Tarzan the Fearless

Unintentionally funny in places and downright hilarious in others, he's no Johnny Weissmuller but you can't say you've lived until you've seen Buster Crabbe spank a monkey. I bought this on DVD because one: it was cheap, and two: out of curiosity, as I've only seen Buster Crabbe play Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers which I enjoyed watching as a kid on TV during school holidays. I also loved the Tarzan films with Johnny Weissmuller. So I thought buying this DVD was going tick all the boxes. - I was wrong, so so wrong.

Firstly there was nothing wrong with Crabbe,s Tarzan he has the physique and good looks to easily carry the part. It's just that the filming and script is just all over the place and this lets him down, he also wears the shortest loin cloth and skimpiest briefs I've seen in Tarzan films of this era. But what stands out for me is the scene at the beginning of where we see Tarzan spank his monkey - THIS IS NOT A EUPHEMISM!

The Tarzan of the movies was a sissy, compared with the blood thirsty apeman of the early Burroughs novels. The real Tarzan ate raw meat and the blood ran off his chin. Moviegoers might not have been up to this kind of realism. That aside, this is a worthwhile, albeit early, Tarzan film. Buster Crabbe was a better athlete than other actors who played the role; like Weismuller, Crabbe had an Olympic gold medal and was more muscular. He also had a skimpier costume in the pre-Hayes Office days.

The plot skips all over the place, probably because it was edited down from an episodic serial. The chimp is there, playing cute, as he did in almost all Tarzan films. The trapeze or vine swinging work is considerably better here. If Buster Crabbe didn't actually do it, he appeared to be quite high and hanging on precariously. Unfortunately the Tarzan yell, a trademark of these films, is a mild bleat compared with those that came later. I miss that in this version.

All in all, I'd give this a fair to good grade.

TARZAN THE FEARLESS (Sol Lesser Principal Productions, 1933), directed by Robert F. Hill, stars Larry Crabbe, better known as Buster Crabbe, Olympic swimming champion, to the role of Edgar Rice Burrough's creative jungle hero, Tarzan. A year after the highly successful TATZAN THE APE MAN (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1932), which introduced Johnny Weissmuller, another Olympic champion swimmer, as Tarzan, this latest installment was an attempt to reinvent the Tarzan character on an independently scale with new supporting characters. As the opening introduction states, "The worldwide popularity of the "Tarzan" stories has promoted to another tale, for the first time, a new story of the ape man's strangest and most romantic adventures." Initially released in both 12 weekly serial installments and tightly edited feature length film, it's the 85 minute edition that is seemingly available for viewing and reviewing by today's standards.

In the surviving copy often shown on Turner Classic Movies since 2011 (as opposed to shorter 72 minute editions presented either on commercial, public television and video tape since the 1980s), TARZAN THE FEARLESS, set in Africa, opens with Tarzan (Buster Crabbe) vine swinging to the delight of his chimpanzee companion. Tarzan is lord of the jungle, friend of the animals, and hero to those he rescues from danger. Next scene introduces a safari consisting of Mary Brooks (Jacqueline Wells), Bob Hall (Edward Woods), her fiance; and jungle guides, Jeff Herbert (Philo McCullough) and Nick Moran (Matthew Betz), on a trail searching for the missing archaeologist, Doctor Brooks (E. Alyn Warren), Mary's father. Studying ancient tribes and seeking for a lost Aryan civilization and rare emerald, Brooks has been abducted by worshippers of the ancient god Zar. As Tarzan follows the safari from a distance due to his interest in Mary's blonde beauty, it is also learned that Nick Moran also wants Mary for his wife. After locating her father's cabin, Mary is abducted and held captive by the evil High Priest Eltar (Mischa Auer). Frank Lackteen, Carlotta Monti, Ivory Williams and Everett Brown also support the cast.

While Buster Crabbe first leading role in the movies being KING OF THE JUNGLE (Paramount, 1933), by which he was cast as Kaspa, the Lion Man, which proved popular, rather than starring Crabbe in a new jungle series based on the Kaspa character, he entered the world of Tarzan in a whole new different adventure. Comparing this to the Weissmuller adventure would be typical for audiences and reviewers, with many favoring Weissmuller over Crabbe. Though Weissmuller had a good physical build to become Tarzan, so did Crabbe with his bigger chest. In the existing prints, there is no origin to the Tarzan character as to how a white man, with no method of speech except in grunts and calling himself Tarzan, ended up in Africa. Maybe there was more plot development to him and other actors to the story in the serial that appears not to be available for present viewing.

Unlike Weissmuller, Crabbe's Tarzan, who sports a leopard spot skin loincloth, bears a different sounding war cry many than Weissmuller. This is the same jungle yell used in latter independent Tarzans of the 1930s featuring Herman Brix and Glenn Morris. Heavily underscored using similar stock music used for some independent productions, TARZAN THE FEARLESS relies more on some exciting Tarzan/animal fights, last minute rescue or near death experience for attention purposes. As much as Buster Crabbe wasn't bad as Tarzan, Weissmuller really made this jungle hero his own, becoming the longest reigning and best known Tarzan of the screen (1932-1948) for years to come.

A public domain title made available from various video and DVD distributors, TARZAN THE FEARLESS has its moments, but with uneven plotline with numerous jump cuts make this a little hard to comprehend and appreciate. (**)

In 1932, MGM made one of the best Tarzan movies of all time, "Tarzan the Ape Man". It was so well made that it resulted in a long string of movies with Johnny Weissmuller and it made him a major star. A year after this film, Sol Lesser produced a serialized version of the Tarzan story and in this case the production starred Buster Crabbe. Why Crabbe? Well, like Weissmuller, Crabbe was a gold medal winning American swimmer...and Lesser certainly couldn't afford Weissmuller! No, a Lesser film was known for economy...and because of that, you would expect his movie to be less refined and as well written.

It is important that you understand that I am reviewing the full-length movie version of Lesser's Tarzan film. It also came out in a 12-part serialized version...though apparently it's been lost and the movie version if the only one available today. If I hear about the serial being discovered, I'll try to update my review. And, considering how the film is a whittled down version of a much longer serial, I was not surprised that the movie seemed choppy.

Like Weissmuller, Crabbe's Tarzan is barechested and well coiffed despite being raised by apes in the African jungles. Unlike Weissmuller, Crabbe's Tarzan yell is pretty enemic! Both took advantage of their swimming skills by having them swim during the films.

The story involves Tarzan falling for a blonde who ISN'T named Jane. Unfortunately, she's traveling with some dirtbags who want to kill Tarzan (why???) and in the end, Tarzan saves the day and gets the girl.

So is this Tarzan tale any good? Well, it's not terrible...and the animal scenes (such as when Tarzan fights a lion) aren't bad at all...though, sadly, like too many Tarzan pics, there is also ample use of stock footage and a few non-African animals (such as American alligators instead of African crocodiles). As for Tarzan, while Crabbe looked nice, he wasn't as good in the role as Weissmuller...and mostly said nothing...choosing instead to pantomime much of the time or utter a few goofy laughs. Overall, a cheap curiosity that is watchable but not up to the standards of MGM's series which was begun the year before this one....and much like the quality of Lesser's many B-westerns.

This is a feature version of a 12-chapter serial, although some don't seem to know that the serial exists. As was a semi-common practice of the time, some serials were produced as both a feature and also as a serial. The reason was that some theatres would not book serials but had no qualms about booking a feature edited from a serial, and this practice allowed the serial producer to get a booking in a theatre for his condensed feature that they would not have gotten as a 12-episode serial.

This "feature version" consists of the first four chapters of the 12-chapter SERIAL that was titled "Tarzan the Fearless," , which a great many collectors have in its 12-chapter form (that some don't seem to know exists) and, some of the luckier ones, even have all of the different original one-sheets posters issued with each chapter title, and the full eight-card set of different lobby cards issued with each chapter following the showing of the feature version at theatres that did book serials; and most of those theatres that did book serials didn't bother showing this feature version, opting instead to show one chapter a week for 12 weeks.

The chapter titles for the 12 episodes of this serial (from which the "Tarzan the Fearless" feature version was chopped out of) were: 1. The Dive of Death; 2. The Storm God Strikes; 3. Thundering Death; 4. The Pit of Peril; 5. Blood Money; 6. Voodoo Vengeance; 7. Caught by Cannibals; 8. The Creeping Terror; 9. Eyes of Evil; 10. The Death Plunge; 11. Harvest of Hate and 12. Jungle Justice.

Producer Sol Lesser's plan was to make both a feature version and a serial...and he did both.