Johnny Weissmuller knew to get out while the getting was good, but he waited too long by making this stinker. The racism is evident by the total absence of black people in a film supposedly taking place in Africa. Of course, the tipoff comes in the credits when the associate crew is almost entirely Mexicans, and the film made in Mexico. Tarzan doesn't show up until 13 minutes into the 90-minute film. Robert Florey has taken heat from some reviewers for a middling job as director, but the real blame belongs to screenplay writer Carroll Young.
There is something to salvage, here,however. Gustav Rojo and John Lorenz had interesting careers, as did Fernando Wagner. Tracking their work on the IMDb database shows they appeared in many Mexican films but also in some U.S. films and TV series. Here's an example of how being bilingual and get you jobs in more than one country. And Linda Christian had to start somewhere. Dmitri Tiomkin must have owed some poker debts to pay off when he did the musical score, or maybe the music was leftovers from Duel in the Sun.
When compared to the tightly written plots of Tarzan and the Amazons and other earlier Tarzan films, this one is an embarrassment. And where were the mermaids, anyway?
There is something to salvage, here,however. Gustav Rojo and John Lorenz had interesting careers, as did Fernando Wagner. Tracking their work on the IMDb database shows they appeared in many Mexican films but also in some U.S. films and TV series. Here's an example of how being bilingual and get you jobs in more than one country. And Linda Christian had to start somewhere. Dmitri Tiomkin must have owed some poker debts to pay off when he did the musical score, or maybe the music was leftovers from Duel in the Sun.
When compared to the tightly written plots of Tarzan and the Amazons and other earlier Tarzan films, this one is an embarrassment. And where were the mermaids, anyway?