Gordon Of The Jungle!

When Lex Barker was no longer going to be Tarzan the new guy was someone very visually different indeed. Gordon Scott was a "muscle man", a body-builder type who had mighty arms and a broad back, and frankly he didn't look all that comfortable in the trees most of the time. He didn't seem that he'd be agile. But then he was a different kind of Tarzan in what was soon a different kind of story.

Tarzan's Hidden Jungle from 1955 was the first of Scott's vehicles as the Ape Man, and it was just one more Tarzan movie by the RKO team that produced perhaps far too many since much of the juice seems to have been leeched away from the series by this time. The story is one of white hunters wanting to invade a forbidden territory to get their greedy mitts on the vast herds of elephants, buffalo, and what not which live there. To do that they trick the local doctor into taking them and then it all goes to hell as the natives feeling betrayed want to kill everyone. It's up to the oddly quiet and reticent Tarzan to intercede, first by saving the brave nurse who goes to warn the unwary doctor and then by turning his attention on the hunters themselves.

There's some pretty decent action in this one and Jack Elam as one of the villains while oddly restrained is still pretty good. The big focus in this one is that with Jane missing, Tarzan is left free to flirt with Vera Miles who plays an unremarkable loyal nurse, who if I'm not mistaken actually seems to wear heels in the veldt at one point. She's a pretty but dingy sort who goes off into the jungle and quickly finds all the cliche dangers, requiring the mighty thews of Tarzan to save her. One can clearly see the RKO formula is losing atmosphere quickly in this final Tarzan effort from the studio.

Tarzan and the Lost Safari is a stunner for one simple reason. This 1957 flick is in living color, giving vivid life to the vistas of Africa in which some real shooting was done. Sol Lesser Productions now divorced from longtime partner RKO gave Tarzan's adventures a new gloss at MGM. Jane is still missing in action, thus allowing the handsome Gordon Scott to seemingly woo the beautiful heroine of the piece. He's as always innocent, but it's a significant plot element in a story which finds a plane full of jet setters having crashed in the wilds of Africa with only Tarzan and Cheeta to save them.

There's frankly little here that wasn't in some of the other movies, but it does seem to play out on a larger canvas and the threat does offer echoes of actual Burroughs content both in content and structure. The enemies in this movie are the "Opar Men", though they are far different from the prehistoric menaces of the novels. Nonetheless they do seem a worthy threat, and they are shockingly colored blue in spots which really pops off the screen.

Tarzan's Fight for Life  from 1958 is simply stunning to look at. This movie returns to the classic format in many ways and stars Eve Brent as Jane (very pretty in color) and Ricky Sorenson as Tartu. The treehouse returns.  The color is intensely vivid and adds to the story immensely. There's some really impressive location shooting which is by and large neatly wedded to the studio material.  Scott looks great though he's still better at grappling and hefting than leaping. Woody Strode is on hand and looks magnificent as a baddie. Also, there's a terrific battle with a giant snake which seems to get out of hand.

In this one Tarzan defends a hospital in the middle of the jungle which seeks to serve the local tribes and also do significant research, but which has come under increasing criticism from the local witch doctor after the demise of the old chief. There's the usual back and forth as the doctor, his daughter and the young assistant try to stay brave in the face of the increasing threat. The set design and costumes are really done well in this one, though Tarzan is still the same broken-English speaker we've known for decades. That is about to change.

Tarzan and the Trappers is also from 1958 and is the one Gordon Scott movie I've seen a few times since it appears in all the public domain collections. It is actually three episodes of a failed television project strung together to make a less than impressive feature film. It feels like a TV show and that means it doesn't really raise the stakes of the Tarzan experience much if at all. Scott does seem a bit more comfortable in the role and in front of cameras, so that helps.

Jane is back (again played by Eve Brent) and blonde finally. But she has not much to do and spends the entire film making an omelet. Sadly. so is the Tarzan Family unit with the return of Tartu, a young boy played by Rickey Sorenson. It makes sense I guess for a TV show that they'd want a solid domestic situation, but this is wacky, and Tarzan spends most of his time chasing the titular trappers and not at "home". This story feels small like a TV show of the time, but still. we have some mildly decent threats and even a lost city.

Tarzan's Greatest Adventure from 1958 is a real turning point in the series and held is very high esteem by most fans including yours truly. This in fact can safely be argued to be perhaps the single best Tarzan movie ever made though I have high regard for Tarzan and his Mate and some of the silents. Gordon Scott takes his fifth turn as the Ape Man and has grown very comfortable in the loincloth by this time. And I'd argue his acting skills have significantly improved since his first Tarzan effort in which he seemed not always clear of his purpose. The fact he's allowed to speak in full-blown grammatically correct sentences sure doesn't hurt his ability to communicate a highly serious purpose. The location shooting in Kenya didn't hurt the legitimate atmosphere of this one either.

The plot is a simple one, but one which allows for tons of action. Slade (Anthony Quayle) is an old nemesis of Tarzan's, and he has gathered a gang of hoodlums and creeps to exploit a potential diamond mine he's discovered. To do that they need dynamite and to get that they callously murder two men, one of whom knows Slade and manages to communicate that. That info puts the Ape Man on their trail and its with a grim and lethal purpose he starts his trek. Tumbling along is a female airplane pilot named Angie (Sara Shane) who crashes into his path and ends up tagging along, though for the first time ever I feel certain he'd leave her behind if she should prove too much trouble. Meanwhile Slade and his gang made up of his girlfriend Toni (Scilla Gabel) and a German named Krueger (played by The Night of Demon warlock Nial McGinnis), an Irishman named O'Banion (played by an up and comer named Sean Connery), and a guy named Dino (played by the wonderfully named Al Mulock) slither up the river showing off their petty cruelties at every opportunity. Tarzan tries to intercept them a few times with mostly deadly results. The climax of this wonderful and deadly combat is one of the great moments in Tarzan cinema history. Let's just say, that finally at last someone remembers why Tarzan yells.

The whole tone of this movie is stunner, with Gordon Scott unafraid to get his hair mussed, hair by the way which seems far less cleverly done than in movies past. It works. The gang he chases is a vile and debauched bunch who destroy themselves as quickly as does the Ape Man, suggesting something I supposed about the human nature. Tarzan here is grim and even says in so many words that he is part of the unforgiving nature of the jungle and what he does seems to be apart from the judgements of mankind and simply the result of what the natural world demands. For the first time in a long, long time Tarzan seems savage.

Tarzan the Magnificent from 1960 alas takes a step back. This one clearly meant to follow in the same vein makes a brutal mistake and weighs down the Ape Man with too many civilized folks to care for, forcing him to remain more than man than the savage. In fact oddly while his mission in the previous movie seemed to be pure vengeance, in this one he's operating as an agent of the law, of civilization itself. Maybe they thought they went too far the last time, but sadly by returning him to his former more restrained self, he loses something which makes the character truly magnetic.

His opponent in this one is a vile robber and killer named Coy Banton (played by Jock Mahoney, the guy destined to be the very next Tarzan oddly enough). Tarzan must take Banton to justice and hot on his trail is the Banton family led by the murderous patriarch Abel (John Carradine) and brothers Martin (Al Mulock again), Johnny (Gary Cockrell), and Ethan (Ron MacDonnell).  Tarzan is assisted and hindered by a veritable gang of tourists stranded in the jungle seeking a way out. Ames is a blowhard (played by Lionel Jeffries) and his beautiful but unhappy wife Fay (Betta St.John returning from her much more benign role in Tarzan and the Lost Safari) don't help much. Of more assistance are Conway (Charles Tingwell) and Lori (Alexandra Stewart), but only barely. Tate (Earl Cameron) is the most useful andthe token black man in this story, but times were changing hopefully.

The plot reminded me somewhat of the Western classic Stagecoach, a sundry gang of folks with personal issues thrown into a dangerous situation. There's also a bit of High Noon in the mix as well, but as I said that puts Tarzan in the Will Kane role - the defender of the laws of man, not what the last film suggested he might be. Tarzan never loses control really in this one, never becomes less than the stout-hearted brave citizen. That's a great hero, but perhaps not Tarzan who in pure terms plays by different rules.

Whatever the case, these two movies mark the end of Gordon Scott's term as "King of the Jungle". He soon headed overseas to makes some pretty remarkable sword and sandal epics, and he got paid well for doing it.

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