Buster Crabbe was the Tarzan I most vividly remember from my childhood television viewing days and after getting a chance to re-view "Tarzan the Fearless" after almost 50 years, I can't understand why he wasn't MGM's first choice. He was given a screen test along with many others including Joel McCrea and Clark Gable but Johnny Weissmuller was Metro's final choice. Crabbe was very handsome and had a far better physique than Weissmuller which he did manage to maintain - apparently in 1970 Crabbe returned to swimming in a Senior Sports Swimming meet and managed to set a world record in the 400 metre freestyle event. Even though he didn't catch Metro's eye, Paramount was interested and he pleased them with "King of the Jungle" and later that year starred in a serial "Tarzan the Fearless" which was also re-edited into an 85 minute feature which opened at the Roxy in 1933. As Time magazine said "From the neck down Crabbe easily equals Weissmuller as an attraction to female audiences, from the neck up he is a vast improvement"!!!
This is supposedly (according to the preface) Tarzan's "strangest and most romantic adventure" and being a pre-coder there is lots of double meaning dialogue and many chances for Mary to be scantily clad in the jungle. Tarzan is asked by Dr. Brooks (E. Alyn Warren) to take a letter to his daughter Mary (fetching Jacqueline Welles) who is searching for him in the jungle. It wouldn't be a Tarzan movie without crooked safari guides - in this case they want to ditch the pesky girl and get down to the real business which is claiming a 10,000 pounds reward if they can prove Tarzan is dead - oh, and they also plan to look for a lost Emerald mine!!! Tarzan has already made himself known to viewers with an establishing scene that shows off his glorious physique, swinging through the trees (he made it look very real and dangerous) and also shows he is a defender of the weak as he fights a lion to the death to save a defenceless deer. Camping by a river Mary indulges in a near nude swim that brings Tarzan to her rescue when the river turns out to be crocodile infested. He is able to deliver the letter and also guides them to her father's hut but the father has gone to the temple - but wait!! he leaves a map.
Being edited from a 12 episode serial there is plenty of action and villains!! Suddenly Bedouins appear (Mischa Auer turns up as a High Priest and beautiful Carlotta Monti as the High Priestess) to kidnap Mary for a Sultan's harem but Tarzan is on hand to save her from a horse stampede and whisk Mary to the treetops at last!! By the end the bad villain is dead, the half hearted villain, who was forcing Mary into marriage with him in return for Tarzan's life has repented and has sent her after Tarzan for the fadeout. At least with this Tarzan, apart from a scene where he is taught to read, there are no scenes to make him feelinferior because of his jungle upbringing - no scoffing at his tablemanners etc. And this Mary (or Jane) looked at him with longing - dare I say lust, she did not try to show she was superior by laughing at him!!!
In different books I've read the story goes that once Jacqueline Welles changed her name to Julie Bishop in the early 1940s her career really took off, but looking at her filmography at IMDb she had a pretty big career in the thirties - she was a 1934 Wampas Baby Star and was the female lead in the horror cult classic "The Black Cat" (1934).
This is supposedly (according to the preface) Tarzan's "strangest and most romantic adventure" and being a pre-coder there is lots of double meaning dialogue and many chances for Mary to be scantily clad in the jungle. Tarzan is asked by Dr. Brooks (E. Alyn Warren) to take a letter to his daughter Mary (fetching Jacqueline Welles) who is searching for him in the jungle. It wouldn't be a Tarzan movie without crooked safari guides - in this case they want to ditch the pesky girl and get down to the real business which is claiming a 10,000 pounds reward if they can prove Tarzan is dead - oh, and they also plan to look for a lost Emerald mine!!! Tarzan has already made himself known to viewers with an establishing scene that shows off his glorious physique, swinging through the trees (he made it look very real and dangerous) and also shows he is a defender of the weak as he fights a lion to the death to save a defenceless deer. Camping by a river Mary indulges in a near nude swim that brings Tarzan to her rescue when the river turns out to be crocodile infested. He is able to deliver the letter and also guides them to her father's hut but the father has gone to the temple - but wait!! he leaves a map.
Being edited from a 12 episode serial there is plenty of action and villains!! Suddenly Bedouins appear (Mischa Auer turns up as a High Priest and beautiful Carlotta Monti as the High Priestess) to kidnap Mary for a Sultan's harem but Tarzan is on hand to save her from a horse stampede and whisk Mary to the treetops at last!! By the end the bad villain is dead, the half hearted villain, who was forcing Mary into marriage with him in return for Tarzan's life has repented and has sent her after Tarzan for the fadeout. At least with this Tarzan, apart from a scene where he is taught to read, there are no scenes to make him feelinferior because of his jungle upbringing - no scoffing at his tablemanners etc. And this Mary (or Jane) looked at him with longing - dare I say lust, she did not try to show she was superior by laughing at him!!!
In different books I've read the story goes that once Jacqueline Welles changed her name to Julie Bishop in the early 1940s her career really took off, but looking at her filmography at IMDb she had a pretty big career in the thirties - she was a 1934 Wampas Baby Star and was the female lead in the horror cult classic "The Black Cat" (1934).