Savage Fury on AllMovie

Not one of Universal's proudest moments, this 12 chapter serial, set in what they used to refer to as "Darkest Africa," starred Noah Beery, Jr. as the son of a medical doctor adopted by a band of simians. Beery, Jr., however, is no Tarzan, merely Jan of the Jungle, the hero of a book by Otis Adelbert Kline, an acknowledged rival of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Jan's mother is killed by the villain, and his father, the discoverer of a treatment for infantile paralysis, has lost his memory. Happily, the apes take care of Jan while his father blithely returns to America. Years later, a greedy colleague of his father's (Walter Miller) returns to find that the boy, now a young man, still possesses the key to his father's discovery. A fine hero of silent serials, often teamed with Allene Ray, Walter Miller made an equally effective menace in the talkie era (when given the chance, which he wasn't in Call of the Savage). The best reason to view this serial today is for the many silent screen stars dutifully speaking the lacklustre lines forced upon them. The long list of has-beens appearing in Call of the Savage included Bryant Washburn, Grace Cunard, King Baggot, William Desmond, Wally Wales, and Buddy Roosevelt. An edited version of the serial was released the same year under the title Savage Fury.