Tarzan na Terra Selvagem

RKO no doubt felt the acclaim that King Solomon's Mines and The African Queen received from the movie-going public and decided to splurge for some real African location shooting for Tarzan's Peril. As we learn here from IMDb, Tarzan's Peril was also supposed to be in color, but that footage was scrapped. But it was nice for once to see actual Africans and black American actors playing speaking roles. From the last of the Weissmuller films through the first two Barker Tarzans, the jungle hero was constantly discovering these lost white tribes in Africa and it was getting ridiculous.

Sad to say though the story was borrowed from any number of westerns and transferred to Africa. White men George MacReady, Douglas Fowley, and Glenn Anders are selling guns to the natives. The tribe under Queen Dorothy Dandridge refuses, but the tribe under King Frederick O'Neal doesn't and the latter subjugates the former until Tarzan straightens things out.

MacReady even in far worse pictures than Tarzan's Peril brings his own brand of serpentine villainy for us to savor. His character and Lex Barker have some history so a chance to even things up with Tarzan is too good to pass up. MacReady though is bad news for both Fowley and Anders as well.

Seeing Dorothy Dandridge is also a treat, she is one regal beauty as the queen of her tribe. Dandridge was two years away from her Oscar nominated Carmen Jones, the high point of her sad career.

Tarzan's Perils was definitely better than the first two Lex Barker Tarzans, but a pedestrian western plot bogs this film down.

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

TARZAN'S PERIL (RKO Radio, 1951) directed by Byron Haskin, the third of five installments starring Lex Barker as Edgar Rice Burrough's most celebrated jungle hero, is, by far, the most prestigious project to date. An improvement over the previous two entries, thanks to some authentic location filming in Africa where much of the Tarzan stories takes place, and the casting of George Macready as the most sinister villain thus far, ranking this possibly the best in the Barker series. Aside from location sequences mixed with the studio jungle sets, TARZAN'S PERIL was reportedly intended to become the first in the series to be lensed in color, something that never happened, at least for now anyway.

Rather than the traditional opening focusing on Tarzan, Jane and/ or Cheta's daily activities, which turns up 16 plus minutes into the story, TARZAN'S PERIL opens with a native celebration in British East Africa as Melmendi (Dorothy Dandridge) is made queen of the Ashuba tribe. Commissioner Peters (Alan Napier), about to retire after thirty years of service, witnesses the event with his soon-to-be replacement, Connors (Edward Ashley). King Bulam (Frederick O'Neal), a brutal chief of the Yorango tribe, comes to propose marriage to Melmendi, but is refused. Later, the pounding of drums brings forth a message that Radijack (George Macready), a ruthless slaver and gunrunner, has escaped prison and somewhere in the jungle. Assisted by Doctor Herbert Trask (Douglas Fowley) and Andrews (Glenn Anders) as his henchmen, Radijack intends on bringing in a load of illegal rifles to the natives. As Peters and Connors approach Trask to inspect their hidden items, Radijack makes his surprise attack by shooting them. During their journey climbing a cliff, Radijack arranges for Andrews to meet with an accident that handicaps him with a broken leg. Being left there to die, Andrews crawls through dangerous territory before grabbing gold onto a log and floating down the river. While canoing with Jane (Virginia Huston), Tarzan (Lex Barker) foresees danger and rescues Andrews from a crocodile attack. Taking the injured hunter to a doctor, Tarzan, having learned from Andrews of the killing of his friend, Peters, and Radijack's evil intentions, Tarzan swings into action to stop Radijack from supplying the Yorango tribe with guns to attack the peaceful Ashuba tribe. By doing so, Tarzan faces some perils of his own almost in the manner of a weekly chaptered serial.

Making every attempt on bettering this long running series to a point of recalling some highly entertaining adventure made famous by Johnny Weissmuller during his days at MGM, the strength to TARZAN'S PERIL rests on well developed screenplay by Samuel Newman and Francis Swann with enough action to hold one's interest. Although routinely made, much of it is presented in the manner with some originality. George Macready, as mentioned earlier, gives a standout performance as the villain. Aside from putting other characters to permanent rest, his intention on doing the same to Tarzan finds the jungle hero subdued by his native followers, only to somewhat finish him off by having him thrown into water rapids to plunge down from a high waterfall. Other dangers faced by Tarzan is one where he's entrapped inside spider-like arms of man-eating plants, a similar situation earlier used in Weissmuller's TARZAN'S DESERT MYSTERY (1943), plus his encounter with a giant poisonous snake that nearly takes Cheta. There's also interesting casting of Dorothy Dandridge as the African tribal queen, shortly before achieving immortality for her leading roles as her Academy Award nomination in CARMEN JONES (20th Century-Fox, 1954), and PORGY AND BESS (Samuel Goldwyn, 1959) opposite Sidney Poitier. As with her screen career, Dandridge's role comes short yet essential to the plot.

The weakness to TARZAN'S PERIL once again falls upon the Jane character, this time enacted by the blondish but average acting Virginia Huston. Aside from her short 1950s style haircut and noticeable facial makeup in the Virginia Mayo mode, her Jane character isn't dressed in traditional jungle dress tog but white animal skins resembling that of an Esther Williams bathing suit. Unlike previous efforts where Jane takes part in Tarzan's adventures, this time Tarzan says, "Jane, go home," leaving Tarzan to fulfill his mission alone with Cheta, his chimpanzee, along for the ride. Jane, being off screen for a long stretch, does reappear, doing housework in her tree house before being face to face with a deadly visitor.

While no masterpiece, TARZAN'S PERIL comes close to becoming 79 minutes of non-stop action, making whatever weaknesses that take place to be overlooked or forgiven. Never distributed to video cassette, TARZAN'S PERIL, formerly broadcast on American Movie Classics prior to 2000, and finally Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: July 16, 2011), has become available on DVD through Turner Home Entertainment. With more "Tarzan" adventures in the horizon, and the slow faze out of Jane before the end of the decade, the next installment in the series is TARZAN'S SAVAGE FURY (1952). (*** drums).

Melmendi (Dorothy Dandridge) is the peaceful Queen of the Ashuba, loyal to retiring Commissioner Peters. He's showing his replacement Conners around. They meet up with Tarzan and Chita. Later, they encounter a smuggling operation and gunrunner Radijeck kills them. Radijeck supplies guns to King Bulam of the Yorango tribe and suggests attacking the Ashubs tribe.

Tarzan has been domesticated and is more white bread than ever. The light-skinned Dandridge is somehow an African queen but she could never be Jane. It does have some location shots of wildlife and a stuntman swinging in the trees which is worth something. There seems to be quite a bit of African locations. Mostly, it's Tarzan in the California backlot. The giant snake is very fake. It's an old Hollywood Tarzan which has been tamed. Lex Barker is a blonde-haired muscle-bounded model type who has a middle America personality. It's surprisingly watchable with a dash of camp.

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