Tarzán y la fuente mágica

Lord of the jungle Lex Barker (as Tarzan) and beautiful blonde Brenda Joyce (as Jane) are given an old cigarette case and journal "Cheeta" the chimp finds while frolicking with a mate. They belong to famous pilot Evelyn Ankers (as Gloria James), who disappeared in a 1928 plane crash. As it turns out, Ms. Ankers survived the crash and took up residence in a "Shangri-la" known to only a select few, Tarzan being one of them. He retrieves Ankers because she can clear a man unjustly accused of murder...

But the fact that she didn't age while living in "The Blue Valley" for 20 years attracts the criminal element...

RKO and producer Sol Lesser kept the "Tarzan" series going by green lighting Mr. Barker as a replacement for the departing Johnny Weissmuller. In his first appearance as the character, Barker fills the loincloth comfortably. This was the last appearance of Ms. Joyce as Tarzan's "Jane" and it's also her best-acted appearance. Albert Dekker and Charles Drake make fine villains. Considering how the film ends, "The Magic Fountain" provides an implicit explanation for Tarzan's suddenly more youthful appearance.

***** Tarzan's Magic Fountain (2/5/49) Lee Sholem ~ Lex Barker, Brenda Joyce, Evelyn Ankers, Albert Dekker

The "Lost Horizon" aspects of this plot may border on the silly -- the residents of the "Blue Valley" dress in Egyptian-Polynesian style! -- but they provide a serviceable framework for the first of Lex Barker's Tarzan movies. Barker, alas, is asked to play the title role as something of an overgrown bumpkin who can't quite seem to master the use of such basic articles of speech as "a" and "the," and there's little hint of the "killer instinct" which has allowed him to survive for so long in such hostile terrain. However, Barker's Tarzan is a likable sort who looks good in his loincloth which, for the sake of modesty, rides high enough on his midsection to cover his navel. Perhaps his beefcake-highpoint comes in the final reel when he's tethered with outstretched arms in a cave while some men from the Blue Valley prepare to blind him. (Yes, they actually have a tool designed for this purpose: a two-pronged fork that can poke out both eyes at the same time. Why this fork has to be heated white-hot before it can do its work remains a mystery.) Obviously aimed at a Saturday matinée crowd, this briskly-plotted movie devotes a lot of attention to the antics of Cheetah who, during the course of the proceedings, chews bubblegum, learns the peril of hot pepper, and gets to play with ants. Children may giggle, adults will groan. As an added bonus, there's Elmo Lincoln - the silent movies' Tarzan -- who here plays a burly villain with a black eyepatch. He and Barker get to engage in a couple of semi-comic fights.

For the record, the fountain doesn't belong to Tarzan nor does it fall under his jurisdiction so the title is something of a misnomer.

First Tarzan film with Lex Barker in the title role, "Tarzan's Magic Fountain" is a welcome improvement after Johnny Weissmuller's last entry, the dull "Tarzan and the Mermaids", whose only saving grace was the location shooting in México, with its attractive monuments and landscapes. When he moved the franchise to RKO Radio, producer Sol Lesser was much helped with the addition of Barker, a handsome, tall and dignified Lord Greystoke; simple and attractive art direction and inexpensive but effective visual effects. Although the story is lineal and easy, lacking strong emotional or action peaks, it is still fun to watch, due to its fantasy elements: a British woman pilot who disappeared in an African jungle (not to far from Tarzan's home), reappears 20 years later looking as young as when her small plane crashed, thanks to the magic fountain of Blue Valley. Soon greedy men want to get there and start a business bottling the fountain water. (In the story, the product target is women, but in these days it would be also a success among men). The plot is more romantic than this but it's up to you to discover the whole story. And Cheetah is funnier than ever!

The first Tarzan film minus Weissmulle,r and replaces him with Lex Barker as the new Tarzan. In this outing the Lord of the Apes finds a secret Valley where nobody ages, so it's basically "Lost Horizon" with more loincloths. Co-written by Curt Siodmak, who wrote a few minor classics including "The Wolf Man," "I Walked with a Zombie" and "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers," makes this one of the better later Tarzan films. Overall, it's nothing brilliant, but if you're in the right mood it's entertaining enough and far better than any of the cheaper Tarzan spinoff-/ripoff Bomba films. Alan Napier, Alfred on the 1960s Batman TV series, also appears in the film, as does Albert Dekker, who played the evil Dr. Soberin in "Kiss Me Deadly."

Sol Lesser, producer of the TARZAN film series for RKO, missed a golden opportunity when he cast Lex Barker to replace aging Johnny Weissmuller as the jungle lord. At 30, the 6'4" Barker's background ideally prepared him to play author Edgar Rice Burroughs' orphaned English lord; a direct descendant of Rhode Island founder Roger Williams, Barker's family was wealthy and 'Old Guard', and he was a star athlete with an Ivy League education from Princeton. A love of hellraising and sense of adventure had led the young man to choose acting as a career, a move that effectively cut his ties to his family.

With Barker's background, it would have seemed natural for Lesser to abandon the clichéd 'Me, Tarzan' portrayal of the previous 17 years, and return Tarzan to the character as written by Burroughs, that of a worldly adventurer as comfortable in a tuxedo as a loincloth, whose unique jungle instincts made him the perfect choice for exciting adventures around the world. But the veteran producer, afraid to tinker with a proven money maker, chose to simply have Barker imitate Weissmuller, speaking broken English, and still living in the treehouse condo with Jane (Brenda Joyce, making her last appearance in the role) and Cheeta.

TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN has an intriguing opening; a long-missing 'Amelia Earhart'-type aviatrix (Evelyn Ankers) comes out of the jungle, looking years younger than her actual age, to save her wrongly convicted husband (future 'Batman' star Alan Napier). While Tarzan knows the secret of her youth, he refuses to share the knowledge with Jane (who is a bit peeved!). Soon the couple return, and the woman flier has aged, considerably (Civilization will DO that...). Tarzan refuses to return the couple and their party to where she had achieved her 'youth', so Jane decides to take them herself, based on what the flier remembered of the journey, and the bits and pieces she'd learned from Tarzan.

The group reach a forbidden city, and a fountain that IS the 'Fountain of Youth'...and face the ire of the 'lost civilization' living there, who had trusted Tarzan to keep their location secret. Naturally, the other members of the couple's group turn out to be money-hungry evil men, who reveal their true intentions with bloodshed...and it's Tarzan to the rescue!

One can see why Lesser wouldn't have wanted Weissmuller for this film (critics would have been quick to suggest HE drink some of the elixir, pronto!), and despite the excellent cast (including veteran actors Albert Dekker and Charles Drake), the end result is no more than a standard 'B' movie, despite the publicity build-up given to Barker's assuming the role. The best moment of the film, in fact, goes to Cheeta, who guzzles Jane's hidden stash of the magic water, and reverts back to a baby chimp!

Lex Barker got favorable reviews, in general, for his sexy, confident portrayal of the Ape Man, and he would appear in four more of the jungle epics, over the next four years.

For those fans hoping for a Burroughs-inspired Tarzan in 1949, however, there would be ten more years of frustration, before he would finally emerge...