Two More Tarzans!

I spent a great afternoon relaxing and watching two Tarzan features from the 30's.

The first was Tarzan the Fearless starring serial superhero Buster Crabbe. Despite the charm of Crabbe and the beauty of his blonde co-star the movie is a bit listless in places. That's doubtless because it's a cobbled together flick from the full 12-chapter serial which seems to be a lost movie. There's likely little a seasoned watcher cannot gather from the pieces remaining, but the movie is filled with odd moments. In this one Tarzan helps an old scientist who is researching the lost people of Zar. He gets kidnapped by them just as his daughter and her boyfriend and two villains show up to see him. Tarzan gets mixed up with them mostly attracted by the lovely woman who likes to swim with crocodiles. There are several moments of confusion and some lion fighting, but it all comes eventually down to rescuing the father and the girl rejecting her trusting boyfriend (poor guy really gets screwed in this story) and she stays with Tarzan and her father. Crabbe hardly speaks, but his charm shines through as well as his sculpted body since he's hardly wearing anything at all.

The other Tarzan flick was Tarzan's Revenge and I have little recommend about this movie. It's got some fun side characters presented by professionals, but the leads are hopeless amateurs and it shows time after time. Tarzan here is played by Glenn Morris an Olympic star with no other movie credits and who apparently left acting after this awful effort. He's got a body, but his charm is completely absent. His lady in this is Elanor Holm a swimming star who is left to carry the movie despite her inexperience and she trudges on but is not up to it I'm afraid. They muddle around in this one despite setting up a villain early in the flick, but who doesn't return until the last ten minutes or so. There is much bouncing through the trees, swimming in the rivers, and whatnot, but overall this one is slow. The action when it does erupt at the end isn't half bad with a pretty good battle on a rope bridge, but when Tarzan invades the hidden castle it's like he's on the set of a Busby Berkley production or something and doesn't sell at all. The title doesn't seem to mean anything at all, unless it's that this Tarzan gets the girl despite being shot by the foppish boyfriend.

These are diverting and worth the very small money you might pay to see them, but only for Tarzan completists.

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