Tarzan's Magic Fountain

   

Director: Lee Sholem
Year:  1949
Rating:  5.0

After 12 Tarzan films from 1932 to 1948 Johnny Weissmuller called it quits on playing the King of the Apes to instead play Jungle Jim for 13 films. Clearly, he liked the jungle or the jungle liked him! The first six Weissmuller Tarzan films were produced by MGM and are quite good - but then the franchise was taken over by RKO where they got progressively cheaper and worse. The last few were dreadful. But RKO thought there was more life in the series - and truth be told Tarzan is still going all these years later - and so they hired the very good looking Lex Barker who they had under contract to take over the role. I was hoping a younger Tarzan would re-energize the series, but no such luck. This is pretty mediocre on all counts. Barker was to go on and star in four more Tarzan films which I really hope are better because I have always loved the Tarzan character and I already have all five films!



His Jane is still being played by Brenda Joyce who took on that role when the series went to RKO because Maureen O'Sullivan had a contract at MGM - she was lucky. So for a few films Jane was off in England and not in the films but showed up for the final four films with Weissmuller. After this first film though she is gone - not just leaving Tarzan in the jungle but leaving the film business altogether. I mean how many times can you get Tarzan in trouble before you have had enough? At least thankfully there is no Boy in this one.



A good rule of thumb of the quality of a Tarzan film is how much time Cheetah gets. A lot as it turns out in this film. If you were a kid sitting in a theater on a Saturday afternoon these were probably great fun, but for adults not so much. In this one Cheetah finds a wrecked plane from 20 years ago and a notebook which indicates that a famous female pilot was in it and may have bailed out. She can free a man back home and so Tarzan takes 5 minutes to find her in a hidden tribe full of hot blondes and dishy brunettes. Maybe they were on their way to a Miss Universe Pageant when the plane went down. This village also has the secret of eternal youth so the aviator is still a babe too (Evelyn Ankers).



Word leaks out and others want in on this eternal life thing. They always do. And Jane as usual makes bad decisions about human nature- i.e. trusting it. At least in this one Barker doesn't swim or fight a lions or a tiger - but he does swing on a vine and smile a lot. He has a great smile. In fact, very little happens of any excitement but that darn Cheetah is always up to mischief! In the film also as the elderly husband is Alan Napier who many years later played Alfred in the Batman TV series.



And speaking of Batman, someone really has to take Tarzan and make it dark and terrifying - make him a true killer - a savage - not noble at all - just a survivor and really good at it.