and Clyde decides to take a shortcut through Wambasi territory in order to get him to a hospital as soon as possible. However, most of their porters flee in fear after hearing Wambasi drums. Along the trail, Clyde and Kenny spot a Briton named Grubbs hide something under a rock. Grubbs explains that although he has been adopted by the Wambasi tribe because he saved the king's son from a crocodile, they will not allow him to leave. He adds that the tribe is now performing a death ceremony for two girls accused of stealing the king's gold. Although Clyde offers to take Grubbs with them when they leave, he fears that Grubbs will betray them to the tribe, and so orders the safari to set out again that night. When they arrive at the site where they first encountered Grubbs, Clyde discovers the stolen gold hidden under Grubbs's rock. Moments later, Steak and Chops are killed by Wambasi tribesmen, and Clyde, Grant and Kenny are captured. Grubbs expresses no remorse when Clyde accuses him of framing the girls for theft. When the king signals for the execution, Clyde notices that he is only a boy. Stealing Grubbs's knife, Clyde threatens to kill the king and takes him and Grubbs captive. At the river's edge, tribesmen shoot Grubbs in the back with a spear. Clyde jumps into a canoe with Kenny and Grant, then throws the king overboard in the middle of the river, after which the king swims ashore and smiles. Back in town, a recovered Grant returns to the trading post where Mac receives a call from Clyde, advising Grant that he has a lead on some black panthers. Grant rushes out to join Clyde on his next adventure.