Johnny Weissmuller made a name for himself as Tarzan at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio. However, and I am not sure why, Weissmuller and 'Boy' (Johnny Sheffield) jumped from this prestige studio to the less than stellar RKO--where the budgets shrank considerably as did the quality. The scripts got a lot more weird and the films became chock full of poorly integrated stock footage and animals that often weren't even African. Additionally, 'Jane' (Maureen O'Sullivan) remained at MGM and a new leading lady needed to be found. After having the character be 'off on vacation in England' or 'helping with the war effort' in a couple films, RKO decided to re-cast this character with Brenda Joyce--who bore little similarity to O'Sullivan.
This episode was shot in Mexico--which might explain why the extras look a lot more Hispanic than African! And, to make it even more obvious that this is taking place no where near the Dark Continent, you see stock footage of Canadian Geese and the baddies hang out in an Aztec pyramid!!! Why didn't they also have some Moon Men or the Brooklyn Dodgers in the film while they were at it?! The film begins with a woman running off from the land of Aquatania. Why? Because the priest (George Zucco) wants her to marry her people's god, Balu (not the bear). She knows he is NOT Balu but some guy in a costume but her people have been fooled. And when she escapes, she naturally runs into Tarzan and Jane who try to help. In the end, all three end up back in Aquatania for a showdown with the baddies.
While absolutely none of this bizarre film makes any sense (I think the writers were experimenting with LSD), it is reasonably entertaining--in a dumb way. I enjoyed seeing the very paunchy Weismuller as Tarzan--not that he was great but seeing an older guy playing this hero gave me a bit of a laugh. This film is a great one actually for bad movie buffs, as it is clearly one of the worst of the Weismuller films--which is a shame, as the earlier MGM ones were surprisingly good.
By the way, the Cheeta in the film is much younger and smaller than the one in the last film. This new one was cuter but just didn't have the same screen presence and grace as the old Cheeta!
This episode was shot in Mexico--which might explain why the extras look a lot more Hispanic than African! And, to make it even more obvious that this is taking place no where near the Dark Continent, you see stock footage of Canadian Geese and the baddies hang out in an Aztec pyramid!!! Why didn't they also have some Moon Men or the Brooklyn Dodgers in the film while they were at it?! The film begins with a woman running off from the land of Aquatania. Why? Because the priest (George Zucco) wants her to marry her people's god, Balu (not the bear). She knows he is NOT Balu but some guy in a costume but her people have been fooled. And when she escapes, she naturally runs into Tarzan and Jane who try to help. In the end, all three end up back in Aquatania for a showdown with the baddies.
While absolutely none of this bizarre film makes any sense (I think the writers were experimenting with LSD), it is reasonably entertaining--in a dumb way. I enjoyed seeing the very paunchy Weismuller as Tarzan--not that he was great but seeing an older guy playing this hero gave me a bit of a laugh. This film is a great one actually for bad movie buffs, as it is clearly one of the worst of the Weismuller films--which is a shame, as the earlier MGM ones were surprisingly good.
By the way, the Cheeta in the film is much younger and smaller than the one in the last film. This new one was cuter but just didn't have the same screen presence and grace as the old Cheeta!