Tarzan And the Amazons

Posted on October 21, 2012

Tarzan And the Amazons

1945

Tarzan And the Amazons

  • Tarzan: Johnny Weissmuller
  • Jane: Brenda Joyce
  • Boy: Johnny Sheffield
  • Director: Kurt Neumann
  • Producer: Sol Lesser, Kurt Neumann
  • Release Date: April 29, 1945
  • Run Time: 76 min
  • Language: English

Plot

Tarzan and Boy, on their way to meet Jane, who is returning from nursing work in England to support the war effort, rescue an “Amazon” woman from an attack by a black panther. During the attack, she drops a golden bracelet which Cheeta picks up. The Amazon woman’s ankle is twisted in the incident and she cannot walk. Telling Boy to wait for him, Tarzan carries the woman through a mountain pass to the valley where her city of Palmyria is located. Boy disobeys Tarzan, follows them at a distance, and discovers the location of the city, then returns to wait for Tarzan.

After they reunite with Jane, a group of explorers, led by Sir Guy Henderson, discover the bracelet Cheeta has, and its markings are matched to other relics supposedly from a lost city of Amazons. The explorers attempt to enlist Tarzan to lead them to Palmyria. Tarzan refuses, but Boy, believing he is aiding the advancement of science, is duped into guiding them there.

Boy and the party are captured by the Amazons, and their queen declares that in lieu of the death penalty for invading their city, they will all be forced to work the rest of their lives in the Palmyrian quarries with the other men they keep for labor. The woman Tarzan saved from the panther takes pity and releases them. The group, led by Ballister, Henderson’s unsavory second-in-command, and Anders, then sets about looting the city’s treasure vaults. When Henderson objects, Ballister kills him, then fatally knifes the woman who released them. She is able to sound an alarm before she dies, and the invaders are all killed save Ballister and Anders, who escape with two pieces of treasure.

Boy is recaptured and condemned to die. Cheeta warns Tarzan of Boy’s impending doom. Tarzan races to Palmyria, meets Ballister and Anders, and backs them into a mud bog in which they sink and die. He returns the Amazon’s treasure in exchange for Boy’s freedom.

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Tarzan’s Desert Mystery

Posted on October 21, 2012

Tarzan's Desert Mystery

1943

Tarzan’s Desert Mystery

  • Tarzan: Johnny Weissmuller
  • Extra: Nancy Kelly as Connie Bryce
  • Boy: Johnny Sheffield
  • Director: Wilhelm Thiele
  • Producer: Sol Lesser
  • Release Date: December 26, 1943
  • Run Time: 70 min
  • Language: English

Plot

The film revolves around Tarzan’s quest, at the urging of Jane, to find a rare African serum to help Allied troops. Tarzan’s son, Boy, manages to tag along as the apeman journeys into the Sahara, and the two are soon joined by a rambunctious horse and a female American magician, played by Nancy Kelly. The story is mostly a fantasy adventure—with “Arabian Nights”-style characters and sinister Nazi spies—but it also includes considerable comic relief and even science fiction elements. Critics complained that it was aimed more toward juvenile audiences than previous Tarzan films had been.

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Tarzan Triumphs

Posted on October 21, 2012

Tarzan Triumphs

1943

Tarzan Triumphs

  • Tarzan: Johnny Weissmuller
  • Zandra: Frances Gifford
  • Boy: Johnny Sheffield
  • Director: Wilhelm Thiele
  • Producer: Sol Lesser
  • Release Date: February 19, 1943
  • Run Time: 76 min
  • Language: English
  • Information: Maureen O’Sullivan was unable to reprise her role as Jane due to pregnancy.[1] Instead, Frances Gifford played the princess of the lost city of Palandrya, which is conquered by Germans.

Plot

Tarzan and Boy are living on the Great Escarpment, though Jane has returned to England. A small force of German paratroopers lands and takes over the lost city of “Palandrya” as an advance base for the conquest of Sub Saharan Africa. Tarzan continually ignores the requests for help from the helpless and enslaved Palandrians, saying, “Jungle people fight to live, civilized people live to fight”.

Only when Boy is kidnapped by the Germans does Tarzan shout, “Now Tarzan make war!” Tarzan infiltrates the lost city, destroying a machine gun and defeating the German invaders with his knife and an elephant blitzkrieg. The film’s final scene has Cheeta speaking into the defeated Germans’ short wave radio to call Berlin; the Germans mistake Cheeta for Adolf Hitler.

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Tarzan’s New York Adventure

Posted on October 21, 2012

Tarzan's New York Adventure

1942

Tarzan’s New York Adventure

  • Tarzan: Johnny Weissmuller
  • Jane: Maureen O’Sullivan
  • Boy: Johnny Sheffield
  • Circus routabout: Elmo Lincoln
  • Buck Rand (Circus Owner): Charles Bickford
  • Director: Richard Thorpe
  • Producer: Frederick Stephani
  • Release Date: May 1942
  • Run Time: 71 min
  • Language: English
  • Information: Tarzan’s New York Adventure is a 1942 film, the sixth Tarzan film to feature actors Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan. Of interest is the uncredited appearance as a circus roustabout by Elmo Lincoln who in 1918 was the first actor to star as Tarzan.

Plot

Circus workers land an airplane in the jungles of Africa in search of lions for their show. While trapping lions, the three men meet up with Tarzan, Jane and their adopted son Boy. Watching Boy’s tricks with the elephants, the head of the circus, Buck Rand (played by Charles Bickford), realizes that Boy would be a great act for the circus. The group is attacked by natives, and it appears that Tarzan and Jane have perished in a jungle fire. The men take Boy on a plane back to the United States. Tarzan’s loyal chimp Cheeta wakes Tarzan and Jane before they are burned by the fire. Then Cheeta tells Tarzan that Boy has left with the men on the plane.

Tarzan, Jane and the chimp track across the jungle and eventually end up in New York City where Tarzan is befuddled by the lifestyle and gadgetry of “civilization”. Tarzan displays his quaint, “noble savage” ways by complaining about the necessity of wearing clothing, commenting that an opera singer that he hears on a “noisy box” is “Woman sick! Scream for witch doctor!”, and expressing his childlike wonderment at taxi cabs. It is noteworthy that Tarzan comments that various African-Americans he sees making a living throughout New York City are from this or that tribe back in their jungle home.

Tarzan and Jane attempt to get Boy back first by legal means. This leads to a moving sequence where the judge asks Tarzan what the fishing is like back in Africa and what he considers to be important things that he needs to teach his adopted son. Unfortunately, the circus retains an unscrupulous lawyer who tricks Jane into admitting that Boy was not born in the jungle and is not her actual child and provokes Tarzan into attacking him in the court room. Tarzan makes a daring escape out the courtroom windows and after a rooftop chase by the police ends up doing a high dive off the Brooklyn Bridge into the East River.

Tarzan somehow finds the circus where Boy is being held and enlists the aid of circus elephants who are chained to stakes. He calls to them with his “jungle speak” and they take their revenge on their tormentors by tearing free from the chains and destroying the circus. In the ensuing bedlam, Tarzan is able to rescue Boy, and in the film’s conclusion the judge grants Tarzan and Jane full custody of Boy before the family returns to Africa.

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Tarzan’s Secret Treasure

Posted on October 21, 2012

Tarzan's Secret Treasure

1941

Tarzan’s Secret Treasure

  • Tarzan: Johnny Weissmuller
  • Jane: Maureen O’Sullivan
  • Boy: Johnny Sheffield
  • O’doul: Barry Fitzgerald
  • Professor_elliott: Reginald Owen
  • Director: Richard Thorpe
  • Producer: B. P. Fineman
  • Release Date: December 1, 1941
  • Run Time: 81 min
  • Language: English

Plot

An expedition team arrives on Tarzan’s escarpment. By chance, the two villainous members Medford (Tom Conway) and Vandermeer (Philip Dorn) find out that there is plenty of gold on the escarpment. They kidnap Jane and Boy in order to make Tarzan show them the location of the gold. Soon the group is captured by natives, whereupon Tarzan comes to their rescue.

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Tarzan Finds a Son

Posted on October 21, 2012

Tarzan Finds a Son

1939

Tarzan Finds a Son

  • Tarzan: Johnny Weissmuller
  • Jane: Maureen O’Sullivan
  • Director: Richard Thorpe
  • Producer: Sam Zimbalist
  • Release Date: June 16, 1939
  • Run Time: 82 min
  • Language: English

Plot

A plane flying to Cape Town carrying a young couple and their baby, crashes in the jungle. Everyone on the plane dies, except for the baby who is rescued by Cheeta, Tarzan’s chimpanzee. Tarzan and Jane adopt the child and name him “Boy”. Five years later, a search party comes looking for Boy, because he is the heir to a fortune worth millions. Jane tries to help the search party and Boy go back to civilization, against Tarzan’s wishes.

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Tarzan and the Green Goddess

Posted on October 21, 2012

Tarzan and the Green Goddess

1938

Tarzan and the Green Goddess

  • Tarzan: Bruce Bennett (aka Herman Brix)
  • Jane: Ula Holt
  • Director: Edward Kull and Wilbur F. McGaugh
  • Producer: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ben S. Choen, Ashton Dearholt and George W. Stout
  • Release Date: February 27, 1938 (Finland)
  • Run Time: 72 min
  • Language: English

Plot

At his English manor, Lord Greystoke – aka Tarzan – recounts his recent adventures in Guatemala. He had been there assisting Major Martling and Ula Vale in their quest for the Green Goddess, a totem worshipped by a primitive jungle tribe inside of which was hidden a formula for a super-explosive. They had successfully wrestled this totem from the natives and were heading back to Livingston when they were attacked by Raglan, a thug sent to steal the Green Goddess and its formula for Hiram Powers’ personal use, and the Goddess is seized from them. On the trail of Raglan, they had to deal with his henchmen and also a party of the primitives, sent by the High Priest to retrieve the Goddess. With the Goddess still in Raglan’s hands, they were seized by the natives and Tarzan locked in a small cell with a loosely-tethered lion, Ula in an adjacent cell under guard from a hideous jungle hag, and Martling being forced to watch his bumbling valet.

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Tarzan’s Revenge

Posted on October 21, 2012

Tarzan's Revenge

1938

Tarzan’s Revenge

  • Tarzan: Glenn Morris
  • Jane: Eleanor Holm
  • Mother: Hedda Hopper as Penny Reed
  • Director: D. Ross Lederman
  • Producer: Sol Lesser
  • Release Date: January 7, 1938
  • Run Time: 70 min
  • Language: English

Plot

Eleanor Reed accompanies her parents, Roger and Penny, and Nevil Potter, her fiance, on an expedition to Africa to capture wild animals to sell to a zoo. Ben Alleu Bey spots Eleanor and wishes her to become the one hundredth wife in his harem. When she refuses, he follows their safari.

Both groups are followed closely by Tarzan, who releases the animals and woos Eleanor away from both Nevin and Bey. When Nevin discovers that Eleanor plans to remain behind with Tarzan, he attempts to kill him, but only grazes his shoulder with a round fired at close range. Tarzan attacks Nevin, but releases him at Eleanor’s behest. As the Reeds’ ship sails down the river, Tarzan and Eleanor go for a swim.

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Tarzan Escapes

Posted on October 21, 2012

Tarzan Escapes

1936

Tarzan Escapes

  • Tarzan: Johnny Weissmuller
  • Jane: Maureen O’Sullivan
  • Director: Richard Thorpe, John Farrow (uncredited), James C. McKay (uncredited), George B. Seitz, William A. Wellman
  • Release Date: November 6, 1936
  • Run Time: 89 min.
  • Language: English

Plot

Jane’s two cousins Eric and Rita arrive in Africa to tell Jane about a fortune left to her back in their world and to try and convince her to return with them. They are led to Tarzan’s escarpment home by Captain Fry (John Buckler), a hunter with an agenda of his own. Jane convinces Tarzan to let her go back with Eric and Rita, promising that their separation will only be temporary, but Captain Fry (unknown to the others) attempts to capture Tarzan to take him back civilization so he can be put on public display and actually succeeds in caging Tarzan. Fry’s treachery includes making a deal with an unfriendly native tribe to give him food, canoes and protection for the journey back in exchange for his handing over Jane, Eric and Rita for “ju-ju” and taking away the greatest “ju-ju” – Tarzan. Fry’s plan goes wrong when the natives capture Tarzan in his cage and all four white people are taken prisoner. Tarzan manages to escape with the help of elephants and Cheeta and guides what’s left of Fry’s party through a cave passage filled with treacherous quicksands. Just before they exit the caves to safety, Tarzan forces Fry to go back the way they came as punishment for his betrayal. Fry starts to go back, then seizes a heavy branch to attack Tarzan, but before he can exit the cave he falls into a quicksand bog and is swallowed up. Rita and Eric tell Jane that it is not necessary for her to return with them and that she belongs with Tarzan. The film ends with Tarzan and Jane reunited at their treehouse.

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The New Adventures of Tarzan

Posted on October 21, 2012

The New Adventures of Tarzan

1935

The New Adventures of Tarzan

  • Tarzan: Herman Brix
  • Extra: Ula Holt as Ula Vale
  • Director: Edward Kull
  • Producer: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ashton Dearholt, George W. Stout
  • Release Date: May 21, 1935 U.S., December 11, 1938, Finland, January 1950, Germany
  • Run Time: 257 min (12 chapters
  • Language: English

Plot

Several plot elements bring the characters together in search (and pursuit) of the Guatemalan idol known as The Green Goddess: Tarzan’s friend D’Arnot has crash landed in the region and is in the hands of a lost tribe of jungle natives. Major Martling is leading an expedition to find the fabled artefact for a powerful explosives formula hidden within it. Ula Vale’s fiancé died in an earlier expedition to rescue the artefact for its archaeological benefit and so she starts one of her own in his honour. Raglan has been sent by Hiram Powers, Ula’s lawyer, to steal the valuable idol for himself – in addition to containing the explosives formula, it also holds a fortune in jewels.Tarzan, Ula and Major Martling find the idol and rescue D’Arnot from the natives that worship it in the 70-minute-long first episode. However, Raglan escapes with the Green Goddess and heads through the jungle for the coast. Tarzan and the others pursue him across the jungle, encountering many perils, including recapture by the natives to whom the idol belonged. The adventures end out at sea where, during a hurricane, they are able to permanently secure the idol while Raglan is killed by another of Powers’ agents because of his failures. The murderer perishes when the ship sinks. Returning to Greystoke Manor in England with Tarzan, Ula consigns the explosives formula to fire in the final episode, where she and Tarzan also recount several adventures from the first part of the serial to an assembled party of friends and colleagues.

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