Le Triomphe de Tarzan

If you are familiar with the original Tarzan novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, there's no reason to scoff at the idea of Tarzan taking on the Nazis. This territory was already covered in the seventh novel of the Tarzan series (and one of the best), "Tarzan the Untamed." Set during World War I, this novel starts with German troops destroying Lord Greystoke's home and kidnapping Jane. Tarzan sets out to find the officer responsible, and in the process he finds himself in an actual combat situation, in which he uses his jungle wiles to sabotage the German side.

Interestingly, "Tarzan the Untamed" leads to a climax involving a strange European civilization hidden in a deep valley, rather like the one featured in "Tarzan Triumphs." Although the script for "Tarzan Triumphs" is credited as an original story, it seems clearly inspired by "Tarzan the Untamed."

TARZAN TRIUMPHS (RKO Radio, 1943), directed by Wilheim Thiele, the seventh in the long running jungle series starring Johnny Weissmuller, the first of the Sol Lesser productions distributed by RKO Radio, finds Tarzan assuming new territory and dangerous ground at the RKO sound-stages following six successful "Tarzan" adventures distributed by MGM between 1932 to 1942. The production values no way equaled the status MGM put into its series, however, the format used at RKO virtually follows the same pattern from the previous films, with slight alterations to the "Tarzan" character, such as the use of a new soundtrack for the Tarzan yell, heard twice here, unlike those many have become accustomed to from the earlier episodes. Weissmuller's Tarzan continues to speak in mono syllables ("Boy stay! Tarzan get." or "Tarzan thank," etc.) rather than incomplete sentences. Along with Weissmuller, Johnny Sheffield, who plays Boy, son of Tarzan, along and their pet chimpanzee, Cheetah, each resume their characters with much familiarity as enacted at MGM. Tarzan's mate, Jane, played six times previously by Maureen O'Sullivan, had broken away from the series, thus having her "Jane" character omitted here and in the next entry. For this outing, Frances Gifford substitutes as the heroine called Zandra. Due to Gifford's near physical resemblance to Maureen O'Sullivan makes one wonder why Gifford wasn't considered to play Jane. For now, Tarzan and Boy team up with the support of new characters and Nazi villains worked into the story rather than hunters and native tribes.

The story opens with Boy (Johnny Sheffield) leaving the tree-house and riding his elephant, accompanied by his chimpanzee pet, Cheetah, to meet with Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller), who had earlier gone to the seacoast to obtain a letter written to him by Jane, who's away visiting with relatives in war-torn England. Along the way, the ever curious Boy gets himself in trouble when wanting to take a closer look at the lost city of Palandria located at the bottom of a cliff. Falling off the crevasse, landing on top of a semi loose branch, Zandra (Frances Gifford), the white princess of that lost civilization, comes to his rescue. In helping Boy, the two find themselves trapped on the narrow ledge, that is, until Tarzan arrives in time to save the day. As Tarzan, Boy and Zandra part company, Zandra returns to her civilization where her people welcome some strangers, Nazis who have parachuted down from their airplane. In time, the welcomed guests "repay" their friendly hospitality by turning the peaceful community into slaves while taking possession of their wealth in tin and oil. In the meantime, Lieutenant Scheldon Schmidt (Rex Williams), who had also parachuted from an airplane, injures his leg while holding onto his shortwave radio. Tarzan rescues the German youth from a near drowning. With the help of Boy, they take the injured party to their tree-house for rest and recovery. Because Cheetah has taken and hidden the coil needed to make radio communication to his homeland, Schmidt stirs trouble by chasing after and shooting Cheeta. Sensing danger, Boy's elephant comes to Cheetah's rescue by forcing both Nazi and heavy boulder over a cliff, killing the abductor. Because of the Nazi invasion in her city, Zandra comes to Tarzan for help. Tarzan succeeds in doing away with the Germans by leading them to the river where they are attacked by cannibal fish. While Tarzan feels the Nazi invasion in Palandria does not really concern him, Zandra feels it does, knowing that as long as the Nazis are around, no one is safe. Only after the Nazis invade Tarzan's domain, with its leader, Von Reichart (Stanley Ridges) abducting Boy and holding him prisoner in Nazi headquarters for not revealing the whereabouts of the coil for the radio does Tarzan begin to realize and cry out, "Now, Tarzan make war!!!" (It's been said by Bob Dorian, former host of American Movie Classics, that this scene alone found audiences in movie theaters cheering and applauding).

An average Tarzan adventure by today's standards with a timely message of how an invasion of a territory and war amongst a peaceful people does concern everybody. As with the Tarzan character, who lives a secluded life in his little habitat, with his philosophy, "Nazi leave me alone, Tarzan leave them alone," all that changes when Nazis take over his territory and become a danger to Boy. Against all odds, such as being held prisoner himself, tied up against the pole to await execution by firing squad at dawn does Tarzan manage to become a one man revolution. Tarzan, who fights to survive while the enemy, the Nazis in this case, survive to fight, brings forth his own war for that, as quoted by Tarzan, "In jungle, the strong always win."

The supporting players include Sig Rumann as the Head Nazi; Philip Van Zandt as Captain Bausch; Pedro De Cordoba as Patriarch; and Stanley Brown as Archmet. Frances Gifford, who makes her sole venture in the series, gets some screen time in a stretched out segment filling in for Jane by swimming with Tarzan, and preparing dinner for him and Boy.

As with the entire Tarzan movie series that has spanned decades, TARZAN TRIUMPHS, at 76 minutes, aired frequently on commercial television for many years before shifting over to the American Movie Classics cable channel (1997-2000) and Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: May 14, 2011). Unlike the MGM entries, the six features made at RKO Radio starring Weissmuller from 1943 to 1948, were never distributed onto video cassette but later onto DVD around 2008. Next chapter: TARZAN'S DESERT MYSTERY, where Tarzan and Boy (minus Jane) encounter more Nazis once more but with a few added surprises along the way. (**)

The seventh Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan film and the first from RKO. It's also the first without Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane. The role would eventually be recast but here we are told that Jane is visiting in England, where she keeps Tarzan and Boy (Johnny Sheffield) abreast of world events through a letter. Since this one features a topical WW2 backdrop, it has one of the more artfully crafted scripts of the later Tarzan sequels. Tarzan here is an isolationist and, like America at the outset of the war, he has no interest in meddling in the affairs of outsiders. The outsiders in this case being the people of the jungle city Palandrya who ask for help when Nazis parachute in and take over, as they were wont to do. But when the Nazis kidnap Boy, Tarzan declares "Now Tarzan make war!" and rallies his animal allies to fight the invaders. And boy, do they fight! This is one of the more violent Tarzan entries. Didn't bother me in the slightest watching Tarzan kill Nazis but it will likely scar politically sensitive types.

Weismuller and Sheffield both make the transition from MGM to RKO, where they are given more lines than in the MGM films. Also carrying over from the MGM series is the ever-lovable Cheeta, fun as always and more than a match for the evil Nazis. There has to be a pretty female in the movie, even without Jane. So enter lovely Frances Gifford playing Zandra, the princess of Palandrya who comes to Tarzan looking for help. She has good chemistry with Weissmuller and even gets a swimming scene with him. Sig Ruman, Stanley Ridges, and Philip Van Zandt play some of the baddies.

As for the WW2 elements, how you feel about most American films made during this period will tell you how you'll feel about this. Unfortunately, if you look around IMDb, you'll find a lot of people who seem to really hate movies that were supportive of the Allies. They spit the word 'propaganda' at these films with such contempt it makes you wonder if these people, most of whom claim to be American, would rather the Axis had won. It's pretty gross. Anyway, if you're one of these types you won't like this movie. But chances are, if you're that way, you don't like Tarzan to begin with and believe yourself to be above these movies. I guess you watched them ironically or something, right? Whatever. For the rest of you, this is a fun start to the RKO series. It's solid escapist fare. Not as good as the MGM films but I'm never bored by them. Love that end scene.

After six films starring alongside Johnny Weissmuller as jungle beauty Jane, Maureen O'Sullivan decided to depart the series, leaving the writers of the next Tarzan film not only looking for a way of explaining the lovely actress's sudden absence but also having to ensure that male cinema-goers still had a reason to take their family to see the ape-man's latest adventure.

Their solution: have their script conveniently see Jane visiting friends in London, and introduce a sexy new character in the form of Zandra (Frances Gifford), princess of the hidden city of Palandria, who seeks help from Tarzan after Nazi soldiers enslave her people.

A far cry from the first two pre-Hays code Tarzan films, which were chock full of enjoyably un-PC violence and raunchiness, Tarzan Triumphs is strictly family friendly matinée material, with the added novelty of some delightfully daft WWII propaganda. Director Wilhelm Thiele packs the first half of his film with the usual vine swinging, frolicking in lagoons, stock footage of animals, and scenes of good old Cheetah providing plenty of hilarity, but he eventually delivers some decent action once the bad guys go out of their way to upset Tarzan: when the Nazis kidnap Boy and slap him about a bit, our jungle hero finally announces "Now Tarzan make war!" and it's non-stop Nazi bashing fun thereon in, with even Cheetah and Boy grabbing firearms to get in on the action!

And talking of Cheetah, the cheeky chimp also provides the film's excellent final joke, which sees stupid Nazi radio operators in Berlin mistaking the furry-faced funster for 'Der Fuhrer'. Take that, you silly Nazi nincompoops!

6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.

Two things elevate this Tarzan film above all the other latter Weismuller efforts. One, is the amusing tie-in to WWII flag-waving by pitting Tarzan against the Nazis. The other is Frances Gifford (who had excelled in as the star of the serial "Jungle Girl") as the breathtakingly beautiful Princess Zandra (wearing the first abbreviated costume since Maureen O'Sullivan in "Tarzan And His Mate"). You wonder in the end why Tarzan just didn't throw the absent Jane over and run off with her.