Tarzan et la femme léopard

This was a little strange to view at first because I had never seen a Johnny Weismuller-Tarzan film of the 1940s. I was only familiar with the earlier stuff with Weismuller and Maureen O'Sullivan as "Jane." By the mid '40s when this was made (and others), Brenda Joyce had replace O'Sullivan. A blonde-haired "Jane" looked strange to me. Their son, "Boy," still played by Johnny Sheffield, was another shock of sorts. He now was a teenager with muscles and a changing voice. That didn't look or sound right!

Tarzan himself had become a regular English-speaking person, even though he still lived in the jungle. He came into town and everyone knew him and talked to him as if he was one of them. It was just all too strange.

Meanwhile, "the leopard woman" (Acquanetta) wasn't as mysterious as she was billed nor was she much of an actress, just a pretty face. She didn't have that big a role, anyway.

All in all, not a video worth keeping.

This Tarzan adventure is about a cult of leopard worshipers who are incited by one of their own to kill outsiders who want to civilize jungle inhabitants. An educated doctor plots the killing of neighboring tribes to make it look like the work of killer leopards. The killers attack other tribes and caravans as they travel through the jungle until Tarzan figures out that the killings are done by man instead of the big cats. The film has some good moments but the plot is rather silly and illustrates how this venerable series seemed to be winding down after many years of popularity with audiences. Johnny Weissmuller reprises his role as the fearless jungle man, with Brenda Joyce along as Jane. Johnny Sheffield and Cheta round out the usual cast of characters.

TARZAN AND THE LEOPARD WOMAN is the most entertaining of the Tarzan films Weismuller made for RKO. Things were starting to get dreary at the RKO backlot jungle, and this film gave the series a boost. The story of a murderous cult who worship a leopard god, has the kind of plot found in the Tarzan comics I used to read as a kid. The plot seems to be in part based on a real life leopard worshiping murder cult, somewhat like the murderous Kali cult of 19th century India; this secret all male society terrorized East Africa until it was put down by the British. Acquenta is exotically gorgeous as the cults leader, Queen Lea.

So what if TARZAN AND THE LEOPARD WOMAN is only escapist entertainment. If you highbrow types are looking for art, what are you doing watching a Tarzan movie anyway?

MY favorite of the Johnny Weisemuller Tarzan movies, contains great B-movie over-the-top performances and classic lines.

The Tarzan family's shopping trip to Zambezi is cut short by the arrival of a bloodied,dying man, the only survivor of a caravan apparently attacked by leopards. But the Jungle Man knows something is not quite right. "Man not killed by Leopard" he declares, pointing out that leopards use not just their claws but their teeth to kill. Challenged by skeptics to give an alternative explanation, he responds with the classic line "Something Leopard that isn't Leopard".

That something is this freakish cult of Leopard people,who enjoy dressing up in animal skins, attacking people, and ripping out their hearts to sacrifice to their god. They are led by Lea (Aquanetta) (based loosely on the character of the high priestess "La" in the Tarzan novels) and her lover, Lazar, a proto-environmentalist?- who is obsessed with stamping out civilization - a great "over-the-top performance by Edgar Barrier.("Away with them! Down with them!")

But the character to watch is "Kimba" Lea's brother, deliciously portrayed by Tommy Cook - as a conniving, sadistic little creep, who despises Lazar and harbors a not-so-secret lust for his sister and for Jane, the "lady with golden hair".

Taunted by his friends for his pretentiousness,Kimba boasts "When I come back,I will show you a heart". Kimba ingratiates himself into the Tarzan family, then turns on the unsuspecting Jane and Boy declaring "Now I take back TWO hearts". It stretches credulity when the bumbling Boy temporarily overpowers the clever and calculating Kimba.

Tarzan knows more about the ways of the jungle and its inhabitants than anyone, so of course NO ONE in the movie takes his warnings seriously until another caravan is attacked, and the "Zambezi maidens" (student teachers who have been hired to civilize the natives)are captured, along with the entire Tarzan family, and all are bound and prepared for sacrifice to the leopard god. Following classic adventure movie logic, the leopard folks bind Tarzan to the main support beam of their temple, providing him (with the aid of the ever-helpful Cheetah)not only with the opportunity to escape but to literally bring down the house. In a final moment of dramatic retribution, the dying Kimba finally gets his coveted heart - Lazar's heart.

As a kid, I just loved this movie, and I wish it were available on video or DVD. Does anyone know if it is going to be released?

TARZAN AND THE LEOPARD WOMAN (RKO Radio, 1946), directed by Kurt Neumann, brings forth Tarzan, the jungle lord, in another Saturday afternoon matinée adventure story.

The story opens with Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller), Jane (Brenda Joyce) and Boy (Johnny Sheffield), along with Cheetah, strolling through the village doing some afternoon shopping. Tarzan is seen having fun by wrestling with a strong man named Tall Bull the Terrible (Tor Johnson), while Cheetah watches a snake charmer and nearly getting bitten by one of the snakes. Then comes a wounded man riding on an elephant who soon succumbs from wound scars acquired by a leopard. Tarzan examines the dead man and tells the authorities that the man's death was not caused by a leopard, but by people dressed in leopard skins and iron claws. Aside from solving the mystery, Tarzan and his family find themselves in danger after taking in Kimba, a native boy (Tommy Cook), who not only happens to be the brother of the evil high priestess (Acquanetta) of the leopard tribe, but trouble to all those around him.

The supporting cast includes Edgar Barrier as Lazar; Dennis Hoey as The Commissioner; Anthony Caruso as Mongo; and Doris Lloyd as the Superintendress. Acquanetta, best known for her role as Paula, the Ape Woman in Universal's CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN (1943) and JUNGLE WOMAN (1944), makes a fine tribe leader this time around.

With the Tarzan movies being distributed in theaters on an annual basis, the writers attempt to come up with new and fresh ideas surrounding the old, familiar characters, headed by Weissmuller. Brenda Joyce returns as Jane for the second time, while the teenage Johnny Sheffield, outgrowing his part, appears to be a bit too old now to be called Boy. One scene in the shopping village finds young native girls giving Boy the eye, but Boy becomes bashful and passes up on them. The native tribes from the MGM movie days seem to have moved to another part of town, thus, being substituted by a jungle shopping mall. Another noticeable change finds Tarzan acquiring neighbors with each passing film, this time a Leopard tribe who don't seem to be the sorts to be calling on Tarzan and Jane at their treehouse for a cup of sugar this time around. For the first time since TARZAN'S SECRET TREASURE (MGM, 1941), Boy is able to bond with another lad close to his own age, but with friends like Kimba, who needs enemies? One highlight finds Boy in a fight to the finish with Kimba attempting to endanger Jane with a knife, with Boy subduing Kimba, having his hands tied behind his back and placing the little demon in a cage like a wild animal. As for Tarzan, he's captured by the leopard tribe and held captive by the priestess.

Not bad entry in the long running series, but by this time, the yarns are becoming routine and still quite watchable by fans of the series. Aside from commercial television revivals during the 1960s to 1980s, this and the other Tarzan adventures did enjoy frequent reruns on American Movie Classics (1997-2000) before moving to Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: June 11, 2011). TARZAN AND THE LEOPARD WOMAN has been distributed to video cassette but did become part of the Tarzan/RKO package on DVD around 2009. Next in line: TARZAN AND THE HUNTRESS (1947). (**1/2)