Review of Tarzan and the Slave Girl

This film offers some special treats: poison darts, a mysterious tribe of camouflaged warriors known as the Whati, Denise Darcel as Lola the Nurse, a man-eating lion pit, Vanessa Brown and a slave girl dog pile on one of the fat guards. The darts are particularly pungent and drop victims in their tracks. The Whati are foreboding and could have been used more throughout the film. The lion pit shows a continuity problem where one of Tarzan's adversaries is thrown in to be devoured only to reappear thirty seconds later to get thrown in a second time with same result. Vanessa Brown is fun to watch and feels "girl next door". She leaves the tree house in pursuit of rogue warriors with her bow and arrow - would have been great for her to show archery skills and get one of the bad guys - if this film were made today would surely have given Jane an opportunity to shine this way with an arrow to one or two of the kidnappers thorax or esophagus. Denise Darcel exudes sexuality and you can see her longing to have her way with Tarzan. She surely must have been the inspiration for Charro's hoochie coochie bumps and grinds made famous 15 years later on 60's TV variety shows. The dog pile scene occurs when Tarzan breaks into the palace and the slave girls on cue immobilize one of the lucky(er...)unlucky accomplices and block the door momentarily long enough for Tarzan to get away. Lex Barker looks particularly fit doing most of his fight and climbing scenes(Jock Mahoney doing tough stunts?). Anthony Caruso is the heavy and does his usual great work. Robert Alda, Alan's dad, is also on hand to lend credibility to the story. Chimp antics in this film are not as good as those in Magic Fountain but are still timeless fun for the kid in all of us.