Tarzans Triumph

The first of the RKO Tarzans and quite an enjoyable entry. Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) finds himself involved in battling the Nazis when they invade the peaceful nearby village of Palandria and try to make slaves out of its citizens. For this film, Tarzan's partner Jane is absent while doing business in London, so we have the gorgeous Frances Gifford subbing for the feminine interest of the story as a princess of Palandria who makes contact with Tarzan and his son Boy (Johnny Sheffield). Gifford would have made a stunning and perfect Jane. A fun, fast, and entertaining installment with an occasional display of violence, with good actors like Sig Ruman, Stanley Ridges, and Philip Van Zandt playing the Nazi bad guys. *** out of ****

TARZAN TRIUMPHS (RKO Radio, 1943), directed by Wilheim Thiele, the seventh in the long running jungle series starring Johnny Weissmuller, the first of the Sol Lesser productions distributed by RKO Radio, finds Tarzan assuming new territory and dangerous ground at the RKO sound-stages following six successful "Tarzan" adventures distributed by MGM between 1932 to 1942. The production values no way equaled the status MGM put into its series, however, the format used at RKO virtually follows the same pattern from the previous films, with slight alterations to the "Tarzan" character, such as the use of a new soundtrack for the Tarzan yell, heard twice here, unlike those many have become accustomed to from the earlier episodes. Weissmuller's Tarzan continues to speak in mono syllables ("Boy stay! Tarzan get." or "Tarzan thank," etc.) rather than incomplete sentences. Along with Weissmuller, Johnny Sheffield, who plays Boy, son of Tarzan, along and their pet chimpanzee, Cheetah, each resume their characters with much familiarity as enacted at MGM. Tarzan's mate, Jane, played six times previously by Maureen O'Sullivan, had broken away from the series, thus having her "Jane" character omitted here and in the next entry. For this outing, Frances Gifford substitutes as the heroine called Zandra. Due to Gifford's near physical resemblance to Maureen O'Sullivan makes one wonder why Gifford wasn't considered to play Jane. For now, Tarzan and Boy team up with the support of new characters and Nazi villains worked into the story rather than hunters and native tribes.

The story opens with Boy (Johnny Sheffield) leaving the tree-house and riding his elephant, accompanied by his chimpanzee pet, Cheetah, to meet with Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller), who had earlier gone to the seacoast to obtain a letter written to him by Jane, who's away visiting with relatives in war-torn England. Along the way, the ever curious Boy gets himself in trouble when wanting to take a closer look at the lost city of Palandria located at the bottom of a cliff. Falling off the crevasse, landing on top of a semi loose branch, Zandra (Frances Gifford), the white princess of that lost civilization, comes to his rescue. In helping Boy, the two find themselves trapped on the narrow ledge, that is, until Tarzan arrives in time to save the day. As Tarzan, Boy and Zandra part company, Zandra returns to her civilization where her people welcome some strangers, Nazis who have parachuted down from their airplane. In time, the welcomed guests "repay" their friendly hospitality by turning the peaceful community into slaves while taking possession of their wealth in tin and oil. In the meantime, Lieutenant Scheldon Schmidt (Rex Williams), who had also parachuted from an airplane, injures his leg while holding onto his shortwave radio. Tarzan rescues the German youth from a near drowning. With the help of Boy, they take the injured party to their tree-house for rest and recovery. Because Cheetah has taken and hidden the coil needed to make radio communication to his homeland, Schmidt stirs trouble by chasing after and shooting Cheeta. Sensing danger, Boy's elephant comes to Cheetah's rescue by forcing both Nazi and heavy boulder over a cliff, killing the abductor. Because of the Nazi invasion in her city, Zandra comes to Tarzan for help. Tarzan succeeds in doing away with the Germans by leading them to the river where they are attacked by cannibal fish. While Tarzan feels the Nazi invasion in Palandria does not really concern him, Zandra feels it does, knowing that as long as the Nazis are around, no one is safe. Only after the Nazis invade Tarzan's domain, with its leader, Von Reichart (Stanley Ridges) abducting Boy and holding him prisoner in Nazi headquarters for not revealing the whereabouts of the coil for the radio does Tarzan begin to realize and cry out, "Now, Tarzan make war!!!" (It's been said by Bob Dorian, former host of American Movie Classics, that this scene alone found audiences in movie theaters cheering and applauding).

An average Tarzan adventure by today's standards with a timely message of how an invasion of a territory and war amongst a peaceful people does concern everybody. As with the Tarzan character, who lives a secluded life in his little habitat, with his philosophy, "Nazi leave me alone, Tarzan leave them alone," all that changes when Nazis take over his territory and become a danger to Boy. Against all odds, such as being held prisoner himself, tied up against the pole to await execution by firing squad at dawn does Tarzan manage to become a one man revolution. Tarzan, who fights to survive while the enemy, the Nazis in this case, survive to fight, brings forth his own war for that, as quoted by Tarzan, "In jungle, the strong always win."

The supporting players include Sig Rumann as the Head Nazi; Philip Van Zandt as Captain Bausch; Pedro De Cordoba as Patriarch; and Stanley Brown as Archmet. Frances Gifford, who makes her sole venture in the series, gets some screen time in a stretched out segment filling in for Jane by swimming with Tarzan, and preparing dinner for him and Boy.

As with the entire Tarzan movie series that has spanned decades, TARZAN TRIUMPHS, at 76 minutes, aired frequently on commercial television for many years before shifting over to the American Movie Classics cable channel (1997-2000) and Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: May 14, 2011). Unlike the MGM entries, the six features made at RKO Radio starring Weissmuller from 1943 to 1948, were never distributed onto video cassette but later onto DVD around 2008. Next chapter: TARZAN'S DESERT MYSTERY, where Tarzan and Boy (minus Jane) encounter more Nazis once more but with a few added surprises along the way. (**)

If you are familiar with the original Tarzan novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, there's no reason to scoff at the idea of Tarzan taking on the Nazis. This territory was already covered in the seventh novel of the Tarzan series (and one of the best), "Tarzan the Untamed." Set during World War I, this novel starts with German troops destroying Lord Greystoke's home and kidnapping Jane. Tarzan sets out to find the officer responsible, and in the process he finds himself in an actual combat situation, in which he uses his jungle wiles to sabotage the German side.

Interestingly, "Tarzan the Untamed" leads to a climax involving a strange European civilization hidden in a deep valley, rather like the one featured in "Tarzan Triumphs." Although the script for "Tarzan Triumphs" is credited as an original story, it seems clearly inspired by "Tarzan the Untamed."

This Tarzan adventure has the hero fighting Nazis as they invade the jungle searching for ore and minerals to bolster their war effort. The visitors also abuse the hospitality of a peaceful native tribe and enslave them while they search for radio parts to maintain contact with the Fatherland. Tarzan doesn't get involved during this Nazi occupation until they snatch Boy and make off with the lad. Johnny Weissmuller is in top form as he battles the invaders alone as he attempts to get Boy back from his captors. Frances Gifford is good as a native girl who is coveted by Nazi boss Stanley Ridges. The film is one of the best of the Tarzan series.

While Tarzan was a popular moneymaker at MGM, with the outset of WWII, the studio felt Johnny Weissmuller was getting too old, Maureen O'Sullivan wanted out of the series, and the overseas market was lost, so the series was dropped...but RKO would prove the Ape Man had a LOT of life left in him!

Veteran producer Sol Lesser, 53, loved the character, and snapped up the rights for the studio, wisely keeping Weissmuller, 39, and 'Boy' Johnny Sheffield, now nearly 12, in their signature roles. O'Sullivan, no longer interested in 'Jane', was written out (caring for her ailing mother in London), and the elements that fans loved best (nearly superhuman heroics, comedy from chimp co-star, Cheetah, wild animal footage) were 'beefed up', dropping the romantic interludes, the large number of black 'extras', that provided authenticity (but were expensive for a smaller studio to maintain, for a single series), and, indeed, most of the 'glossiness' that marked the MGM entries. Even the signature Tarzan 'yell' had to be replaced (as the manufactured howl, part Weismuller, part studio magic), was the property of the studio; Weismuller created a 'new' one, that would become so popular that it would be kept, long after he finally retired from the role.

The first RKO entry was perhaps the best of their series; TARZAN TRIUMPHS brought the Nazis into the jungle to tap the mineral resources of a 'lost' city, eventually kidnapping Boy, and leading the previously isolationist Ape Man to utter the famous tag line, "Now Tarzan make war!" With lovely Frances Gifford as a native princess, providing sex appeal (and a really weird scene of Boy trying to 'hook up' the princess and lonely Ape Man, to enlist his help against the Nazis), and Sig Ruman, who went from Marx Brothers' foil to one of Hollywood's busiest 'Nazis', as one of the villains, the action adventure is very entertaining (if extremely violent...Tarzan actually encourages the locals to grab a gun and kill, Boy shoots one Nazi soldier with a pistol, and even CHEETA machine guns one!), and the film was a huge hit for the studio.

Tarzan, at a new home, was back in the 'swing' of things!