Swamp Fire

SWAMP FIRE never aspired to be anything more than a low budget B-movie intended for the double feature trade that thrived in the 1940's. Oddly, 37% of the votes on IMDb are a "10" -- no more idiotic than the 10-scores given to so many rotten pictures of 2006-2006 -- but equally inaccurate.

The main asset is Johnny Weissmuller -- herein playing a rare non-Tarzan role during the time when he was still thriving in his Tarzan role. But it doesn't end there. This is a tidy little good story about the Cajuns (and others) living in southern Louisiana at the time just after World War II. Even in 2008 the narrative holds up well and the swamp atmosphere is a big plus.

Ignore the reference to 2 Tarzans. Technically Buster Crabbe did play Tarzan, but almost nobody saw that movie. Johnny Weissmuller was the only true Tarzan to most folks, although I also credit Lex Barker.

Here's the inside word: Weissmuller was ready to quit Tarzan -- after 14 years -- for just one reason. In Swamp Water, as in Jungle Jim, he was allowed to wear clothes; not just a loin cloth. The ravages of age get the best of us all.

It is so unlikely that both Buster Crabbe and Johnny Weissmuller were Tarzan on screen during the early thirties; one was more famous than the other and proceeded for several pictures starring the ape man. Johnny Weissmuller forged his career and legend because of TARZAN and not Buster Crabbe, or only just a part. There was the same scheme with Gordon Scott and Jock Mahoney, TARZAN characters in the sixties or late fifties, and in one film of the series, Jock Mahoney was the villain fighting against Scott. TARZAN THE MAGNIFICENT. So, here, there is no Tarzan character but an adventure film, not so bad to watch and endure. The final fight between the two "TARZAN" is the most worth seeing.

Because they were produced for and distributed by Paramount, the B-films from William H. Pine and William C. Thomas (known as the Dollar Bills)have acquired,for the most part, an undeserved reputation for being little jewels among the "B" genre. Stick a PRC or Monogram logo on most of them and the same historians who are ga-ga over them behind the Paramount logo would likely write them off as just more dross from Poverty Row. Not me, Bucky...I'd still love them for what they really were; Saturday matinee double-feature fodder. Highlights in this one include a fist-fight between Johnny Weissmuller and Buster Crabbe (I won't give away the winner, but check the cast order); a cat-fight between Virginia Grey and Carol Thurston that the male cast of Sienfeld would pay to see and, just to keep things moving, Weissmuller wrestles an alligator, there are two mid-water collisions between small-craft boats, a big ship wreck and a blazing swamp fire finale. Toss in a plot that has Weissmuller as a psycho-neurotic war veteran who, because he piled up his Navy destroyer on the rocks, now dreads returning to his pre-war occupation of a pilot guiding ships through the channels at the mouth of the Mississippi. Throw in icy Virginia Grey as a spoiled heiress out to take Johnny away from his job, his friends and the girl he loves (who knows why), and you have enough plot and action for two Pine-Thomas jewels. Heck of a good deal.

SWAMP FIRE (Paramount, 1946), directed by William H. Pine, marked a rare opportunity for Olympic champion Johnny Weissmuller in a non-Tarzan performance for the very first time on screen (not counting a cameo appearance in the 1943 all-star musical, STAGE DOOR CANTEEN for United Artists). Having acquired the role and loincloth since his introduction as the Jungle Lord in TARZAN THE APE MAN (MGM, 1932), followed by nearly ten sequels thus far, Weissmuller finally got his chance breaking away from the jungle into something completely different, a he-man adventure in the tradition of William H. Pine, producer and director of profitable "B" products since the early 1940s, many starring Richard Arlen. SWAMP FIRE provides Weissmuller a chance to enact fully clothed, either in striped shirt and cap or coast guard uniform. He does get to do Tarzan-like duties such as diving into the river and wrestling an alligator in order to rescue a lady in distress, along with battling with a villain, played by another former Olympic champ, Larry "Buster" Crabbe, who, at one point in Hollywood history, rivaled Weissmuller with an independent production as TARZAN THE FEARLESS (1933).

The story opens with this narrative that gives the general idea of both story and leading character: "Here in the delta country of Louisiana where the Mississippi merges with the gulf, at pilot town 90 river miles below New Orleans, lives a courageous and colorful group of men, the Associated Bar Pilots. Summer and winter, calm and storm, the bar pilots are on duty taking ships across the dangerous bars into the river. There the river pilots take over and guide the craft northward to New Orleans. Always members of the coast guard reserve, the bar pilots enlisted for active duty during the war. Most continued their piloted duties. Others were assigned to combat. Our story is about one of these. Pilot Johnny Duval returns from combat duty in the home on the Delta." Fade in: Johnny Duval (Johnny Weissmuller), a coast guard, is on his way home to Cypress Point after serving in World War II. Not exactly a hero, he is haunted by nightmarish flashbacks and guilt for losing both his men and ship during combat duty. After having his row boat hit by "Higgins," a passing motor boat belonging to Janet Hilton (Virginia Grey), an attractive but quick tempered society girl from the city, Johnny agrees taking her with him so she can acquire a boat to rent. Janet meets with Johnny friends, but makes a bad impression on them with her attitude. Johnny's love for Toni (Carol Thurston) stirs up jealousy towards Mike Kalavich (Larry "Buster" Crabbe - sporting mustache and Russian accent), a trapper who intends on taking her away from Johnny. Before the title of "Swamp Fire" takes its toll, Johnny, who has conquered his fear by performing a heroic duty, is recommissioned as lieutenant in the coast guard, later meeting with another accident that finds him destitute and drowning his sorrows by getting drunk in bars. After being struck by an car and placed in a hospital, he is soon taken in by Janet with every intention of separating him from both his people and fiancé so to have him for herself.

While SWAMP FIRE might have opened up a whole new career for Weissmuller, ranging in similar roles enacted by other jungle heroes as Jon Hall or Buster Crabbe, SWAMP WATER is has some moments of interest in having Weissmuller in more contemporary settings, speaking in complete sentences unlike his Tarzan character, and having kissing scenes with his female co-star (Thurston). Other than that, the story is basically 69 minutes of routine material. Others members of the cast include Edwin Maxwell (Captain Pierre Moise); Pedro DeCordoba (Jim Rousseau); Pierre Watkin (P.T. Hilton); and Marcelle Corday (Grandmere Rousseau).

Rarely seen on television since the mid 1980s, current prints of SWAMP FIRE eliminate its original Paramount logo with either Grand National or Special Pictures for its studio opening, the latter found in the Alpha Video DVD distribution. Although watchable with some exciting scenes, SWAMP WATER it's hardly a memorable event. After the release of SWAMP FIRE, Weissmuller returned to the African jungle in a couple more "Tarzan" adventures before starting out a whole new adventure in another film series, as "Jungle Jim" for Columbia, with one entry co-starring Buster Crabbe.(**1/2)

As the film opens, the narrator explains the swampland behind the credits, and how they must defend against fires. "Johnny" (Weissmuller) has just come back from war, home to the bayou and to "Toni" (Carol Thurston, who was actually 16 years younger than Weissmuller). Distractions for both Johnny and Toni... Virginia Grey is the rude, snooty outsider Janet, who is chasing Johnny, and local boy Mike (Buster Crabbe) has been after Toni the whole film. Another plot point here is that Johnny keeps having war-time flashbacks, and that has been delaying him from getting back into the ship piloting. Things happen quite fast, once they get going... it's only 69 minutes, so there really isn't much time for character development. Everything happens, all at once. and the storyline is kind of all over the map. Antics ensue. It's passable adventure. Directed by William Pine, who had co-founded prolific Pine Thomas studios. Story is ok. Picture quality is pretty bad... it seems to be a copy of a copy. Written by Daniel Mainwaring, who had written TONS of crime stories and adventure novels.