Tarzan sul sentiero di guerra

Tarzan's Peril (1951)

** (out of 4)

Third film in RKO's Lex Barker-Tarzan series has the ape man trying to stop a bunch of gunrunners who are selling weapons to a tribe planning to use them by attacking other tribes. With the jungle at such an unrest, it's up to Tarzan to try and rescue one of the main tribe's leaders (Dorothy Dandridge). Quite a few reviews called this the best of the Barker Tarzan movies and while it's certainly an improvement over the last entry I'd say it still falls a little short of the first one. There's quite a bit of stuff to enjoy here but sadly we're once again treated with a familiar story that just becomes more and more cliché as it goes along. I will admit that I thought the film started off with an interesting idea as Tarzan doesn't appear for the first fifteen-minutes. Instead of the ape man getting all the screen time the film tries to shine the spotlight on the bad guys who are obviously more interesting the more you can hate them. For the most part I thought the villains were quite evil enough but the screenplay never really made them very fun, which was a letdown. The supporting tribes are finally being played by black actors, which is a plus but sadly the screenplay doesn't given them too much to do. Once Tarzan, Jane (Virginia Huston) and Cheetah enter the picture it's pretty much all action from this point. Once again Barker is good in the role and I think it's fair to say that he finally gotten comfortable in it. Huston makes for an interesting Jane as she's certainly got the sex appeal but her chemistry with Barker isn't the greatest. George MacReady, Douglas Fowley and Glenn Anders all do a nice job in their villain roles. Dandridge is the one who easily steals the film though. Her beauty, charm and charisma jump right off the screen but sadly she isn't given too much to do. She certainly makes the most of the part and she makes it more memorable than any other actress would have but at the same time it's pretty sad to see her having to do a film like this. People always want to put THE BIRTH OF A NATION down but that was 1915 and here this film is 1951 and Hollywood still wasn't doing anything for one of the brightest black stars. The other highlight in the film happens when Tarzan must battle a man-eating plant. The scene actually manages a few nice, tense sequences. The lowlight of the film has to be a hilarious scene where Cheetah is about to be attacked by a huge snake but thankfully Tarzan comes to the rescue. What's so funny is the fake snake that they use and just wait until you get a look at its funny face!

If one is interested in the action/adventure component of Tarzan movies, Tarzan's Peril does have something to offer.

While the plot may be simple, this first Tarzan movie ever filmed in Africa does have its moments, mostly revolving around one of the sub-villains, King Bulam, played by noted African-American actor Frederick O'Neal, founder of the American Negro Theater in New York which launched the careers of such notables as Sidney Poitier.

Gun runners have broken out of jail and have come to King Bulam's village to trade guns for jewels. Bulam, who has tangled with Tarzan before, intends to use the guns to make war on the peaceful Ashuba people, led by Queen Melmendi (Dorothy Dandridge).

Tarzan (Lex Barker) is unsuccessful in stopping Bulam and his Yurongan warriors and is even thrown over a waterfall and presumably drowned. King Bulam conquers the village and, after being rejected by Melmendi, he withdraws and his warriors get drunk. Tarzan returns and organizes an uprising after having freed the Ashuban men.

When Bulam arrives to check on the situation, Tarzan gives his famous yell and the Yurongans are caught off guard. Bulam sees that Tarzan is very much alive and flees in confusion and fear.

Tarzan catches up with the husky, proud, ambitious, and greedy African war chief and a knife fight, one against one, ensues. While a much trimmer stunt double is sometimes visible, this is still an exciting screen fight. Bulam manages to knock Tarzan's head against a tree trunk and then pulls out a rather hefty, oversize knife that we have seen dangling at his waist for much of the film. The knife is almost in Tarzan's neck when Tarzan grabs Bulam's wrist and causes Bulam to fling the knife away. It lands in some ferns, blade side up. Using his legs as scissors, Tarzan manages to spin Bulam away, and the chief rolls over several times.

Here is the part I savor. Bulam rolls over onto the clump of ferns where his knife is projecting skyward. As his ample belly passes over the knife, it is shoved into his body. The wicked, adventurous, risk-taking war chief is stunned; he has been stabbed with his own knife! Bulam makes several attempts to rise and continue the fight and Tarzan even draws his own knife, not certain as to whether Bulam is really done for. But, as his head lolls for the last time, with the knife partially obscured by all the vegetation the king has rolled into, it is certain that Bulam has been vanquished.

The next scene shows the warriors being herded into a corral and Tarzan is begged to stay for a celebration but he must go after the gun runners who are even now having a falling out of their own and, eventually, endangering Jane.

Strangely the RKO's producers provide a new Jane in an each Lex Barker's Tarzan, I really want to know such discrepancy, Virginia Huston is redhead, thus unable for the role, due all previous were black hair, but speaking the truth who cares anyway, she is sexy, the summarized plot is about a smugglers who intent selling fire guns to an ambitious native's King, the strong presence of George Macready spoke for himself, he fits prefect as evil man, the nearest Ashuba tribe's Queen played by the gorgeous Dorothy Dandridge is another high point, the King Bulam wants marry Queen Melmendi to rules the whole territory, shot in Africa many sequences blended later with the soundstage studio is easily noticed and improve the production, a slight accent of humor from the usual Cheetah, fine Sunday matinee!!!

Resume:

First watch: 1978 / How many: 4 / Source: TV-VHS-DVD / Rating: 6.5

Lord of the jungle Lex Barker (as Tarzan) battles gunrunner George Macready (as Radijeck) and assorted cohorts. This film seems a little foreign when compared to recent entries in the series. First, more of it was shot in Africa than had become the norm. Additionally, shapely Virginia Huston (as Jane) appears with a much shorter haircut than usual for the character, and her clothing has become a form-flattering white dress. Unfortunately ineligible as Tarzan's mate, the beautifully mixed Dorothy Dandridge plays an African queen. To prevent "Tarzan's Peril" from becoming too serious in tone, a certain chimpanzee gets the last laugh when swallowing a watch gives "Cheeta" musical indigestion.

**** Tarzan's Peril (3/13/51) Byron Haskin ~ Lex Barker, Virginia Huston, George Macready, Dorothy Dandridge

After MGM finished its Tarzan series, RKO picked up the series and hunky Lex Barker took over as the heroic ape-man. Surprisingly, RKO even bothered to take the project to Africa itself...something the fancier and richer MGM failed to do with the series. As for the results, they are pretty much what you'd expect...no more, no less.

In this third RKO installment, a super-evil gun runner named Radijeck (George Macready) has escaped custody and is back to his old gunrunning ways. He wants to destabilize the region by selling guns to the natives and his getting rich is his only real concern. As for his partners and any one else, they are expendable and Radijeck is a truly soul-less jerk. Can Tarzan manage to bring him to justice?

Barker was just fine as Tarzan, though I though Jane (Virginia Huston) lacked, well, a lot. She looked as if she just arrived from the beauty shop and lacked the humor and sex appeal of Maureen O'Suillivan, MGM's Jane. As for Macready and the other folks (such as Alan Napier), they were all good. What really stood out for me when I watched is that the animals actually WERE African animals. Most prior Tarzan pics featured animals from all over the globe...such as Asian elephants and American Alligators! All in all, a reasonably well made and satisfying film...but nothing more.