Tarzan wird gejagt

Already in agreement with the other comments about the place of this film in the tradition of Tarzan movies, I would like to concentrate on one sub-plot, the animosity between Tarzan (played by Johnny Weissmuller) and Monak (played by ex-prize fighter Mickey Simpson), loyal servant to the scheming, evil Ozira (yes, my namesake; I am a major Tarzan fan).

Ozira stands to receive generous bounties for helping a safari catch African animals to re-stock the zoos after the Second World War. Since his uncle, King Farad, won't cooperate, Ozira stages the shooting of Farad (by Monak) to look like an accident and Farad's teenage son Suli is also believed killed, pushed into a pool of crocodiles, again by Monak.

As Monak leads the gun bearers and safari hands to help the hunters get their animals, he has a number of brushes with Tarzan. Tarzan liberates captured animals, knocks out several of Monak's guards and, when other bearers are sent back to the city for help, one safari hand is killed by a lion. Monak seethes to get revenge and tangle with Tarzan.

In one scene, after Tarzan and Boy steal the guns and rifles, Cheetah the Chimp tries to steal the compact of the female hunter (the Huntress of the movie, Tanya, Patricia Morrison's character). Monak hurls his knife, almost getting Cheetah. We are also treated to a closeup of Monak, a big man, proud, powerful, commanding, a large, smooth chest, fine belly, wide, deep jungle navel. Certainly, he would never miss with a knife again.

The guns retrieved, the safari continues to collect animals and Tarzan and Boy find Prince Suli very much alive. The city of Toronga must know the truth about this and Ozira's treachery unmasked.

As Tarzan attempts to lead Suli to safety, Monak, rifle in hand, bandoleer across his powerful, commanding chest, knife stuck in his sarong-like wraparound, spies him and, along with two gun bearers, bandoleers crisscrossing their majestic chests also, Monak goes after them, pausing to take a few unsuccessful shots. Tarzan takes to the trees and the three separate to get at him and to finish off Suli.

Weissmuller sharpens a vine to use as a spear and hurls it into the bare belly of one of the gun bearers who topples to the jungle ground. Tarzan then flings his knife into the back of a second gun bearer, who falls onto the ground, the bullets framing his brave chest, his life lost for Monak and Ozira.

Monak has climbed a tree to direct the battle. Tarzan is in that same tree and so is Suli. Monak, smiling with confidence, slyly pulls his knife out and it flies through the air but inexplicably misses Suli. Monak then sees Tarzan approach and the battle is on. Monak pulls off his bandoleer and tries to hit Tarzan with it. The two actors are now side by side and it is clear what a formidable man Simpson was. Then thirty-four, he was at least fifteen to twenty years younger than Weissmuller, depending upon the uncertain birth date of the former Olympic swimmer. Monak almost takes Tarzan, but Tarzan jumps down to a lower branch. Monak tries to push Tarzan off the tree with his foot. Tarzan catches hold of Monak's foot and twists it. Monak grimaces in pain as he realizes the tide of battle has turned. Losing his balance, he falls, attempts to grab onto a branch but, not able to hold on, tumbles down many feet, past a smiling Suli, and rolls over onto his back as he hits the jungle ground. His arms spreadeagled, his broad, expansive, brave, adventurous, daring, bold, jungle leader chest is splayed on the jungle floor.

Monak has given his life for Ozira. (Ozira and some of the hunters will soon die in one of the most exciting elephant stampedes ever brought to the screen). Monak's death is the turning point of the story for now, following the stampede, Prince Suli will be restored to his people. Ozira will die by being driven over a cliff in the ensuing confusion of the elephant stampede and hitting his head on a rock. Ozira will never know that only a short distance away, the fine body of his "most trusted servant" lies still, having risked everything to serve his greedy, malevolent master.

After the hugely enjoyable Tarzan and the Leopard Woman, the Weissmuller Tarzan series slides back into mediocrity with a rather stale tale of unscrupulous trappers—led by 'huntress' Tanya Rawlins (Patricia Morison)—collecting specimens to restock the world's zoos, much to Tarzan's disgust, of course. A woefully underdeveloped sub-plot about the assassination of a jungle king by his power hungry nephew adds little to the film's overall entertainment value.

As usual, Cheetah is on hand to provide the laughs, annoying the other jungle critters and taking Boy's model aeroplane for a short flight, Jane (Brenda Joyce) gives the film some sex appeal (surprisingly, the titular 'huntress' provides little in the way of titillation), Boy (Johnny Sheffield) learns an important lesson about life (trading lion cubs for a torch is wrong!), the family indulges in a spot of synchronised swimming, and Tarzan saves the day (and the captured animals) in the final reel with that old chestnut, the stampeding herd of elephants; but whilst all of this makes for adequate 'rainy Sunday afternoon' family viewing, it offers avid Tarzan fans nothing much to get excited about.

5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

Edgar Rice Burrough's TARZAN AND THE HUNTRESS (RKO Radio, 1947), directed by Kurt Neumann, being Johnny Weissmuller's 11th portrayal as the king of the jungle, and fifth under Sol Lesser's unit distributed by RKO, can be summed up by this time in saying, "If you've seen one Tarzan movie, you've seen them all," however the series continues.

The plot revolves around a zoological expedition headed by Tanya Rollins (Patricia Morison) and her guide, John Weire (Barton MacLane) who make arrangements with Prince Ozira (Ted Hecht), nephew of King Farrod (Charles Trowbridge) to capture wild animals for the zoos. After arranging for the death of the king, leaving Prince Suli (Maurice Tauzen) in charge command of the throne, Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller), having learned of the capture of his animal friends, including Cheta, starts to oppose the expedition and intervene.

Brenda Joyce in her third go round as the blonde Jane, and Johnny Sheffield in his eighth time playing Boy, each continue their recurring roles in the usual manner. This was to be the teen-aged Sheffield's farewell performance as Boy, now being more physically muscular and nearly as tall as Weissmuller's Tarzan, giving full indication that while the writers kept him on as long as possible, he has outgrown his part. Hence, in one scene where Boy wanting to make amends for the wrong he has done, is complimented by his jungle warlord father by telling him, "Boy man now." Indeed he's now a man. Being omitted in the next and all future installments, other jungle boys would be introduced as a replacement to Sheffield's Boy, but never seen on a regular basis. Sheffield was the only young actor whose character was consistent. He would return to the jungle in the character of "Bomba, the Jungle Boy" a new film series as produced by Monogram Pictures (1949-1955). Bomba could very well be Boy returning to Africa after a few years attending school in England, thus, starting life anew and following the tradition of jungle living amongst the animals and facing every day danger like Tarzan. As with the Tarzan/Weissmuller adventures, the writers of the "Bomba" series failed to introduce the jungle boy's origin as to where he came from, who were his people and how did he end up in the jungle. He was already roaming the jungle holding his sphere awaiting for something to happen. Anyway, that's entirely irrelevant to the story department and movie making at that time. Now back to TARZAN AND THE HUNTRESS.

Others appearing in the cast include John Warburton as Carl Morley; Wallace Scott as Smithers; and Mickey Simpson as Monak. And of course there's Cheta, the chimp, hogging many of the scenes, and trying to help out her animal friends from captivity. It's not Tarzan, Jane nor Boy who get to appear in the final fadeout, but Cheta being parachuted from the airplane with the "The End" inter-title superimposed over her puss having the time of her life.

TARZAN AND THE HUNTRESS returns Barton MacLane to the series, once more playing the villain, having already appeared two years earlier in TARZAN AND THE AMAZONS (1945), by whose presence in these two movies could stir up confusion. It would be impossible for MacLane to reprise his original role since his character has met his demise by falling victim to sinking in quicksand. An interesting switch from previous episodes is having a safari leader portrayed by a woman, the role awarded to Patricia Morison, who makes a fine villainous in the most sultry manner. Unlike the previous efforts made for RKO, "Huntress" gets plenty of use of animal extras along with an climatic elephant stampede.

TARZAN AND THE HUNTRESS, clocked at 77 minutes, is acceptable fun but a far cry from being the best in the series. It was one of the many movies from the "Tarzan" package to be presented on the America Movie Classics cable channel (1997-2000) before shifting over to Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: June 18, 2011). As much as to where this annual series was heading, the Tarzan adventures continued to hold their own as one of the most popular film series ever produced, enjoyed by many, especially youngsters in the Saturday afternoon matinée crowd cheering on the jungle hero as he battles against the bad guys entering his domain once again. Next installment, TARZAN AND THE MERMAIDS (1948) (*1/2).

A group of trappers seek to invade Tarzan's jungle and capture all the animals they want for their zoo, but Tarzan and the King object. When the King allows for only two of each type of animal to be taken, he is murdered and his nephew becomes the new leader, so the trappers are free to do as they please. It's then up to Tarzan to stand his ground. In this installment, the rapidly growing Johnny Sheffield plays Boy for the last time. We continue to see other recognizable Universal actors in each film, and this time it's Patricia Morison (CALLING DR. DEATH, DRESSED TO KILL) as the head zoologist.

**1/2 out of ****

TARZAN AND THE HUNTRESS suffers from a low budget and a ho-hum plot, although it is far less silly than the previous feature, TARZAN AND THE LEOPARD WOMAN; entrepreneur Tanya Rawlins (Patricia Morison), and her milquetoast lover (John Warburton), mount an expedition to capture animals to restock war-depleted zoos, a not unworthy goal...except they are primarily interested in making big money, which means depleting an area of a large part of it's wild animal population! The local 'lost city' ruler, King Farrod (Charles Trowbridge), showing remarkable farsightedness for the 1940s, limits them to one male and female of each species, which, although showing wise animal management, would not serve the money-hungry Rawlins, at all. Fortunately, she has a ruthless expedition 'boss' (Barton MacLane, making his second 'villainous' appearance in a Tarzan feature), and Farrod has a greedy nephew (Ted Hecht), so a scheme is hatched, to kill Farrod and his heir (Maurice Tauzin), and pay the new King a healthy kickback, in exchange for 'unlimited' hunting (an oft-used scheme of 'bad guys', which would continue to be popular, as recently as George Clooney's SYRIANA).

Of course, this being a Tarzan movie, our aging hero is friends with Farrod, and when the ruler is murdered, and the young prince disappears, Tarzan gets involved, which is BAD NEWS for Rawlins and her crew! The film utilizes more 'stock' animal footage than any of the other RKO/Weissmuller features, and unfortunately, it doesn't 'match up' well with the other footage, making the studio scenes look even cheesier; adding to this is a general listlessness in most of the performances, which hurts the overall movie. Even Cheeta seems bored!

The most interesting aspect of the film is Johnny Sheffield, who looks startlingly 'adult' in this, his last appearance as 'Boy'. That fact is not lost on screenwriters Jerry Gruskin and Rowland Leigh, who have Tarzan remark, on several occasions, how Boy is becoming "a man". After this feature, Boy would be off to "school in England" (and Sheffield would move on to his own series, as "Bomba, the Jungle Boy").

Weissmuller appears tired and a bit out-of-shape, although Brenda Joyce, as Jane, is as fetching as ever! The Tarzan series was obviously "winding down"; the next feature, the surreal TARZAN AND THE MERMAIDS, would mark the end of Weissmuller's reign as "King of the Jungle"...