Made to ride on the coat-tails of Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan The Ape Man (1932), this adventure for the legendary jungle wild-man stars Buster Crabbe, who would later find fame as the hero of sci-fi serials Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. Crabbe's Tarzan also started life as a serial, the movie version that I saw being cobbled together out of several episodes, which gives the whole thing a rather irritating choppy, episodic feel with obvious scenes originally serving as cliff-hangers.
Crabbe makes for a convincing Tarzan, his athletic swimmer's build making him perfect for the character (although his pre-Hayes code loincloth is a little too skimpy for my liking: there's way too much ass-cheek on display!). Unfortunately, the action primarily consists of Tarzan swinging on vines, and wrassling lions and crocs, which gets fairly tedious after a while (to be fair, in it's original serial format, it was probably only one animal fight per episode). The plot is forgettable stuff: a young woman, Mary (the gorgeous Julie Bishop) goes in search of her father, but her guides have other plans, aiming to collect £10k for the vine-swinger's body and to relieve a local tribe of their ceremonial emeralds.
Of course, Tarzan puts paid to their plans and gets the girl, and all the jungle animals dance to some music played on Mary's gramophone.
5/10. Worth seeing if only for Crabbe's silly grin that makes him look like a simpleton.
Crabbe makes for a convincing Tarzan, his athletic swimmer's build making him perfect for the character (although his pre-Hayes code loincloth is a little too skimpy for my liking: there's way too much ass-cheek on display!). Unfortunately, the action primarily consists of Tarzan swinging on vines, and wrassling lions and crocs, which gets fairly tedious after a while (to be fair, in it's original serial format, it was probably only one animal fight per episode). The plot is forgettable stuff: a young woman, Mary (the gorgeous Julie Bishop) goes in search of her father, but her guides have other plans, aiming to collect £10k for the vine-swinger's body and to relieve a local tribe of their ceremonial emeralds.
Of course, Tarzan puts paid to their plans and gets the girl, and all the jungle animals dance to some music played on Mary's gramophone.
5/10. Worth seeing if only for Crabbe's silly grin that makes him look like a simpleton.