Tarzan et la chasseresse

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.

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"...

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 ****

Penultimate Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan film and the last to feature Johnny Sheffield, who played Boy in eight Tarzan films before getting his own series as Bomba, the Jungle Boy. Patricia Morison heads an expedition to Tarzan's neck of the woods to nab some animals for zoos back in the States. Helping her is vicious big game hunter Barton MacLane. By now, if you've seen even a few Tarzan movies, you should know where this is going. The bad guys take the animals but Tarzan steals them back and, with help from Boy and his animal friends, runs the villains out of Africa. There's also a subplot about political intrigue with local royalty.

Johnny Weissmuller is good but he's basically going through the motions at this point. There's nothing in this he hasn't done before. Johnny Sheffield, who's almost as big as Weissmuller at this point, does well in his final outing as Boy. There's a thread running throughout the movie about Boy learning responsibility ("Boy man now. Do man's work."). Brenda Joyce has little to do as Jane but her few scenes are nice. Lovely Patricia Morison is interesting as the title character (who is not really a huntress). She's written sympathetically most of the way through but it ultimately amounts to nothing as she never switches sides like you are expecting. A major misstep is that the film doesn't give us a catfight between Morison and Brenda Joyce. There aren't a lot of action scenes in this one. Tarzan has a brief fight scene with another man but no tussles with crocs or anything. The climactic animal stampede is exciting, though. The drama is solid and the cute family stuff between Tarzan, Jane, Boy, and Cheeta is always fun to watch. A highlight of the movie for me is the scene where Cheeta flies a bamboo airplane Boy made.

Not among the best of the Tarzan films but still worthwhile. Fans will like it, I think. A couple of final notes: in one scene, Tarzan is freeing the various animals that were captured by the hunters and he is shown releasing two bear cubs from their cages. Why are there bears in an African jungle? In another scene, Morison's character tells the King that "In our civilization, we believe in keeping an open mind." To which the King replies "In your civilization, open mind means that one must agree with what you yourself say." Brother, tell me that isn't as true now as it was 70 years ago!

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).