Tarzan und die Jäger

After dispatching a nasty hunter who is illegally collecting wildlife for menageries , Tarzan has to confront his brother who seeks vengeance by means a violent hunting for human game . Along the way , Tarzan arranges to free all of the captured animals as an elephant baby . While a safari of mean hunters attempt to discover a lost city full of treasures.

Tarzan and the Trappers is an adventurous film dubiously faithful to Edgar Rice Borroughs , it packs perilous feats , fights , betrayals , angry natives , wildlife , starving animals , stock footage and gorgeous exteriors. However, being spoiled by a black and white cinematography , resulting to be Gordon Scott's first Tarzan and only with no color . In fact , Scott starred 5 Tarzan films , his Tarzan movies ranged from rather cheap re-edited television pilots to larger scale epics . These are the following ones : Tarzan fights for life by H Bruce Humberstone , Tarzan's greatest adventure produced by Sy Weintraub directed by John Guillermin , Tarzan the Magnificent by John Guillermin and Tarzan and the lost Safari . Although Gordon Scott also played other kinds of genres as Spaghetti Western : Tramplers , Buffalo Bill Hero of the West , Euro-spy : Death Ray, Secretissimo , Pirate movie : Marauder and especially Peplum : Hercules and the Princess of Troy , Romulus and Remo, Coriolanus , Maciste in court of the Great Khan , A Queen for Caesar, Ercole versus Moloch, Goliath and the Vampires , Conquest of Mycene , Gladiator of Rome , Hero of Rome , Samson and the seven miracles of the World . In Tarzan and the Trappers 1950 Gordon Scott brings wit and style to the classic role . His handsome features , imposing height , muscular physique made him a magnificent choice to replace Lex Barker as Tarzan , and he won out over 200 candidaters for the character. It was producer Sol Lesser who changed his name from Werschkul to Scott . Here Gordon Scott is accompanied by the beautiful Eve Brent as Jane and Ricky Serenson as their child . And nice secondaries as Maurice Marsac , Scatman Crothers , Leslie Bradley and Bruce Lester . Of course , special mention for the sympathetic chimpanzee Cheeta , giving some hilarious moments with leaps , frolics, mayhem and antics.

The classic Tarzan movies starred by Johnny Weissmuller were financed by MGM , subsequently took the production some independient producers , as this Tarzan and the Trappers was produced in medium budget by Sol Lesser , subsequently replaced by Sy Weintraub . However , this one seems to be a re-edition from three three episodes of a never shown television series that was rejected by three general networks . The motion picture was uneven but professionally directed by Charles Haas , Sandy Howard and uncredited H Bruce Humberstone, the latter to direct other Tarzan movies . .

Gordon Scott made some good Tarzan movies, but this is not one of them.

As I watched it, wincing at the bad, obviously interior sets and the hollow wooden "clonking" sounds as they walked across supposedly dirt trails, and cringing at the bad dialog and worse acting among the supporting cast, I kept thinking, "Sheesh! This is TV show level!" Then I find out it was, indeed, three TV show pilot episodes woven seam-fully into one.

It's nice to see Scott get outside (alone), away from the lame sets, in a few of the scenes; and the fights do have some pretty nice moves... but oh, ow, and ouch as to the dialog. And did I mention the acting? Heck, Cheetah (or "Cheta," in this version) was a better actor than most of the humans.

And that's not saying much.

It is kind of a stitch to see a younger Sherman (i.e. Scatman) Carothers acting as a native. But probably not worth the overall time-investment.

TARZAN AND THE TRAPPERS (1958 B&W) features Gordon Scott as Tarzan. This is a mediocre jungle adventure edited together from two or three episodes of a TV series that never surfaced. Gordon Scott plays a great muscular Tarzan but, as another Amazon reviewer noted, the film is compressed in such a way that the images are out of proportion. For example, Gordon Scott appears almost short and stout, albeit muscular. I know this isn't true because I just saw another Scott Tarzan film ("Tarzan and the Lost Safari" from 1957) wherein Scott is tall (6'3") and his waist is incredibly lean. In any event, although this is far from the best Gordon Scott Tarzan picture (his "Tarzan's Greatest Adventure" from 1959 is one of the best films in the entire series), "Tarzan and the Trappers" is well worth watching if for no other reason than to feast your eyes on the awe-inspiring voluptuousness of Eve Brent, who plays "Jane."

GRADE: C

TARZAN AND THE TRAPPERS (Sol Lesser Productions, 1958), directed by Charles Haas and Sandy Howard, became the second and final installment in the series to feature Gordon Scott (Tarzan), Eve Brent (Jane) and Rickie Sorensen (Boy). Unlike their previous entry, TARZAN"S FIGHT FOR LIFE (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1958), this edition was not theatrically released nor filmed in color. In fact, TARZAN AND THE TRAPPERS was reportedly said to be three separate television episodes from a proposed TV series that was never bought by any of the three major networks. Instead, the episodes were edited together to form a feature length 70 minute feature film that didn't get publicly shown until some time in the 1960s. New lettering titles superimposed over different Tarzan and then various animals roaming the jungle are presented for its opening credits before an off-screen narrator introduces how jungle life being "instant death or narrow escapes being the point of every day life" before introducing Tarzan, the jungle warlord hero, as one who befriends the weak and helps the distress. The first part of the story introduces Tarzan and his family going through their daily routine. Their pet chimp, Cheta, rescues Jane from a poisonous snake crawling on her leg. Soon Tarzan hears sounds of frightened animals from afar and swings on the vines to investigate. An elephant has been shot and killed by Schroeder (Leslie Bradley), a hunter and boss man to the trappers, along with his assistant, Rene (Maurice Marsac) and a couple of native tribesmen. Chaining a baby elephant's leg to a tree, Tarzan arrives to free the animal. By doing this, Schroeder holds Tarzan at gunpoint to abduct and cage both Cheta and Boy before driving away. Tarzan isn't far behind to plot his rescue. The second half of the story finds Tarzan receiving a message from tribesman, Tyana (Struther Crothers) that Lepin (William Keene) from the trading post, wants to see him, only to learn this to be a meeting between Tarzan and Sikes (Saul Gorss), brother of Schroeder, who, because of Tarzan, is now serving seven years for his illegal animal hunting. He plots vengeance against Tarzan to give him a two hour start running loose loose in jungle so he can hunt him down like an animal. Later, Sikes and the other men force Tarzan to lead them to the lost city of Zaro where they can acquire richness of hidden gold and jewels. Tightly edited, highly underscored with enough Tarzan yells and well staged battles to remind viewers that this is a "Tarzan" adventure. The scene shifts are obvious, especially during the early portion where Jane's long blonde hairstyle becomes a shorter cut following the opening of the second portion where her Jane gives son Boy an education by reading literary classics like "Treasure Island," before her hair resumes longer-length again as was for the introduction. While Rickie Sorensen's character is often identified as Boy (as in the Johnny Weissmuller series in the 1940s) in the story, there was one time where he's called Tartu (the name used from the previous Gordon Scott adventure of TARZAN'S FIGHT FOR LIFE). Though photographed in black-and-white, the scene of Tarzan riding a giraffe, along with actual African scenery and natives were lifted from that FIGHT FOR LIFE color film into this edition as well. Of the three portions of the story, the first was better while the second shows promise of a re-enactment to Richard Connell's exciting story to "The Most Dangerous Game," where Tarzan becomes the hunted, actually a disappointment due to edits. Jane and Boy are absent through long stretches of time during the second half of the story, leaving Tarzan to be the sole factor of interest through much of the proceedings. The final portion becomes typical scenario for the "Tarzan" series involving greedy hunters where old material is revamped and recycled, if nothing else. A public domain where TARZAN AND THE TRAPPERS was distributed to video cassette by various distributors, often double-billed packaged with TARZAN THE FEARLESS (1933) with Buster Crabbe, the made-for-television edition, also available on DVD, has shown on commercial and public television, along with cable channels as American Movie Classics (1998) and Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: September 17, 2011). Not the very best nor the worst of the Scott/Tarzan adventures, TARZAN AND THE TRAPPERS attempts to add something new to material that has seemed exhausted by this time.

While improvements were developed in future installments, recasting the Tarzan character (after Scott turned in his loincloth by 1960) to the form and likes of the thin Jock Mahoney (1962-63) and the muscular Mike Henry (1965-1968), before the Edgar Rice Burrough's jungle hero eventually became a prominent figure in his very own "Tarzan" television series (1966-1969) starring Ron Ely. Next in the series: Gordon Scott minus Jane and Boy in TARZAN'S GREATEST ADVENTURE (1959). (**)

At six foot three inches, with a muscular frame, Gordon Scott cuts a fine figure as legendary ape-man Tarzan: he's perfectly cast, even though his hair is rarely out of place while swinging from vine to vine.

But as impressive as the ex-lifeguard is in the role, Tarzan and the Trappers isn't one of the character's more memorable cinematic adventures, the film being edited together from three episodes for a television series that never happened. The result is, unsurprisingly, rather episodic and cheap looking, with a scrappy narrative that sees Tarzan foiling the plans of a party of animal-trappers, one of whom wants revenge on the ape-man for having his brother sent to jail, while another seeks a fabled lost city.

The action is formulaic and rather dull, with only a couple of fun moments to break the tedium: Tarzan riding a giraffe, and Cheeta the chimp raiding a bee hive for honey, with inevitable results. What this film sorely needed was a man-eating plant, some quicksand, a giant spider, and a tribe of cannibals. Eve Brent adds a little welcome glamour as Jane, but Rickie Sorensen is a little too 'Leave It To Beaver' as Boy.