Tarzan le magnifique

Although more a western than a typical Tarzan movie, this film has a good plot and is more violent than others. Gordon Scott plays a too stolid, clean and modern Tarzan fighting against a more rude and violent than usual heavy family (father John Carradine and his four sons). John Carradine and Jock Mahoney steal the show as the two main villains. As a mere curiosity, although in this Tarzan movie did not appear the famous Tarzan yell for the first time, in Spanish dubbed version it did! Also, in Spanish dubbed version, to avoid infidelity, censors decided to convert mr. and mrs. Dexter into father and daughter, leading to a rather peculiar situation. They did also changed black chief's wife illness from pregnancy to appendicitis, giving as post surgical result...a baby. There are nice shots of Africa (filmed on location) and a final good fight in the falls. All and all a nice and entertainment movie.

The last couple of movie such as "Tarzan's Greatest Adventure" and "Tarzan the magnificent" were the best Tarzan's pictures of all time, Gordon Scott surpassed all previous Tarzan and after to coming, he has a smart talking, more strong and has suitable skills from previous ones here including Weissmuller who had a dumb conversation, the great Sy Weintraub wisely put together a perfect ape man and delivery all this on a clever screenplay through the jungle, swamps, quicksands with a diversfied kind of persons, to deliver a cold killer with father's gang at his neck, finest casting as Jock Mahoney, Betta St John and John Carradine, fantastic adventure which l'd watched in the theatre with nine years old, just unforgetable!!

Resume:

First watch: 1973 / How many ; 6 / Source: Theatre-TV-DVD / Rating: 9

For a Tarzan movie, this is about as good as you're going to get. Gordon Scott does an excellent job in this film, as he did in the previous "Tarzan's Greatest Adventure". Unlike previous Tarzan actors, Scott's version of the Ape Man speaks good English and is quite intelligent. The story in "Tarzan the Magnificent" is well-written and mature. Again, for this type of genre, "Tarzan the Magnficicent" and "Tarzan's Greatest Adventure" are as good as you're going to get.

After seeing "Tarzan's Greatest Adventure" in 1959 I thought Gordon Scott had made the best Tarzan film ever.....one year later "Tarzan the Magnificent" comes along and it is nearly as good, just a tad not as good as TGA.....Scott, a bulging musclemen and very handsome makes a great Tarzan, and the old cornshuck scripts and groans were taken out of his vocabulary again and he is a thinking, intelligent ape man hell bent on righting the wrongs of the notorious Banton gang....as in "Tarzan's Greatest Adventure" Scott is after a gang of cuthroats and killers again and wont settle the score until they are all captured or killed. Producer Sy Weintraub assembled another top notch cast of veterans like Jock Mahoney and John Carradine as superb villains and some other newcomers too......a couple of nice looking women are again in the mix ala TGA.......This time instead of doing the chasing of villains as he did in TGA, Tarzan is chased and followed by the murderous Banton gang, hell bent on getting back their brother (played by Jock Mahoney) who has been captured by Tarzan and has Tarzan wanting to give him to the authorities in a settlement a few miles away. Problem is Tarzan must escort a group of mixed up civilians who do not know the ways and treacheries of the jungle terrain. Tarzan is constantly trying to stay ahead of the Banton gang and yet is slowed to a crawl by his civilian misfits. Then Mahoney creates ultimate friction by wooing and stealing one of the group's wife.....Tarzan has his hands full at this point!! In the end Scott must fight the remainder of the Banton gang and wipe them all out ala TGA.....in the end he delivers Mahoney to the proper authorities and Scott returns to his jungle realm. All in all this is another great Weintraub production of an intelligent Tarzan and Scott rises to the role in superb fashion. He is definitely the best Tarzan ever in my opinion. Very sadly this was Scott's last Tarzan film and the thing that has perplexed me is why Weintraub after the amazing success of TGA and T the Magnificent did not want Scott to make more of these great Tarzan movies. Very sadly a skinny, underweight Jock Mahoney became the next Tarzan and he is no Scott......nowhere near as handsome either. Scott at this point joined his good friend Steve Reeves and made a slew of the very popular sword and sandal Hercules type films in Italy during most of the 60s......Scott finished up his film career with a good Italian western "The Tramplers" made in 1966.....

Other reviewers have ably discussed where this movie fits in within the corpus of Tarzan movies and have pinpointed the epic fistfight battle of Jock Mahoney and Gordon Scott.

Before Scott's Tarzan character tangled with Mahoney as Coy Banton, however, there is a scene where the youngest of the Banton family attempts to take on Tarzan and defeat him.

The Banton family is a bunch of robbers and killers and, as they follow Tarzan who is conducting Coy Banton to the authorities, accompanied by the survivors of a steamboat accident, there are opportunities to attack this group and rescue Coy.

Johnny, supposedly in his early twenties, played by then newcomer Gary Cockrell, whose career seemingly fizzled out in the 1970s, is making a daring attempt to go after this group without the support of his father or older brother and perhaps molest one of the women.

Johnny comes across one of the women and chases her to a pool or stream some distance from the village where they have stopped. Johnny proceeds to grope and attack her, when Tarzan shows up as a result of her screams.

At first, Johnny goes for his rifle and the two tussle. The rifle is thrown away and Johnny, his shirt now in shreds, is pushed on to the ground. He stands and goes for his knife. His muscular, lean, sinewy chest is revealed and he seems a plausible opponent for Tarzan at the moment. But the knife fight does not last for long. Johnny wants his rifle, thinking only that will save him. When he at last spots and holds it, the fight is maneuvered into the nearby water and the rifle's barrel is now pointing under Johnny's chin. The rifle goes off in the scuffle and Johnny is killed. He falls back, the shreds of his shirt parted on each side so that his chest is fully revealed as he floats upon the water.

Tarzan smashes the rifle, for he knows that Johnny's death will invite more trouble from the rest of the Banton gang. Johnny's youthful, daring gamble has failed. The youngest of the Bantons is now dead.