The Gordon Scott Tarzan Films
                               
Tarzan’s Hidden Jungle (1955) – 4.0




From Johnny Weissmuller to Lex Barker and now Gordon Scott, RKO produced twelve Tarzan films. This was to be the last one. The next film with Gordon Scott was distributed by MGM who had originated the series and then handed it over to RKO. Scott was to go on to appear as Tarzan in five theatrical films and a TV movie. After Tarzan he took on the mantle of Samson, Goliath and Hercules when he moved over to Italy into Peplum films. Almost as strange as Lana Turner being discovered in a malt shop, Scott was seen as a lifeguard and signed up to be Tarzan with no acting experience. And damn if it doesn't show. He looks exactly like a hunky lifeguard flirting with teenage girls, volunteering to apply sunscreen lotion on them and hoping to get lucky. Clean shaven and with not a hair out of place, he should be going to a local hop dance but here he is in Africa protecting the animals. He can't act a lick - Cheta played by Zippy runs circles around him and he is a chimp. He goes through the film in half smile, half bewildered mode grateful that his dialogue is sparse and simple. But he is a good- looking guy and in great shape which I expect is all the producers wanted.

 

Basically, nothing happens in this film. I mean nothing. It is 70-minutes of nothing. You keep thinking something is about to happen - but no. A lion approaches and walks away, crocodiles eye Tarzan in the river and decide they have something better to do, a boa slithers down a tree and realizes it isn't that hungry. All film stock. Scott and an animal never appear in the same frame other than Cheta who keeps thinking, "And I thought that last guy could not act. I want a professional to act with." Tarzan is doing his jungle thing whatever that is and hears a shot. Hunters. Fuckers. I hate hunters. Lowest form of human being. It is satisfying seeing them all get killed in this film. Headed by Jack Elam, they have a laundry list to get. 2,000 barrels of animal fat, 100 lion skins, 200 antelope heads and 3 tons of ivory. That is a lot of dead animals.

 

They wound one of Tarzan's elephant friends and he takes it to the local clinic being run by a white man (Peter Van Eyck) and his nurse played by Vera Miles, who went on to better things. When she and Tarzan look at one another, it is like they just had sex in front of us. They must have thought so too because they married each other right after the film. The animals - at least the smart ones - have crossed the river into Sukulu country where the tribe with fashionable headgear of lion's teeth hanging down protect the animals. You hurt them, you die. Sounds fair to me. The hunters decide they need to go over there to fill that list. Probably a bad idea. This film has such an exciting ending though - the doctor and the nurse are in a pit with ferocious lions and Tarzan jumps in to save them. Ah, finally. Some fake fighting. Instead, Tarzan yells at them "simba, simba" and they walk away. Never in the same frame. Remember that in case you are ever face to face with a lion. It usually works. For the romantically inclined, there is a deep tongue kiss at the end.  Between two chimps. I felt like a Peeping Tom. I hope the rest of these Tarzan films get better.  This was like week-old road kill.



Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957) – 7.0

 


"Umm, I bet he is good at everything" says the Doris Day lookalike blonde with the pointy pouty bra about Tarzan as she eyes him up like a warm omelet at breakfast. "You must really stay in shape fighting crocodiles". This second of the Gordon Scott Tarzan films is a vast improvement over the first one in which watching flies on a wall is more interesting. Thanks perhaps to one of my favorite B directors with the occasional A production, H. Bruce Humberstone. He directed a number of the Charlie Chan films but also, I Wake Up Screaming and a few Sonja Henie musicals. He brings a great eye to this, energy, a pumping score and makes Scott look like a man on a stud farm. The plentiful footage of wild animals shot for the film is a pleasure as well - much better than what I have seen before and in color! The first Tarzan film to be shot in color and it looks great. Even Cheta gives a better performance in this one. And there is a dance choreographer for the big dance number.

 

I like how it begins. In a private plane flying over Africa with a well-stocked bar and plentiful of snide remarks. A married couple (Peter Arne. Betta St. John) whose marriage has seen better days, a snippy sarcastic blonde (Yolande Dolan), a millionaire (George Coulouris) and a society reporter played by Wilfred Hyde-White.  Poor Wilfred. A few days ago, I saw him in a film in which he has to survive a train trip across India with Muslim tribesmen wanting to make shish kebab out of him and now he has to make his way across Africa with tribesmen after him. That is because the pilot takes the plane down low so that people can see all the wildlife - at one point parallel to an elephant which seems way too low - but it is a flock of birds that he runs into that brings the plane down. I loved that plane. I want one. With the man-eating blonde on board.

 

Tarzan who was literally taking a nap nearby with a lion lying at his feet gets up, stretches and helps them off the plane. The wife thinking she is window shopping on Fifth Ave strolls off only to be captured by the very cool looking Opar tribe with their white eye-shadow, Azul blue and yellow paint covering their faces. It was the fashion at the time. She is saved by the Great White Hunter (Robert Beatty) who has other plans - to give them all over to the tribe. For human sacrifice. White folks it seems gets you bonus points with the Gods. Tarzan with the hunter along has to lead them to safety.  Cheta though saves the day. Yay for Cheta.



Tarzan’s Fight for Life (1958) – 5.0



Damn, Tarzan. What were you thinking? Somehow. he has managed to saddle himself with a wife and son since the previous film (Tarzan and the Lost Safari - 1957). Where did Jane come from? Was she hatched from an egg? Did Fed Express deliver her? Tarzan, you were the King of the Jungle. Free as the wind. Come and go when you want. Sleep when you want. Eat what you want. Not a worry in the world. A stud in the jungle with no competition from any other white man. And you gave that up for Jane and domesticity? And an adopted son who looks like a young Mickey Dolenz with his hair parted in the middle. Admittedly, she (Eve Brent) is very cute but come on man. You had it all. Now it's a pretty tree house with all the amenities and a chimp who wears underpants. Tarzan don't stay out too late. Be home for our supper of elephant meat. I better not catch you looking at any of the native girls or no nookie tonight. She has him trapped. At one point he has to rush home and so he hops on a passing giraffe and rides him. When he gets home, he asks her if she wants to take a swim - clearly code for let's get away from Boy and get down to business.

 

Otherwise, this is a fairly dull outing in the Gordon Scott Tarzan series. I had hopes after the second one which was pretty good after a terrible first one. Not a lot happens but there are some good points. Scott has never looked better, his vine swinging has improved as has his swimming and he isn't the acting piece of wood that he was at the beginning. Next, the natives are actually played by blacks. That may sound odd but Tarzan in previous incarnations began to populate the films with Latin looking natives. We can guess why. Not that they come off that well here but it's work. Two in particular stand out - the great Woody Strode looking like a Black Adonis all oiled down and for some reason having a Mohawk - as he did in Two Rode Together in 1960. Maybe it was being made at the same time? He is the heavy in this one working for the wicked Witch Doctor but sadly Tarzan handles him like a toddler. Picks him up by his Mohawk and tosses him. I bet Woody was not happy about that. His classic fight with Tarzan in the 1963 Tarzan's Three Challenges on ropes with death below was much better and worthy of him. The Witch Doctor is James Edwards who gives a great performance. For a Witch Doctor. He gives it depth and pathos and was in a lot of well-regarded films.

 

The plot sort of goes like this. There is a white doctor (Carl Benton Reid), his assistant (Harry Lauter) and the doctor's daughter (Jil Jarmyn) who have set up practice in the jungle and help the numerous tribes around them. But the Witch Doctor turns the locals against him. And that is kind of it. Tarzan shows up eventually and makes everything good. The film looks great - beautiful color photography, some stunning outside shooting (though much is done in the studio) and of course shots of animals in the wild specially taken for the film. The costumes are brazen and eye-catching - there is an effort to give the various tribes a different look - there is even a pygmy tribe. So, by no means a total loss but it needed a little excitement.



Tarzan and the Trappers (1958) – 5.0

 


Jane makes an omelet. Perhaps the highlight of the film. After Gordon Scott had appeared as Tarzan in three films, the producer Sol Lesser thought it was time to move Tarzan to the small screen and this was what he offered them. They refused and it actually wasn't shown on TV until 1966. Which perhaps not co-incidentally was the year the Ron Ely Tarzan TV series began. This followed Tarzan's Fight for Life and it brought on the Jane (Eve Brent) and Boy (Rickie Sorenson) to this film. But this is back to black and white which is a shame. I like my stock footage in color. The first 20 minutes of this 70 minute film is fairly painful - too much of a bland Jane, an annoying Boy and a grinning Cheta. But then suddenly it looks like this will turn into Rambo. But it doesn't. Real potential here in the set-up but it's TV and you could only go so far back in 1958.

 

The film starts with a narrator telling us how dangerous the jungle is - every day is a struggle for life. Then pans to Jane napping on a comfy pile of leaves and a Mambo ready to kill her. She needs to listen to the narration. It isn't Tarzan who saves her but Cheta with a mean baseball swing. Two white hunters are trapping animals and kill a mother elephant in order to trap the baby. Then they trap Cheta and I sighed a breath of relief. Please take him. Then trap Boy and I said please take him too. First Tarzan rides a giraffe to the rescue as he had in an earlier film and then Tarzan calls on the elephants. Always my favorite scene in those old Weissmuller films. He catches the bad guys and hands them over to the authorities. But it isn't over yet.

 

His Great White Hunter brother shows up promising Tarzan that he will hunt him down and gives him two hours to get away. Tarzan "In the jungle the hunter becomes the hunted". In this scene Tarzan has to take on a giant of a man and breaks his neck. You can hear the crack. The Hunter brings along seven other white hunters to track Tarzan down as he watches from the treetops. After the cracked neck, I was expecting that he would kill them all - one by one - traps, animals and more snapped necks. It would have been a great Tarzan. But no go. Gordon returned as Tarzan the following year in Tarzan's Greatest Adventure. And back to color. By the way, the Chief is played by Sherman Crothers, later better known as Scatman.



Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure (1959) – 7.5



It should have been called Tarzan and Four Sweaty Men and a Woman on a Boat or Tarzan and Two Hot Blondes Lost in the Jungle. Tarzan's Greatest Adventure as a title is generically boring. The film isn't.




In 1957 Sy Weintraub bought the rights to Tarzan from Sol Lesser for $3.5 million and decided to give the franchise a revamp. He thankfully ditches Jane and Boy and allows Tarzan to speak in proper English as he did in the books after the first one. Under Lesser the Tarzan films felt like drugged lions in a circus with the excitement of a Sunday nap but Weintraub breathed life back into them. This is a terrific Tarzan. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre meets the Heart of Darkness. Perhaps the best Tarzan film since the first two Johnny Weissmuller films. It is shot on location and looks it with some spectacular scenery. From the opening scene it has a narrative drive that never slows and has some suspenseful moments. After so many bad Tarzan's going back to the RKO films, this felt like a little miracle.


 
It doesn't begin that way though as four natives sneak ashore from a canoe to steal some dynamite and kill two men. Even to my old eyes it was obvious they were being played by white men in black-face. I groaned so loud my girlfriend thought I was sick. But ah. They are in fact white men disguised as natives. As they wipe off the paint, there is Anthony Quale and a little-known Scotsman still looking for his big break. He got it later the same year in Darby O'Gill and the Little People. Sean Connery of course in a fairly large role as a rotter constantly needling the other three men and throwing dewy-eyed looks at Quale's woman, the Italian actress Scilla Gabel. They switch to a motorized cabin boat and are on their way to a diamond mine. Nothing to stop them except Tarzan and the jungle. And themselves. Tarzan has moved to a quaint little tree house with a river view and there is no mention of Jane and Boy and even Chetah only gets a cameo. This is the new and improved Tarzan. When he hears the beating of the drums, he knows trouble is coming.

 

Weintraub had initially looked for a new actor to play Tarzan but gave up and re-signed Gordon Scott for two more Tarzan's. It seems that rescuing Scott from pidgin English freed him up to act better - throughout he looks resolute and relentless in tracking these men down and killing them. And the chase is on. He gets stuck with a blonde (Sara Shane) whose plane has crashed but he gives her two options - stay up with me or I leave you behind. The men in their cramped quarters and greed written across their faces begin to turn on each other looking dirtier every day and the blonde looking lovelier. It becomes a battle between Quale's character who becomes obsessed with killing Tarzan and Tarzan. The unforgiving jungle takes its share as well.

 



A terrific adventure tale. It might seem that Quale was slumming in a Tarzan film but he is great as the cruel killer and though I can't say that I would have seen future greatness in Connery, he is handsome and charming and a little crazy. It is directed by John Guillerman who knew his way behind a camera as he later showed in Blue Max, Bridge at Remagen, Death on the Nile and of course King Kong and King Kong Lives (which I had no idea existed). The scenes inside the boat of fraying nerves, desire and sweat are perfectly shot.


Tarzan the Magnificent (1960) – 6.5

 


This is the last of the five Gordon Scott Tarzan films. After this one, he packed his bags and his muscular build and moved to Europe to star in a series of Peplum films. Steve Reeves was a friend of his and told him come on over, the water is warm. From his debut in Tarzan's Hidden Jungle in 1955, he had improved considerably as an actor. Not quite ready to play Hamlet, but fine as Tarzan. He bridged the two Tarzan eras. From Weissmuller through Lex Barker, Tarzan was always portrayed as an uneducated savage unable to learn English. Not at all like the books mind you but the white savage held a fascination in the popular imagination.

 

For the first three film in this series, that portrayal remained the same.  Until Sy Weintraub purchased the rights to Tarzan and decided to give Jane the boot and allow Tarzan to speak reasonably decent English. Tarzan's Greatest Adventure was the fourth one and I would say easily the best in the series. Maybe the best Tarzan film. This one is solid as well but a step down and too similar in plot to Tarzan and the Lost Safari in 1957 with Scott. As in that one, Tarzan has to lead a small group of men and women through the treacherous jungle with people hunting them. It is generally well-made and shot in Africa with some stunning locations - but Tarzan is not at the top of his game making mistake after mistake - and damn if you are going to shoot an arrow at someone, hit him. After all those years in the jungle, he should be a better shot. And he must walk into a dozen punches or kicks like he has never fought before. Duck.

 

A ruthless gang of five white man are the scourge of the river stealing and killing with no remorse. They are headed by the father of them played wonderfully by John Carradine as a gruff psycho who knows the jungles as well as Tarzan and if nothing else, loves his sons. All are psychos by the way. They shoot up a village, killing a few men and escape. The lawman tracks them and captures the elder son, Coy, played by Jock Mahony - but the family catches up and kills the lawman - only to have Tarzan show up, kill one of them and re-capture Coy. He takes him into the closest village and it looks like it is going to turn into High Noon in the Jungle as everyone refuses to help him. So he decides to take him on foot to the headquarters of the region - a few days walk.

 

But then he makes his first stupid mistake - he agrees to take a party of four with him because they need to get to that place as well. Two men, two women. Who will slow him down to a crawl. One of them is played by Lionel Jeffries, usually a silly comic figure but here a racist, a coward, a complete dick and his wife hates him and gets the jiggles around the prisoner. The other man is played by Charles Tingle who I know from the Margaret Rutherford Miss Marple films in which he is Inspector Craddock in all four films. One of the women is Betta St. John who coincidentally - or not - was in Tarzan's Lost Safari. She should have known from that one, not to go again. Lions, tigers, natives, crocodiles, quicksand and killers lay ahead of them. Jock Mahoney must have impressed Weintraub because he was to become the next Tarzan for two films.



He quite good in this and shows more sex appeal than Tarzan does in his loin cloth. I know at the end of the day that this is family fare, but good grief - be ruthless. The lawman comes across the gang sleeping and only takes Coy - why would you not shoot them all on the spot. They just killed in cold blood. I know. Not sporting. Why does Tarzan not become the hunter instead of the hunted and set traps for them. And when Coy gets free as the party sleeps and has a gun, why doesn't he kill them all instead of walking off. Maybe I am the psycho. Or have watched too many John Wick films.