Tarzan and the Mermaids (1948)
* 1/2 (out of 4)
This sorry excuse for an adventure movie marked the twelfth and final film for Johnny Weissmuller in the role of Tarzan. This time out he and Jane (Brenda Joyce) are enjoying life without Boy who is in England studying. This time out Tarzan must save a woman (Linda Christian) who is being "offered" up to a man (George Zucco) pretending to be the God of Aquantania but our Ape Man friend knows he's just a fake and plans on saving the girl and showing the people the truth. RKO decided to shoot this Tarzan in Mexico City and it really shows because the locals are obviously not from Africa and none of the footage looks anything like a jungle. Most of the time it looks as if you're visiting a resort because the water is clear, the skies blue and there's not a single shot of what appears to be anything resembling a jungle. Who knows, perhaps RKO was rewarding their stars by allowing them to shoot in such a pretty location. I do somewhat doubt this because if they were too cheap to hire someone to write a story it's doubtful they were going to do anything useful for the cast. This entire film is so incredibly bad that one can't help but wonder if the screenwriters and director Florey were experimenting with some grass or some extremely harmful alcohol. The story is all over the place and it never makes a bit of sense as characters and their motivations seen to change every few minutes. The screenwriters and production crew couldn't even seem to deliver what the title promises because there's not a single mermaid to be seen and the only time the word is used is by a supporting player who throws the word out when Tarzan catches a (normal) woman at sea. This one word of dialogue seems to have been shot apart from the rest of the movie and just thrown in and I'm guessing it was thrown in after the producers realized that they wasn't a mermaid in the film. Weissmuller, clearly packing on the pounds by this point, sleepwalks through the film as does Joyce who is really wasted. The two of them don't seem interested in anything going on and have zero chemistry together. Zucco was a master at "B" films but sadly he doesn't add anything either as his dialogue will put you to sleep and his character just isn't very interesting. Christian isn't too bad in her part but the screenplay doesn't give her much to do. TARZAN AND THE MERMAIDS would mark the final film in the series and sadly it's the worst of the bunch. I guess this is to be expected because the previous two entries were rather poor and it's clear that everyone involved had given up all hopes for the series.
* 1/2 (out of 4)
This sorry excuse for an adventure movie marked the twelfth and final film for Johnny Weissmuller in the role of Tarzan. This time out he and Jane (Brenda Joyce) are enjoying life without Boy who is in England studying. This time out Tarzan must save a woman (Linda Christian) who is being "offered" up to a man (George Zucco) pretending to be the God of Aquantania but our Ape Man friend knows he's just a fake and plans on saving the girl and showing the people the truth. RKO decided to shoot this Tarzan in Mexico City and it really shows because the locals are obviously not from Africa and none of the footage looks anything like a jungle. Most of the time it looks as if you're visiting a resort because the water is clear, the skies blue and there's not a single shot of what appears to be anything resembling a jungle. Who knows, perhaps RKO was rewarding their stars by allowing them to shoot in such a pretty location. I do somewhat doubt this because if they were too cheap to hire someone to write a story it's doubtful they were going to do anything useful for the cast. This entire film is so incredibly bad that one can't help but wonder if the screenwriters and director Florey were experimenting with some grass or some extremely harmful alcohol. The story is all over the place and it never makes a bit of sense as characters and their motivations seen to change every few minutes. The screenwriters and production crew couldn't even seem to deliver what the title promises because there's not a single mermaid to be seen and the only time the word is used is by a supporting player who throws the word out when Tarzan catches a (normal) woman at sea. This one word of dialogue seems to have been shot apart from the rest of the movie and just thrown in and I'm guessing it was thrown in after the producers realized that they wasn't a mermaid in the film. Weissmuller, clearly packing on the pounds by this point, sleepwalks through the film as does Joyce who is really wasted. The two of them don't seem interested in anything going on and have zero chemistry together. Zucco was a master at "B" films but sadly he doesn't add anything either as his dialogue will put you to sleep and his character just isn't very interesting. Christian isn't too bad in her part but the screenplay doesn't give her much to do. TARZAN AND THE MERMAIDS would mark the final film in the series and sadly it's the worst of the bunch. I guess this is to be expected because the previous two entries were rather poor and it's clear that everyone involved had given up all hopes for the series.