Tarzan et la Diablesse

TARZAN AND THE SHE-DEVIL (RKO Radio, 1953), directed by Kurt Neumann, stars Lex Barker making his fifth and final screen appearance as Edgar Rice Burrough's lord of the jungle. As the writers of the series attempt new ideas with their screenplays, and gearing to another direction from its previous efforts, for the first time since TARZAN ESCAPES (MGM, 1936) starring Johnny Weissmuller, does the fearless Tarzan allow himself to become the victim, losing his savage fight to overpower the villains, who, in this production, are strong enough to gather more attention than to the main characters. While the title reads like a horror movie, giving indication of Tarzan matches wits with Dracula's daughter, the woman in question is a princess compared to the male hunters she supervises, particularly one enacted by Raymond Burr only a few years before changing his frequent bad guy image to prosecuting attorney in TVs long running series, "Perry Mason" (1957-1966).

The story begins with routine everyday life as Tarzan (Lex Barker), his companion, Jane (Joyce McKenzie), and pet Cheta, find peace and tranquility in their jungle habitat until ivory poachers, Lyra (Monique Van Vooren), Fidel (Tom Conway), Vargo (Raymond Burr), Maka (Robert Bice), and others enter the scene. They want Tarzan to round up a large heard of elephants for them. Naturally, Tarzan refuses, so Lyra, leader of the expedition, attempts to persuade the lawman of the jungle by having Jane kidnapped. As the hunters carry out her plan, a struggle ensues, starting off a fire that burns down the tree-house. As Jane makes her escape, she is injured, left in a semi-conscious state, roaming about the jungle to face the dangers of the wild, including a crocodile and deadly snake before she is taken in and cared for by a native tribe. As for Tarzan, he returns to find his home burned and Jane gone. Believing Jane has perished in the fire, he becomes despaired. Not caring what happens now, he allows himself to be captured by Lyra's men, chained like a slave, held prisoner in a cottage, submitted to whippings (with limited scars of his torso), and when all else fails, extreme measures are used by having his arms tied above his head onto a wooden-like door frame structure. The angry Vargo tells Tarzan that if he doesn't do what they want, he'll hang there "until he rots." At this point the nearly unconscious Tarzan continues to be the prisoner, making no attempt whatsoever to save himself.

The problem with the Lex Barker's "Tarzan" series is the lack of consistency from one film to another. After succeeding Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan, Barker never played opposite the same Jane twice. He inherited Brenda Joyce in his initial role in TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN (1949), followed by Vanessa Brown, Virginia Huston, Dorothy Hart and finally Joyce McKenzie. Second problem is having the much younger Barker, who looks very educated, to not be more articulate. In fact, in his last as Tarzan, he has fewer lines than ever before. Those familiar with the Barker/Tarzan series might ask themselves, "whatever became of their adopted son, Joey?" introduced by Tommy Carlton in TARZAN'S SAVAGE FURY (1952). Characters simply come and go, and while Cheta remains, Tarzan and Jane are once more childless. A few years later, Tarzan would go it alone, with Jane written out of the stories, forever absent with no explanation.

While the proposed title, TARZAN MEETS THE VAMPIRE, is a misnomer, TARZAN AND THE SHE-DEVIL is even more misleading. As for the scenario, which finds Tarzan enslaved, it's at times unpleasant, especially witnessing an action hero who never loses to become weakened while submitted to torture. At any rate, TARZAN AND THE SHE-DEVIL which runs at 76 minutes, does have its moments of interest, but not enough for excitement purposes. It may not the best nor the worst in the series, but its action relies mostly on suspense, whether or not Tarzan will be able to regain his strength, free himself from his captivity and do what's traditionally expected of him other than his ape calls.

TARZAN AND THE SHE-DEVIL, which has never been distributed on video cassette or DVD, did become one of a whole series of Tarzan adventures from 1934 to 1968 to be presented on American Movie Classics cable channel (1997-2001). In spite of the weakness in the scenario, which might have been the reason for Lex Barker to surrender his loincloth, Tarzan, like Ian Fleming's James Bond, due to its popularity, would continue to hit the theater screens for many years to come, performed each decade by different actors. Next chapter: TARZAN HIDDEN JUNGLE (RKO, 1955) starring Gordon Scott. (**1/2)

Tarzan and the She-Devil (1953)

** (out of 4)

Lex Barker's fifth and final time playing Tarzan is a rather strange one. In the film, ivory poachers (Monique Van Vooren, Raymond Burr) are wanting Tarzan to help him but when he refuses they try a different method. Poor Tarzan thinks that Jane (Joyce McKenzie) has been burned to death so in his depressed state he doesn't fight off the poachers when they capture him. They plan on forcing him to help but what Tarzan doesn't know is that Jane's still alive. TARZAN AND THE SHE-DEVIL has been called the very worse Tarzan from a major studio outside the Bo Derek version but I think that's a tad bit harsh. There's no question that it appears Barker was bored with the material and there's no question that we get one stupid scene after another but at the same time there are still a few decent elements here. I think the best thing going for the film is the performance by Raymond Burr. Everyone will always remember him for playing Perry Mason but he was a terrific villain and if you're unfamiliar with his bad guy roles you'd be doing yourself a favor by checking them out. He does a terrific job here playing the cool, laid back jerk who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Burr just has a certain snake-like quality about him and you can't help but see he's having a ball being as bad as he can. Van Vooren is also quite good as the leader of the poachers who isn't afraid to use a wink to get her way. McKenzie, the fifth person to play Jane in this five film series, isn't all that memorable but then again her screen time is very limited. Barker turns in his worse performance as the ape man as you can tell he's bored out of his mind and it's easy to see he's not too interested in anything that's going on. The story itself is a rather weak one and the ivory poachers thing had been done before and put to much better use. When it's all said and done, this is perhaps the worst of the Barker films but the supporting characters keep the film going. Without then I might have agreed that it's one of the worst films out there but the villains are good enough to where "B" movie fans might want to check this out (after they view the classic MGM Tarzan films of course).

Tarzan looks like a real hero of the '90's here, not only stopping illegal ivory poaching but upholding human rights by foiling some latter-day slave trading. This time it's one of those curiously light-skinned tribes that inhabit Central Africa in some of his movies.

The film's title is something of a misnomer. The nominal she-devil here is Monique van Vooren, who sponsors the poachers, but she's a pussycat compared to Raymond Burr, full into his "heavy" role. This was the last time around as Tarzan for Lex Barker, no reason to shed any tears, though admittedly the character isn't one you can do a whole lot with. Joyce Mackenzie was the fourth actress in a row to give a single performance as Jane, and she does an OK job. There are some nice scenes of domestic bliss with the happy couple in this movie. All in all this is just another Tarzan flick, not so great, a little better than most. But you always knew what you were getting with these movies.

For the fifth and final Tarzan film starring Lex Barker it was not only back to the RKO back lot, but back to the old days when the natives that Tarzan was helping were not even black. In fact Tarzan spends most of the time in chains because he's broken hearted because he thinks the villains have killed Jane.

Jane is played here by Joyce McKenzie and the trio of villains are Tom Conway, Raymond Burr, and Monique Van Vooren, the last being the she-devil in the title. No black magic does she use, simply some feminine wiles and an appeal to Tarzan that since Jane is dead, he can best help by making sure that her two male conspirators don't go too hard on the natives they've enslaved, especially Raymond Burr who is on a power kick.

The trio is after ivory and they've captured a whole tribe of to do their heavy work as ivory hunting legal or not requires a lot of help.

But as we know from many a Tarzan film in the past, the elephants are among his best jungle friends and they help out a lot in rescuing Jane and the natives and Tarzan later in typical elephant fashion. Of course the elephants are also acting on their own rational self interest since they have no desire to wind up piano keys.

RKO did the first film with Gordon Scott as Tarzan and then bid adieu to the Tarzan franchise. With Scott the series began to get a bit more realistic in the plots and also reflected the new Africa emerging in the Sixties. Tarzan And The She-Devil is a piece of high camp, but that's about the only way it can be enjoyed.

Director Kurt Neumann directed the horror classic "The Fly" but the dull Tarzan material here is nowhere as good as that classic. Despite a rather provocative title, this film doesn't have any She-Devils who look the Tura Satana or anything close. Instead, all you get is a lot fo stock footage of animals, jungles, and a boring story about ivory hunters needing to be stopped by Tarzan. One of the ivory hunters is played by George Sanders' sound-alike brother Tom Conway, so that's a bit fun. Its' also funny because Conway earlier played a great white hunter who tricks Tarzan into helping him find hidden gold. You'd think Tarzan would have learned his lesson the first time! Raymond Burr plays the main baddie, so that's a good thing, but there's not much besides Burr and Conway to recommend about this one. Probably a low point all the Tarzan pictures, which was also the last time Lex Barker played the role.