La rivincita di Tarzan

The Reeds, a family of American zoo owners arrive in Africa in order to collect animals for their zoo. Patriarch Roger Reed is relishing the adventure while his wife is constantly having sneezing fits. Their daughter Eleanor is being targeted by an evil sheik who wants to add her to his collection of wives. He bribes their safari guide Olaf to lead them to a trap where he will kidnap her. But he hasn't reckoned on Tarzan, who is keeping an eye on the Reeds & is in love with her, causing complications between him & Eleanor's trigger-happy fiancée Nevin Potter, who is intent on killing as many animals as he can.

After MGM had made their three Tarzan adaptations, Twentieth Century Fox decided to give Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs a better deal & got the rights in return. But they couldn't get Johnny Weissmuller, the actor who played Tarzan in the MGM films & who was a former Olympic swimming champ, so they recruited 1936 decathlon champ Glenn Morris for the lead role. They also cast another swimming champ, Eleanor Holm, for the love interest.

The film is a rather goofy but passably entertaining Tarzan flick with some humour directed at the inept safari & some reasonable fight scenes & Tarzan grappling with lions & natives. Of course, some of the elements in the script have dated badly but Tarzan's Revenge is not too bad & does a fair job of giving some jungle escapism. Glenn Morris could manage the physical requirements of the role (he looked pretty good swinging on the vines in some scenes & is a good swimmer) but the public preferred Weissmuller so Morris' involvement in the franchise ended after this, his only turn as Tarzan. The other actors acquit themselves fairly although C. Henry Gordon's evil sheik is strictly one-dimensional & cardboard in nature.

If you grew up with Johnnie, Lex, Gordon and Jock Tarzans, then you really owe it to yourself to see this one. You would be crazy to miss it; however, you would have to be even crazier to watch it a second time. It is really bad! I rated it a "5" on a nostalgic sympathy vote, which in one higher than the largest group of voters gave it. Seeing a different Tarzan makes the viewing worthwhile, but personally I am glad he never reprised the roll. Eleanor Holm was cute in the main female role, but my favorite was catching Wild Bill Elliott in a bit part as a ship's captain. He definitely paid his dues before starring later as a western hero. You'll recognize his voice before his face. Most of the movie is used showing one character or another going through the jungle (a studio backlot) with cuts to shots of various wild animals. Basically, thirty minutes of story and forty minutes of filler.

See it once.

Here Tarzan dispatches hunters who are illegally trapping wildlife for menageries. Along the way , Tarzan manages to free all the captured animals as tigers, leopards , Lioness and their cubs . Meanwhile, he saves the damsel in distress , Eleanor Holm, when is kidnapped by an avaricious Arab, Ben Bey, to add his Harem who has already a lot of women, approx 100 . The latest and greatest of Edgar Rice Burrough famous adventures!. Tarzan calls again and new thrills sweep the jungle wilds!. Spectacularly produced! The Tarzan-thrill of all time!

Tarzan's Revenge is an adventure movie with action, thrills , animal attacks , angry natives , and mean trappers , but dubiously faithfful to Edgar Rice Borroughs . Being mostly shot on Twentieth Century Fox backlots, adding a lot of stock footage of jungle and wild animal. Glenn Morris is a better Olimpic runner than actor in this routine Tarzan movie. Glenn Morris was the fourth Olympic athlete to play Tarzan. He was the 1936 decathlon champion and won the Sullivan Award, outstanding amateur athlete of the year over the more famous Olympian Jesse Owens. Winning the Gold Medal at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, Germania, the so-called "Nazi Olympics" and the same Olympics where Jesse Owens upstaged Adolph Hitler. Subsequently, he played this movie hired by the independient producer Sol Lesser but the reviews were so throughly bad that Glenn never made another film. And co-star Eleanor Holm is frankly horrible . As secondary actress appears Hedda Hopper, known as Queen of the Quickies, starring hundreds of support roles and later on, she started a gossipy radio show, shortly after commenced a 30-year stint as a newspaper gossip columnist, rival of Louella Parsons. And, of course, the sympathetic chimpanzee Cheeta, who here steals the show while doing antics, mayhem and frolics. This is only for serious Tarzan fans. The picture was regularly directed by David Ross Letterman.

The film was produced by Sol Lesser in medium budget . Lesser to continue producing a lot of Tarzan movies . As he financed the last movies starred by Johnny Weissmuller, such as : Triumph of Tarzan, Tarzan's desert mystery, Tarzan and the Amazons, Tarzan and the Leopard Woman, Tarzan and the huntress, Tarzan and the mermaids . As well as those performed by Lex Barker, such as : Tarzan's magic fountain, Tarzan and the slave girl, Tarzan's peril, Tarzan and the She-devil , Tarzan's savage fury . And the subsequent Tarzan : Gordon Scott , who starred : Tarzan fights for life by Bruce Humberstone , Tarzan's greatest adventure by John Guillermin, Tarzan and the Last Safari, Tarzan the Magnificent by John Guillermin and Tarzan and the trappers by Charles Haas and Sidney Howard .

When Johnny Weissmuller already paved a solid career in three successful MGM's Tarzan with a huge box-office, then came up 20th Century Fox's Tarzan introducing another Olympic winner athlete to performer Tarzan aiming for share this profitable niche market, however due the poor production and onward lowest box office, Fox's Tarzan and Glenn Morris's career was buried for good in face he didn't enough skill to play another roles.

Now scrutinizing the low profile offering it turns out dealing with routine Tarzan's picture, over an expedition of wealthy American family on rain forest at black continent, something alike a touring, taking photographs, exploring news spots and just capturing some small animals, among them just a male hunter that is fiancé of the skinny eye-candy Eleanor Reed (Eleanor Holm) who approaches Tarzan when was in jeopardy as quicksand and on river swimming track down by a menacing crocodile, soon as intended arouse a mutual affect among them.

Meanwhile a local a womanizer Sultan bribes the dubious safari guide Olaf Punch (Joe Sawer) often with a nervous tic at your face, pushing the expedition entering at his territory where he intends to catch the pretty Eleanor to fill up his crowed harem, actually a fortress inside the dense jungle, forcing Tarzan to make a heroic act to save her, the "Jane" in question was miles away to match Maureen O'Sullivan whatever benchmarking, actually Eleanor delivered a pale Jane's performance, It never come out at Brazil in any format, I have found at Youtube a restored colorized print, for historical Tarzan background worthwhile a look as die-hard Tarzan's enthusiast like me.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 2014 / How many: 2 / Source: DVD-R - Youtube / Rating: 5.5.

Glenn Morris played Tarzan much as author Burroughs' wrote him: He was not a talker -- till later -- and when he met Jane, he said only, pointing to himself, "Tarzan." Then he pointed to Jane and said, simply, "Jane."

No "me" or "you."

In the books, he later became quite articulate, but only after being out in what we sometimes laughingly call "civilization."

In this rather languorous version -- at least three of which can be found at YouTube -- Glenn Morris' Tarzan does not meet "Jane," but he does meet "Eleanor," played by the lovely swimming champ Eleanor Holm.

The writers found a plausible excuse to get her into swim wear only a few times, but that included during the chase scene when the bad guys inevitably captured her.

Miss Holm made a few movies and Morris, sad to say, didn't. I think he should have: He was a great-looking and very athletic man, capable enough in this role and, with training perhaps, he could have played heroic roles into the future.

Other players here, even the atmosphere and bit people, seemed just perfect for what was needed and this Tarzan -- though unique and not part of any series -- is pleasant entertainment.

Yes, it's filled with stock footage, and there is very little violence, but that should not be considered a negative.

If only to watch Eleanor Holm, I'd watch "Tarzan's Revenge" -- a generic title, by the way, and not relating to the story -- again and I recommend it.