My year with Tarzan

[Garp]

BONUS: 'Perils of Nyoka' [serial] [1942]

Nyoka, from 1941's serial 'Jungle Girl', returns in another frenetic and confusing adventure involving golden tablets.

Not being able to get through all of 'Jungle Girl', I was even more lost with this one, abandoning it after about an hour. Here, Kay Aldridge plays the heroine caught up in some desert intrigue. Her nemesis is Vultura (Lorna Gray) and we can immediately discern her wickedness from her mid-Atlantic accent and the fact she has a pet gorilla called Satan. Also front and center in this serial is Charles Middleton as Cassib the Arab, and it took me far too long to remember where I had seen his face before: he was Ming the Merciless in many a Flash Gordon serial.

Whereas 'Jungle Girl' had an evil twin, 'Perils of Nyoka' has Vultura pretending to be Nyoka. (They look a little alike, so she gets away with it for a while.) But really it was only Satan the gorilla that kept my interest. The suit is nothing to write home about, but the actor had some convincing simian moves. Other than that, we have a lot of shoot-outs (seriously. A ridiculous amount), running about, and a map that keeps changing hands. (Did I fall asleep? Yes I did. Frequently.)

I watched an upload of 'Perils of Nyoka' on YouTube, from a 'colorized' (it's barely tinted, to be honest) VHS tape. Like 'Jungle Girl', all the cliffhangers have been edited, making it a tough watch. I have no idea how it ends, but considering how frequently Nyoka is knocked unconscious throughout the serial, I hope the last chapter is her visiting a head specialist to get checked out.

 

[bionicbob]

Born on this date, SEPTEMBER 1, 1875!
Creator of Worlds and Storyteller Extraordinaire!

 

[bionicbob]

TARZAN AND THE VALLEY OF GOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love, love, LOVE this movie!

The James Bond vibe influence is of course obvious. But honestly, Tarzan WAS Bond before there was Bond.
Many of the elements in this movie that modern fans attribute to James Bond all previously existed in the novels.
Tarzan in a well tailored suit. Tarzan dispatching villains in clever ways. Tarzan battling wits with a Master Super villain.
And of, course, Tarzan finding a Lost Civilization! All classic Tarzan tropes.
So where others see a James Bond knock-off, I see a very screen accurate Tarzan adventure.

And MIKE HENRY!!! @Garp describes him as "wooden and emotionless". I always described him as "calm and soft spoken".
Whichever way you lean, the sheer physicality that Henry brings to the role is STAGGERING.
For me, physically at least, he is the best onscreen Tarzan.

VALLEY OF GOLD is the ONLY Tarzan movie to receive a book adaptation.
Written by master fantasy scribe FRITZ LEIBER, the novel blends the movie script with previous established ERB mythology.
The novel was so well received by both fans and critics, that it has been recognized by ERB Inc as official Tarzan canon!

A truly fun movie and well worth the watch. But as in all things, the novel is even better!

 

[Garp]

Week 36: 'Tarzan and the Great River [1967]

Tarzan is tasked with stopping an evil cult.

Mike Henry returns as Tarzan in this mediocre kid-friendly film. Manuel Padilla Jr, last seen as Ramel in 'Tarzan and the Valley of Gold', also makes a reappearance in a new role as an orphan befriended by comic relief Captain Sam (Jan Murray). The pair get many (I would argue too many) scenes together, bantering and padding out the runtime. This film is only 88 minutes long, but it seemed longer.

Contrary to its dazzling James Bond-style predecessor, 'Tarzan and the Great River' goes back to basics, proving that I can't be pleased either way. Although I thoroughly enjoyed 'Tarzan and the Valley of Gold', I missed some of the old jungle tropes. In 'Tarzan and the Great River', they are added back in and I'm still not satisfied. We have vine-swinging aplenty, lots of running, and even some crocodile wrestling. But it doesn't add up to much. Henry is good when he's playfully tussling with a lion, but he's sat passively on a boat for far too long when he should be out and about getting into adventures.

Rafer Johnson plays Barcuna, the cult's leader, and similarly isn't given much to do until the mano-a-mano climax. The finale mimics 'Tarzan's Greatest Adventure', but still falls short. Despite a worthy PSA about making sure your kids are vaccinated, this one wasn't for me, alas.

 

[Editzilla]

Anyone here read King Kong vs Tarzan by Will Murray?

 

[bionicbob]

Anyone here read King Kong vs Tarzan by Will Murray?

Yep! I enjoyed it. Tarzan’s role is smaller than expected. I know reviews on this one was mixed, I think it boils down to if you like Murray’s writing style or not. Many find his pulp works too long, not fast paced enough. But I have been a fan of his works all the way back to when he was the main ghost writer on The Destroyer series.

Murray also wrote the recent Tarzan Conquoror of Mars, which was very good.

 

[Garp]

BONUS: 'Panther Girl of the Kongo' [serial] [1955]

Another jungle scientist goes to extreme lengths to get his hands on a diamond mine.

'Panther Girl of the Kongo' ends the Jungle Girl franchise, here with Phyllis Coates in the lead. There isn't much sense to be found here, nor fun, and of the three this was the one I had the most difficulty staying awake through. It starts well enough. Jean Evans (AKA Panther Girl, due to a flashback sequence in which she confronts a panther) is in Africa shooting footage of wild beasts. She gets more than she bargained for when she comes across a giant crawfish. The effects depicting a giant crawfish in what is supposed to be an African jungle are not the best, but at least they make an effort. Jean is the last of her group to run away, leaving the camera behind. The next shot is the crawfish clutching a mini camera prop in its claw. Job well done.

We then get to discover why there are giant crawfish in 'the Kongo'. A scientist is holed up there making a serum that, when in close proximity to crawfish, makes them grow to abnormal size. It wasn't clear whether the serum would work on other living things, or maybe I snoozed through that bit of the exposition. Never mind. We have giant crawfish, and that is enough.

Instead of trying to sell this Miracle-Gro for crustaceans, the mad doctor decides he can use it to help scare away a local tribe from their diamond mine. He employs two of the most stupid henchmen in all of Africa to aid him in his quest. Panther Girl and her leading man Larry Sanders (Myron Healey) are on hand to stop him.

So, we have a mad scientist, giant crawfish and oh so many fistfights to sit through. Again, this serial was colorized (slightly better this time) and edited into a 2hr+ film, free to view on YouTube. I gave up halfway, but probably only actually viewed half of that. For most of the time, it appeared that Larry was in another fistfight with the Kongo's least intelligent henchmen. Panther Girl swung on a few vines, but it was just recycled footage from 'Jungle Girl', all the budget spent on mini camera props, apparently. I only have one more serial to watch in this yearlong jungle project, and that is a very comforting thought right now.

 

[bionicbob]

When it comes to TARZAN AND THE GREAT RIVER, childhood nostalgia pretty much blinds me to any faults LOL!

As THIS was the FIRST Tarzan movie I ever saw in a theatre on the Big Screen!
And it's impact on me was monumental.

While I had seen the older movies on tv and had watched the Ron Ely series, nothing quite prepared me for Mike Henry's Big Screen Ape Man!
For me, at seven years old (or was I eight?), this was Pure Magic!
Watching Henry run through the jungle, battling animals and badguys... it was glorious! As I have said before, in terms of physical prowess, Henry is easily the best Tarzan in my book. And I still love the final fight between Tarzan and Barcuna.... the violence and intensity is quite surprising for a movie aimed mostly at the youth matinee crowd.

As an adult now, I can acknowledge The Great River is not as good as The Valley of Gold and that it does skew more to a younger audience, but at the end of the day, I don't care. When I watch this flick, I am a little kid again swept up into the world of one of my favourite heroes.

Fun stuff!

It's interesting re-visiting the two main trailers for The Great River, as tonally they are completely opposite of each other. One is definitely aimed at the young children crowd, while the other is more for older teens and adults. Hard to believe they are the same movie! lol

 

[Garp]

Week 37: 'Tarzan and the Jungle Boy' [1968]

Tarzan is back in Africa, trying to locate a missing jungle boy.

This final Mike Henry film takes a lot of elements from previous adventures and concocts a satisfying ending to his trilogy. The premise that another young child has been forced to survive for years alone in the jungle gives Henry a chance to become a pseudo father figure. Steve Bond, who plays the jungle boy Jukaro, isn't Johnny Sheffield's Boy, wanting to be like Tarzan. He is Tarzan, self-sufficient, independent and content to remain alone (he is more like Bomba in that respect). Henry continues his laconic and gentle delivery of his lines, and I still didn't warm to it; I would have preferred to have seen more passion from him. (As a side note, there were no love interests in any of his films.)

There's a couple of subplots adding to the story - the warring brothers (Rafer Johnson again, and Edward Johnson) of a dying tribal chief, and a feisty female journalist (Alizia Gut) out for a scoop. The film picks up whenever we focus on the brothers and crawls whenever we're back to the journalist and the obligatory cutesy scenes with Cheeta. This film also uses a lot of stock footage of African beasts, which is probably necessary as it was actually shot in Brazil. It almost seemed that if you removed all the cutaways to a snake, bird or other wild animal, the film would be at least 20 minutes shorter.

Rating it purely as a Tarzan film, 'Tarzan and the Jungle Boy' is probably the best of the three Mike Henry films, although I think 'Tarzan and the Valley of Gold' is more entertaining. Yes, it feels less like a Tarzan film than 'Tarzan and the Jungle Boy', which is a jungle picture through and through, but it's hip and swinging 60s vibe is so much fun.

 

[bionicbob]

When it comes to Tarzan movies and tv shows, I think my level of enjoyment factor is greatly dependent on whether the onscreen story feels like an ERB story to me. So of the three Mike Henry Apeman flicks, Jungle Boy is my least favourite. Don't get me wrong, it is still a fun adventure, but it feels too much like a safe return to the jungle adventures formula of old. For me, both Valley of Gold and The Great River are more refreshingly interesting because they do break with the standard formula and/or lean more heavily into Tarzan tropes of the novels.

Henry would continue acting after Tarzan, with his best known role probably being "Junior" in the Smokey & The Bandit movies.

Jungle Boy would be the last Tarzan motion picture by producer Sy Weintraub. Next, Weintraub would bring the Jungle Lord to 1966 television screens in the form of Roy Ely!

 

[Garp]

BONUS: 'Carry On Up the Jungle' [1970]

Having been born and raised in the UK in the 70s, I could not escape watching the Carry On films on TV. Their seaside postcard humour mixed with slapstick is well-known to any Brit of a certain age and as familiar as tea and crumpets. Carry On films were ubiquitous on a Sunday afternoon, only supplanted perhaps by a Bond flick or anything starring Kenneth More. 'Carry On Up the Jungle' is a typical example, featuring the double entendres, innuendo, titillation, and casual sexism and racism of its time. If you've never seen a Carry On film, you may be lost, but for me it was like putting on a pair of previously comfy socks, only to find they itch now.

'Carry On Up the Jungle' spoofs jungle films, with Terry Scott playing a Tarzan-like character named Ug (complete with Johnny Weissmuller's famous battle cry). It doesn't have a plot as such, more a string of scenes with quickfire one liners. I had seen this one before, but it was interesting to revisit it as an adult and marvel at the number of jokes that would have flown over my head as a child. The film features a number of faces well-known as Carry On alum - Sid James as the explorer Bill Boosey (an alcoholic, giving you a sense of the lack of subtlety here), Bernard Bresslaw in blackface as the guide Upsidasi (ditto), Joan Sims, Kenneth Connor and Charles Hawtrey. The most familiar comic actor missing from this line up is Kenneth Williams, who is replaced by a reasonable substitute, Frankie Howerd.

The film has a number of jungle tropes - a gorilla chasing people, cannibals, lost tribes, etc. It is genuinely funny in places, but there isn't enough here to string it out to a film, and it loses its fizz after a while. As for the sexism and racism, it is a reflection of what was deemed acceptable in the 70s. Its like having your inappropriate uncle over for lunch. What can you do? He won't change, and he's family. For better or worse, Carry On films do feel somewhat like family to me.

If you are interested in watching a Carry On film, I wouldn't start here, although it is fairly typical of the films they released in the 70s. You would be better served watching something with Kenneth Williams, whose double takes are legendary and had great delivery.

 

[Garp]

Week 38: 'Tarzan' [TV] [1966-68]

Tarzan swings onto TV in the shape of Ron Ely and a few familiar faces. There were 57 episodes in total, and I watched 5 of them to try to get a feel for the show. The pilot episode 'Eyes of the Lion' is an underwhelming start, featuring a beautiful blind jungle girl (Laurie Sibbald) whose guide-lion (for wont of a better phrase) is mistaken for a killer. Fortunately, the other episodes are more exciting , invoking much of producer Sy Weintraub's previous Tarzan films (and using some of the same footage). 'Tarzan's Deadly Silence' was a two-part episode that was later edited into a theatrical film and has a 'Tarzan's Greatest Adventure' feel to it. It also features former Tarzan Jock Mahoney and another alum, Woody Strode, as the villains. Mahoney is excellent here, proving to me at least that he's a better Tarzan adversary than a Tarzan. Strode is no slouch either, bringing some humanity to an otherwise forelock-tugging role. The plot is another cat-and-mouse caper with the added suspense of Tarzan's temporary deafness.

The other two-parter, The Blue Stone of Heaven, is also strong, with William Marshall playing a power-starved colonel ruling a native tribe. There's great use of the Mexican locations, and enough action to keep my interest. Ely, like Mike Henry before him, takes the softly-spoken approach to the character, but I felt it works better here, in part because he is the better actor. He comes across as worldly and wise, compassionate yet also quick to use his fists when necessary. He's paired with yet another Tarzan regular, Manuel Padilla Jr as the boy Jai, and does well with the paternal scenes. Whenever I have a free hour or so to spare in the future, I could easily see myself watching a few more episodes and being entertained.

 

[bionicbob]

Ron Ely's TARZAN 1960s television series -- a SWINGING good time! lol

The series continues most of the Tarzan movie tropes and ignores the rich wealth of ERB lore - no Greystoke, no Jane, very few fantastical elements.
But there is no denying it was an entertaining adventure show for an all ages audience.

Ely is very charming. He has that classic leading man twinkle in his eye. You just instantly like him.
Essentially, his Tarzan is a western set in the jungle. He plays Tarzan as though he is the town Marshall, each week dealing with a new threat or mystery.
And the fantastic thing about shooting the show in Mexico in the 60s, they were able to attract an "A" list of guest actors to appear on the show, who just wanted to come there for a paid vacation. (the original Hawaii Five-O also had this advantage).

A few episodes were re-edited and released as theatrical movies. I was lucky and saw JUNGLE REBELLION at a Saturday matinee as a little kid.

A fun show and well worth seeking out.

 

[Garp]

BONUS: 'The World's Greatest Athlete' [1973]

College coach Sam Archer (John Amos) has the worst teams. Resigning from his position, he takes a sabbatical with his dim-witted assistant (Tim Conway) in Zambia, where he encounters the Tarzan-like Nanu (Jan-Michael Vincent). Archer tricks Nanu in returning with him to California, where mild comedic antics ensue.

This Disney film has its eye squarely on the youngest demographic that are able to sit still for 93 minutes. Some casual racism and smoking aside, there's nothing much here to cause offence to today's parents, but not much to entertain them either if they are stuck in front of the box with the little ones. The film borrows from the Tarzan legend, with Vincent, of the squint-eyed smolder, playing a youth abandoned in the jungle by his missionary parents and brought up not by apes but by locals. Still, he swings through trees, has the same stilted dialogue of early Tarzans and has a tiger as a companion (which requires a throwaway line to explain the geographical conundrum. Maybe tigers are easier to train in Hollywood than lions..?)

'The World's Greatest Athlete' largely avoids the usual fish-out-of-water plotline, only allowing our jungle hero to be ignorant of love to manufacture a Nanu-Jane relationship, played by Dayle Haddon. (Does Nanu say "Me Nanu, you Jane"? What do you think?) Instead, we have set pieces around his athletic prowess, and banter between Amos and Conway (whose agent wrangled a top billing for him). Conway is the idiotic comic relief sidekick, the kind I find the most annoying, but I'm certain he's the one the kids remembered later, if they thought about this film at all. Roscoe Lee Browne adds some gravitas as a witch doctor, but probably chafed at some of the more racist aspects of his character, including putting a bone through his nose at one point (although, to be fair, there is an attempt to make it seem ironic).

Production values are high enough for this kind of film, especially when Conway is shrunk to three inches tall and has a (too long) scene interacting with actual larger-than-life props. Beyond that, it's forgettable entertainment, junk food for the mind, and probably too slow and mild for today's kids.

 

[Garp]

Week 39: 'Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle' [TV] [1976-80]

Had you put a gun to my head, I would have sworn I had never seen any of these animated episodes before. And then last night, when the narration started - "The Jungle: Here I was born, and here my parents died when I was but an infant..." - I was a six-to-ten year old kid again. I don't know why this series had been blocked from my memory, but 'Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle' was definitely part of my youth.

This is a Filmation production, with its distinctive style. Yes, it can look cheap - there is no attempt at shading, for example, giving everything a flat look - but the rotoscoping is done well, making Tarzan's actions in particular look fluid. It also steers close to Edgar Rice Burroughs original ideas, using the correct names for the animals and the Mangani language used by the apes. Even when the episodes feature aliens ('Tarzan and the Strange Visitors') it doesn't seem out of place, considering Burroughs's oeuvre.

Tarzan here is the intelligent, fully-speaking Lord of the Jungle, resembling a cross between Superman and Mr. Spock. The 20 minute stories are simple, with lots of repeated shots to keep costs down, ending with a worthy message about being kind to people and the like. Fifty-something me enjoyed the nostalgia, if not the actual handful of episodes I managed to find online.

 

[Garp]

BONUS: 'Sheena, Queen of the Jungle' [TV] [1955]

If anyone tells you they remember fondly the TV series 'Sheena, Queen of the Jungle' from 1955, they're probably remembering Irish McCalla. I can well imagine young boys having very fond memories of the Amazonian McCalla - she of the platinum hair colour so bright it blinds you, the overlarge earrings and the underlarge skirt. But of the series itself, I doubt anyone could recall a single plot.

There is no backstory for Sheena in the show - at least, not in the episodes I found online. She's a statuesque blonde woman with perfect makeup living in Kenya. Deal with it. Sheena pals around with Bob (Christian Drake) who is a guide or a photographer... Like Jungle Jim, his occupation wasn't evident to me, but he seems to be friend-zoned, whether he likes it or not. Sheena also has a pet chimp, imaginatively named Chimp, whose signature move appears to be jumping up and down on the backs of unconscious people.

The plots are so so thin as to be non-existent. We have warring tribes and diamond mines, of course, but even I can't remember anything specific and I watched them last night. Sheena has adopted Bomba's stilted speech pattern and refers to herself in the third person. She can throw a spear - sort of - and blow on a horn to summon Chimp, but not much else. McCalla is very lovely to look at, but after a few episodes even that wasn't enough to maintain my interest.

 

[bionicbob]

One of the advantages of growing up in in a small rural town in the 70s, my parents felt very comfortable dropping me off at the local Mom & Pop theatre for the weekly Saturday Matinee from the age of seven onward. And being a small town, the weekend matinee usually consisted of a nice mix of re-released older adventure movies and current ones. My main matinee diet was usually live action Disney adventure comedies... the Dexter (young Kurt Russell) movies, Shaggy D.A., Dean Jones films, Gus, Apple Dumpling Gang, Haley Mills movies, Witch Mountain, etc... it was a glorious way to grow up, so again, anything I watched from those formative years I look back on fondly. This includes THE WORLDS GREATEST ATHELETE, which after @Garp 's review, I decided to revisit on Disney Plus. And while it is dated and cheesy, I must admit it still made me smile. It also helps that I believe Tim Conway is a comedic genius, loving him from his Carol Burnett days -- so all of his scenes made me laugh like a seven year old all over again! lol Though it is a bittersweet viewing experience knowing Jan-Michael's Vincent's dark future. But still an amusing flick from the Disney catalog.

TARZAN LORD OF THE JUNGLE another great Saturday morning memory. Pretty sure I discovered the ERB books around the same time, so it made the show even more special, as the cartoon was a very decent adaptation. It is actually crazy to think, but this 1976 children's show was the most accurate depiction of the Apeman up to this point, and would continue to be so until 1996's TARZAN THE EPIC ADVENTURES.

 

[Dwight Fry]

How great was Filmation's Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle? Pretty damn great, I'd say! Unless my memory is making me overrate it, it qualifies as one of the greatest cartoons of its kind, along with Filmation's own Star Trek TAS and the first season of Flash Gordon (the less said about the second season aka the Gremlin the Dragon episodes, the better). The company's corner-cutting approach was already there, of course, but in the 70s they were delivering straight adventure cartoons before becoming all about cutesy comic relief characters and cheap preaching. It's also amusing that in one episode Tarzan found a lost civilization that had as their symbol the same iron cross-like shape that would become famous as part of He-Man's harness. Talk about foreshadowing!

 

[bionicbob]

...and the first season of Flash Gordon ...

Still, after nearly 90 years since the comic strip was created, imo the BEST adaptation of the character!

And much like Fight Club, we don't talk about the Second Season.

 

[bionicbob]

I have never seen a single episode of 1955's SHEENA...

...but I did used to watch JANA OF THE JUNGLE

...and there was another Sheena show in 2000...

by the makers of Baywatch! So its gotta be good, right?