Johnny Of The Jungle!

MGM was finished with Tarzan movies. The series began as a total big budget effort from studio looking to find more success after Trader Horn. They did just that and make several more Tarzans with good sized budgets then slowly but surely the money and the inventiveness for the series dwindled. Maureen O' Sullivan tapped out of the series after MGM's final effort Tarzan's New York Adventure. It was left to RKO and Sol Lesser to take over. Lesser had made a few Tarzan movies before, but now he was the only game in town. At RKO the series was turned into a B-movie project but a dandy for all that. Johnny Weissmuller and Johnny Sheffield stayed on in their high-profile roles. 

Tarzan Triumphs is the first of the post-MGM Weissmuller Tarzan movies and it's a rousing little effort. The movie was released in 1943 and WWII is dominating the thoughts of the globe so finally at last the war penetrates into Tarzan's remote domain. Jane is away in London helping with war efforts but Tarzan expresses the notion that it's none of his concern and he just wants Boy and himself to stay to themselves. That's made difficult when Nazis parachute into the lost city of Palandria. A new friend of theirs, the woman Zandra asks for Tarzan's help but he's reluctant. Turns out one Nazi dropped right into their midst and innocently they've been taking care of him. Eventually Tarzan learns that Nazis are  no good when they kidnap Boy. Tarzan announces his hostile intentions with the simple phrase "Now Tarzan goes to war!" And he does just that, though with some problems along the way. There's lots of Cheeta gags in this one including an over-the-top at the movies very end. I won't spoil that one. 

Tarzan's Desert Mystery is the goofiest entry yet in the film canon of the King of the Jungle. There are lot of moving parts in this one and it's pretty brief, so it doesn't get boring but it's bizarre. Jane is off working with war casualties and needs a special medicine from a special jungle filled with dinosaurs (the Irwin Allen type it turns out). But before we go there Tarzan and  Boy (with Cheeta of course) have to cross a desert where they encounter a horse name "Raynor" and a lady magician named Connie Bryce played by Nancy Kelly. She even sings at one point. There is much intrigue as Nazis are again lurking about, but despite everyone's good intentions Tarzan ends up in the hoosegow and Connie ends up accused of murdering a Prince. The of course escape and get the medicine and then the baddies show back up. One Nazi gets taken down by an obligatory lion and the other falls victim to one of the silliest giant spiders put on film. You can't call this one a good movie but it sure ain't a bad one. 

Tarzan and the Amazons is remarkable mostly for bringing on board Brenda Joyce who takes over the role of Jane. The story has some nifty ERB qualities with a hidden society run by women (there are men apparently but we never see them). It's a crowd of showgirls who never speak lead by Maria Ouspenkaya. They worship a sun god and to enter their land is death. Tarzan knows the secret but young Boy learns it. Later a gang of scientists show up on the same slow boat that brings Jane home from abroad. They learn of the hidden land of Palmyria when Cheeta shows up with a golden bracelet he'd made off with. Fired by greed they end up in the hidden land and then all heck breaks loose. I was impressed that the death toll in this one was as high as it was. For a series which was seen kid stuff, this one has a bit of grit to it. 

Tarzan and the Leopard Woman from 1946 is notable mostly for the appearance of the alluring Acquanetta as the title character. She leads a cult of Leopard Men who dress up in the skins of the big cats and use their makeshift claws to attack caravans and others who represent the colonial powers. This one has a nationalistic tone and knowing what we know about colonialism it's difficult to find some sympathy for the cause if not the methods of these cultists. Johnny Weissmuller does a ton of fighting in this one and even Johnny Sheffield grow up enough to have his own fight against the brother of the Leopard Woman ("Leopard Boy"?). Jane as played by Brenda Joyce does little besides look scared and alas the Jane role has become almost totally domesticated by Hollywood at this point. Despite the similarity in titles this story is not derived from ERB's eighteenth novel Tarzan and the Leopard Men. 

Tarzan and the Huntress is just about as efficient a Tarzan flick as you're going to find. Most of the characters and plot elements of several earlier films are contained in this 1947 movie -- a zoo looking for animals, a corruptible hunter, an incorruptible hunter and a thoroughly villainous hunter. One element is that there are no black natives in the movie, instead we are treated to a mythical African society filled with white folks. This is probably for the best because it spares the viewer from painful ethnic stereotypes, at least black ones. The story is told with such efficiency that it almost is bloodless. It ends with such abruptness that some of the plot points seem to be overlooked. It's not a bad movie but it's not especially good either. Cheeta's antics are well on display in this one and for once some are actually funny. 

1948's Tarzan and the Mermaids is the last Tarzan movie to star Johnny Weissmuller. It's remarkable in many ways, not all of them positive. Boy is gone off to school so it leaves only Jane and Tarzan to deal with a distressed siren who comes from a somewhat isolated culture called "Aquatica". She was to be wedded to a god but took issue and swam away. She is pursued and she is taken back to confront the walking totem which pretends to be the god "Bala". He gets no credit on the poster but the main villain is played by longtime baddie George Zucco. Weissmuller as Tarzan is of course a bit flabby for the role but still looks good in the water and that matters a great deal in this movie which features quite a bit of underwater action. There is also some impressive cliff diving, and one diver was killed doing a stunt for Weissmuller. The movie was shot in locations in Mexico and that gives this one a freshness that the later studio-bound movies had lost. It just looks different enough to hold your interest. Cheeta is reduced to a smaller part but her place is taken by a roving troubadour named "Benji". His frequent songs are not a highlight of this curious effort. 

And that my friends wraps up the Weissmuller era. His early outings in the role are most impressive, but the insistence that he remain verbally limited made it all but impossible for Weissmuller to grow  the role. Sol Lesser though was far from finished and he'd recast Tarzan quickly. More on that later. 

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