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There was a disaster and Mary Brooks2 is missing somewhere in the jungle. As a result, she and her dear friend Bob Hall have arranged a journey to search for Dr. Brooks. It is important to note that not all members of the safari have noble intentions. First of all, their guide Jeff Herbert, has it on good authority that the emerald mine has been left unattended, which means that it is possible to find the mine or cash in on the local Tarzan folklore for somewhere in the range of 10,000 pounds, or settle for Mary. Jeff’s aide Nick Moran, on the other hand, simply seeks interest in the emeralds. Last but not least, Abdul the Arab interpreter who masquerades as a slaver hopes to abduct Mary to cash in on her with a rich buyer. By the way, that emerald mine? It belongs to the worshipers of Zar, a fanatical Egyptian sect that exterminates every outsider who encounters the mine temple.
The version I saw was the overseas cut that had a run time of 85 minutes. It was cut down from the original 12-chapter-long serial which is now lost. The role of Tarzan is played by the Olympic swimmer and actor Buster Crabbe, who also played in the MGM movies that featured Johnny Weissmuller. The swimming scenes are spectacular and include a battle with a crocodile. In this version of Tarzan, it is the first time that ‘civilized’ white folk encounter Tarzan, and so there is little dialogue with him throughout the film other than him picking up a few words of English near the end.
There is a lot of extra material within the usual serials such as repetition and padding, which has been cut down for the feature film. Keeping those in would have highlighted all of the ‘good bits’, which is false. Making a film like this means that the action has to begin and end at a constant level which puts many constraints on creativity. This does, however, create a type of disorder. For example, Jeff goes from wanting to complete one thing to then wanting to tackle a problem that is most troublesome for the group, or Tarzan attacks one lion or multiple lions for reasons that aren’t explained, and Abdul’s abduction plot is so randomly placed.
Crabbe’s Tarzan is charming, even if it leans too much on the fact that audiences already understand who Tarzan ‘really’ is to provide an account of his antics. Most of the other characters serve as ‘types’ and act the way they do in order for the story to work. Mary is portrayed by Julie Bishop, who, as I’ve mentioned, has appeared in more than eighty other films, and who tries her best to make sense of the material she has been handed. Zar is played by a prop from The Mummy, courtesy of Universal.
This movie is rated suitable for ‘all ages’, however, depending on the maturity of the younger audience, a discussion about the stereotypes of race and ethnicity that are, at best, outdated, may be appropriate.
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