This movie exists in various versions. It started off as a 15- chapter serial. In the USA, it was cut down to both 85 minutes and 71 minutes. In England, it was cut to 95 minutes. The version I recommend for maximum laughs is the 85 minute cut – and fortunately, this is the version favored by TV stations. Edited with the proverbial meat ax, the story jumps wildly from numbingly senseless situations to ancient stock footage to tattily staged "action" to tedious animal antics to lengthy close-ups of the remarkably wide- eyed heroine (Jacqueline Wells a.k.a. Julie Bishop), to incredibly extended shots of an imbecilely grinning Tarzan. Please note that it's worth persevering right to the climax for some of the most hilarious stuff occurs right at the end. Technically, the film is atrocious. The sets are tatty, the photography so dull and grainy that it looks as if photographers Harry Neuman and Joseph Brotherton used smoked glass instead of film stock. The sound recordist wisely decided not to put his name to his hopelessly primitive attempt in which sound levels vary wildly from scene to scene. I'm amazed that both Buster Crabbe (Tarzan) and Miss Wells/Bishop managed to survive this movie. I guess it was simply their amazingly good luck that hardly anybody ever saw it! That's a pity in a way. This movie is a riot!
Review of Tarzan the Fearless
