Tarzan und die Dschungelgöttin

After MGM finished its Tarzan series, RKO picked up the series and hunky Lex Barker took over as the heroic ape-man. Surprisingly, RKO even bothered to take the project to Africa itself...something the fancier and richer MGM failed to do with the series. As for the results, they are pretty much what you'd expect...no more, no less.

In this third RKO installment, a super-evil gun runner named Radijeck (George Macready) has escaped custody and is back to his old gunrunning ways. He wants to destabilize the region by selling guns to the natives and his getting rich is his only real concern. As for his partners and any one else, they are expendable and Radijeck is a truly soul-less jerk. Can Tarzan manage to bring him to justice?

Barker was just fine as Tarzan, though I though Jane (Virginia Huston) lacked, well, a lot. She looked as if she just arrived from the beauty shop and lacked the humor and sex appeal of Maureen O'Suillivan, MGM's Jane. As for Macready and the other folks (such as Alan Napier), they were all good. What really stood out for me when I watched is that the animals actually WERE African animals. Most prior Tarzan pics featured animals from all over the globe...such as Asian elephants and American Alligators! All in all, a reasonably well made and satisfying film...but nothing more.

Lord of the jungle Lex Barker (as Tarzan) battles gunrunner George Macready (as Radijeck) and assorted cohorts. This film seems a little foreign when compared to recent entries in the series. First, more of it was shot in Africa than had become the norm. Additionally, shapely Virginia Huston (as Jane) appears with a much shorter haircut than usual for the character, and her clothing has become a form-flattering white dress. Unfortunately ineligible as Tarzan's mate, the beautifully mixed Dorothy Dandridge plays an African queen. To prevent "Tarzan's Peril" from becoming too serious in tone, a certain chimpanzee gets the last laugh when swallowing a watch gives "Cheeta" musical indigestion.

**** Tarzan's Peril (3/13/51) Byron Haskin ~ Lex Barker, Virginia Huston, George Macready, Dorothy Dandridge

If one is interested in the action/adventure component of Tarzan movies, Tarzan's Peril does have something to offer.

While the plot may be simple, this first Tarzan movie ever filmed in Africa does have its moments, mostly revolving around one of the sub-villains, King Bulam, played by noted African-American actor Frederick O'Neal, founder of the American Negro Theater in New York which launched the careers of such notables as Sidney Poitier.

Gun runners have broken out of jail and have come to King Bulam's village to trade guns for jewels. Bulam, who has tangled with Tarzan before, intends to use the guns to make war on the peaceful Ashuba people, led by Queen Melmendi (Dorothy Dandridge).

Tarzan (Lex Barker) is unsuccessful in stopping Bulam and his Yurongan warriors and is even thrown over a waterfall and presumably drowned. King Bulam conquers the village and, after being rejected by Melmendi, he withdraws and his warriors get drunk. Tarzan returns and organizes an uprising after having freed the Ashuban men.

When Bulam arrives to check on the situation, Tarzan gives his famous yell and the Yurongans are caught off guard. Bulam sees that Tarzan is very much alive and flees in confusion and fear.

Tarzan catches up with the husky, proud, ambitious, and greedy African war chief and a knife fight, one against one, ensues. While a much trimmer stunt double is sometimes visible, this is still an exciting screen fight. Bulam manages to knock Tarzan's head against a tree trunk and then pulls out a rather hefty, oversize knife that we have seen dangling at his waist for much of the film. The knife is almost in Tarzan's neck when Tarzan grabs Bulam's wrist and causes Bulam to fling the knife away. It lands in some ferns, blade side up. Using his legs as scissors, Tarzan manages to spin Bulam away, and the chief rolls over several times.

Here is the part I savor. Bulam rolls over onto the clump of ferns where his knife is projecting skyward. As his ample belly passes over the knife, it is shoved into his body. The wicked, adventurous, risk-taking war chief is stunned; he has been stabbed with his own knife! Bulam makes several attempts to rise and continue the fight and Tarzan even draws his own knife, not certain as to whether Bulam is really done for. But, as his head lolls for the last time, with the knife partially obscured by all the vegetation the king has rolled into, it is certain that Bulam has been vanquished.

The next scene shows the warriors being herded into a corral and Tarzan is begged to stay for a celebration but he must go after the gun runners who are even now having a falling out of their own and, eventually, endangering Jane.

TARZAN'S PERIL (RKO Radio, 1951) directed by Byron Haskin, the third of five installments starring Lex Barker as Edgar Rice Burrough's most celebrated jungle hero, is, by far, the most prestigious project to date. An improvement over the previous two entries, thanks to some authentic location filming in Africa where much of the Tarzan stories takes place, and the casting of George Macready as the most sinister villain thus far, ranking this possibly the best in the Barker series. Aside from location sequences mixed with the studio jungle sets, TARZAN'S PERIL was reportedly intended to become the first in the series to be lensed in color, something that never happened, at least for now anyway.

Rather than the traditional opening focusing on Tarzan, Jane and/ or Cheta's daily activities, which turns up 16 plus minutes into the story, TARZAN'S PERIL opens with a native celebration in British East Africa as Melmendi (Dorothy Dandridge) is made queen of the Ashuba tribe. Commissioner Peters (Alan Napier), about to retire after thirty years of service, witnesses the event with his soon-to-be replacement, Connors (Edward Ashley). King Bulam (Frederick O'Neal), a brutal chief of the Yorango tribe, comes to propose marriage to Melmendi, but is refused. Later, the pounding of drums brings forth a message that Radijack (George Macready), a ruthless slaver and gunrunner, has escaped prison and somewhere in the jungle. Assisted by Doctor Herbert Trask (Douglas Fowley) and Andrews (Glenn Anders) as his henchmen, Radijack intends on bringing in a load of illegal rifles to the natives. As Peters and Connors approach Trask to inspect their hidden items, Radijack makes his surprise attack by shooting them. During their journey climbing a cliff, Radijack arranges for Andrews to meet with an accident that handicaps him with a broken leg. Being left there to die, Andrews crawls through dangerous territory before grabbing gold onto a log and floating down the river. While canoing with Jane (Virginia Huston), Tarzan (Lex Barker) foresees danger and rescues Andrews from a crocodile attack. Taking the injured hunter to a doctor, Tarzan, having learned from Andrews of the killing of his friend, Peters, and Radijack's evil intentions, Tarzan swings into action to stop Radijack from supplying the Yorango tribe with guns to attack the peaceful Ashuba tribe. By doing so, Tarzan faces some perils of his own almost in the manner of a weekly chaptered serial.

Making every attempt on bettering this long running series to a point of recalling some highly entertaining adventure made famous by Johnny Weissmuller during his days at MGM, the strength to TARZAN'S PERIL rests on well developed screenplay by Samuel Newman and Francis Swann with enough action to hold one's interest. Although routinely made, much of it is presented in the manner with some originality. George Macready, as mentioned earlier, gives a standout performance as the villain. Aside from putting other characters to permanent rest, his intention on doing the same to Tarzan finds the jungle hero subdued by his native followers, only to somewhat finish him off by having him thrown into water rapids to plunge down from a high waterfall. Other dangers faced by Tarzan is one where he's entrapped inside spider-like arms of man-eating plants, a similar situation earlier used in Weissmuller's TARZAN'S DESERT MYSTERY (1943), plus his encounter with a giant poisonous snake that nearly takes Cheta. There's also interesting casting of Dorothy Dandridge as the African tribal queen, shortly before achieving immortality for her leading roles as her Academy Award nomination in CARMEN JONES (20th Century-Fox, 1954), and PORGY AND BESS (Samuel Goldwyn, 1959) opposite Sidney Poitier. As with her screen career, Dandridge's role comes short yet essential to the plot.

The weakness to TARZAN'S PERIL once again falls upon the Jane character, this time enacted by the blondish but average acting Virginia Huston. Aside from her short 1950s style haircut and noticeable facial makeup in the Virginia Mayo mode, her Jane character isn't dressed in traditional jungle dress tog but white animal skins resembling that of an Esther Williams bathing suit. Unlike previous efforts where Jane takes part in Tarzan's adventures, this time Tarzan says, "Jane, go home," leaving Tarzan to fulfill his mission alone with Cheta, his chimpanzee, along for the ride. Jane, being off screen for a long stretch, does reappear, doing housework in her tree house before being face to face with a deadly visitor.

While no masterpiece, TARZAN'S PERIL comes close to becoming 79 minutes of non-stop action, making whatever weaknesses that take place to be overlooked or forgiven. Never distributed to video cassette, TARZAN'S PERIL, formerly broadcast on American Movie Classics prior to 2000, and finally Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: July 16, 2011), has become available on DVD through Turner Home Entertainment. With more "Tarzan" adventures in the horizon, and the slow faze out of Jane before the end of the decade, the next installment in the series is TARZAN'S SAVAGE FURY (1952). (*** drums).

Third Tarzan film starring Lex Barker is still good, directed by Byron Haskin, who had made "I Walk Alone" and "Treasure Island" and who would go on to make the science-fiction classic "The War of the Worlds" and the adventure films "The Naked Jungle" and "Captain Sindbad". Labeled as the first Tarzan film made in Africa, the material mostly consists of establishment shots and good sequences of dances and tribe life, aptly directed by Philip Brandon and photographed by cinematographer Jack Whitehead. It matches only moderately well with the studio shooting, but still gives add some distinction to the product. As it happened before with Charlie Chan, Mr. Moto and Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan is affected by the United States foreign policy, so he is part of a Cold War intrigue. Thankfully it is not openly exposed, but suggested: the villain (George Macready) is called Radijek, he probably comes from Poland or any other country behind the Iron Curtain, and he is providing guns to the Africans, although not under the Soviet aegis: he is a ruthless, egotistical, murderous dealer, who wants to sell his weapons and collect . His first opponent is a retiring British commissioner (Alan Napier), who defends the colonialist regime of the Crown, and wants to leave the natives under control and evangelized by Protestant missionaries, a work that took him 30 years. But things get violent soon in this entry, quickly increasing the body count and including women abuse, as Queen Melmendi (Dorothy Dandridge) is subject to the whims of the feisty but mean ruler of another tribe, King Bulam (Frederick O'Neal). As usual Cheetah keeps stealing things and getting scared even by rubber snakes.