Tarzan Triumphs

Tarzan Triumphs

1943

Tarzan Triumphs

  • Tarzan: Johnny Weissmuller
  • Zandra: Frances Gifford
  • Boy: Johnny Sheffield
  • Director: Wilhelm Thiele
  • Producer: Sol Lesser
  • Release Date: February 19, 1943
  • Run Time: 76 min
  • Language: English
  • Information: Maureen O’Sullivan was unable to reprise her role as Jane due to pregnancy.[1] Instead, Frances Gifford played the princess of the lost city of Palandrya, which is conquered by Germans.

Plot

Tarzan and Boy are living on the Great Escarpment, though Jane has returned to England. A small force of German paratroopers lands and takes over the lost city of “Palandrya” as an advance base for the conquest of Sub Saharan Africa. Tarzan continually ignores the requests for help from the helpless and enslaved Palandrians, saying, “Jungle people fight to live, civilized people live to fight”.

Only when Boy is kidnapped by the Germans does Tarzan shout, “Now Tarzan make war!” Tarzan infiltrates the lost city, destroying a machine gun and defeating the German invaders with his knife and an elephant blitzkrieg. The film’s final scene has Cheeta speaking into the defeated Germans’ short wave radio to call Berlin; the Germans mistake Cheeta for Adolf Hitler.

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Tarzan’s New York Adventure

Tarzan's New York Adventure

1942

Tarzan’s New York Adventure

  • Tarzan: Johnny Weissmuller
  • Jane: Maureen O’Sullivan
  • Boy: Johnny Sheffield
  • Circus routabout: Elmo Lincoln
  • Buck Rand (Circus Owner): Charles Bickford
  • Director: Richard Thorpe
  • Producer: Frederick Stephani
  • Release Date: May 1942
  • Run Time: 71 min
  • Language: English
  • Information: Tarzan’s New York Adventure is a 1942 film, the sixth Tarzan film to feature actors Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan. Of interest is the uncredited appearance as a circus roustabout by Elmo Lincoln who in 1918 was the first actor to star as Tarzan.

Plot

Circus workers land an airplane in the jungles of Africa in search of lions for their show. While trapping lions, the three men meet up with Tarzan, Jane and their adopted son Boy. Watching Boy’s tricks with the elephants, the head of the circus, Buck Rand (played by Charles Bickford), realizes that Boy would be a great act for the circus. The group is attacked by natives, and it appears that Tarzan and Jane have perished in a jungle fire. The men take Boy on a plane back to the United States. Tarzan’s loyal chimp Cheeta wakes Tarzan and Jane before they are burned by the fire. Then Cheeta tells Tarzan that Boy has left with the men on the plane.

Tarzan, Jane and the chimp track across the jungle and eventually end up in New York City where Tarzan is befuddled by the lifestyle and gadgetry of “civilization”. Tarzan displays his quaint, “noble savage” ways by complaining about the necessity of wearing clothing, commenting that an opera singer that he hears on a “noisy box” is “Woman sick! Scream for witch doctor!”, and expressing his childlike wonderment at taxi cabs. It is noteworthy that Tarzan comments that various African-Americans he sees making a living throughout New York City are from this or that tribe back in their jungle home.

Tarzan and Jane attempt to get Boy back first by legal means. This leads to a moving sequence where the judge asks Tarzan what the fishing is like back in Africa and what he considers to be important things that he needs to teach his adopted son. Unfortunately, the circus retains an unscrupulous lawyer who tricks Jane into admitting that Boy was not born in the jungle and is not her actual child and provokes Tarzan into attacking him in the court room. Tarzan makes a daring escape out the courtroom windows and after a rooftop chase by the police ends up doing a high dive off the Brooklyn Bridge into the East River.

Tarzan somehow finds the circus where Boy is being held and enlists the aid of circus elephants who are chained to stakes. He calls to them with his “jungle speak” and they take their revenge on their tormentors by tearing free from the chains and destroying the circus. In the ensuing bedlam, Tarzan is able to rescue Boy, and in the film’s conclusion the judge grants Tarzan and Jane full custody of Boy before the family returns to Africa.

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Tarzan’s Secret Treasure

Tarzan's Secret Treasure

1941

Tarzan’s Secret Treasure

  • Tarzan: Johnny Weissmuller
  • Jane: Maureen O’Sullivan
  • Boy: Johnny Sheffield
  • O’doul: Barry Fitzgerald
  • Professor_elliott: Reginald Owen
  • Director: Richard Thorpe
  • Producer: B. P. Fineman
  • Release Date: December 1, 1941
  • Run Time: 81 min
  • Language: English

Plot

An expedition team arrives on Tarzan’s escarpment. By chance, the two villainous members Medford (Tom Conway) and Vandermeer (Philip Dorn) find out that there is plenty of gold on the escarpment. They kidnap Jane and Boy in order to make Tarzan show them the location of the gold. Soon the group is captured by natives, whereupon Tarzan comes to their rescue.

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Tarzan Finds a Son

Tarzan Finds a Son

1939

Tarzan Finds a Son

  • Tarzan: Johnny Weissmuller
  • Jane: Maureen O’Sullivan
  • Director: Richard Thorpe
  • Producer: Sam Zimbalist
  • Release Date: June 16, 1939
  • Run Time: 82 min
  • Language: English

Plot

A plane flying to Cape Town carrying a young couple and their baby, crashes in the jungle. Everyone on the plane dies, except for the baby who is rescued by Cheeta, Tarzan’s chimpanzee. Tarzan and Jane adopt the child and name him “Boy”. Five years later, a search party comes looking for Boy, because he is the heir to a fortune worth millions. Jane tries to help the search party and Boy go back to civilization, against Tarzan’s wishes.

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Tarzan and the Green Goddess

Tarzan and the Green Goddess

1938

Tarzan and the Green Goddess

  • Tarzan: Bruce Bennett (aka Herman Brix)
  • Jane: Ula Holt
  • Director: Edward Kull and Wilbur F. McGaugh
  • Producer: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ben S. Choen, Ashton Dearholt and George W. Stout
  • Release Date: February 27, 1938 (Finland)
  • Run Time: 72 min
  • Language: English

Plot

At his English manor, Lord Greystoke – aka Tarzan – recounts his recent adventures in Guatemala. He had been there assisting Major Martling and Ula Vale in their quest for the Green Goddess, a totem worshipped by a primitive jungle tribe inside of which was hidden a formula for a super-explosive. They had successfully wrestled this totem from the natives and were heading back to Livingston when they were attacked by Raglan, a thug sent to steal the Green Goddess and its formula for Hiram Powers’ personal use, and the Goddess is seized from them. On the trail of Raglan, they had to deal with his henchmen and also a party of the primitives, sent by the High Priest to retrieve the Goddess. With the Goddess still in Raglan’s hands, they were seized by the natives and Tarzan locked in a small cell with a loosely-tethered lion, Ula in an adjacent cell under guard from a hideous jungle hag, and Martling being forced to watch his bumbling valet.

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Tarzan’s Revenge

Tarzan's Revenge

1938

Tarzan’s Revenge

  • Tarzan: Glenn Morris
  • Jane: Eleanor Holm
  • Mother: Hedda Hopper as Penny Reed
  • Director: D. Ross Lederman
  • Producer: Sol Lesser
  • Release Date: January 7, 1938
  • Run Time: 70 min
  • Language: English

Plot

Eleanor Reed accompanies her parents, Roger and Penny, and Nevil Potter, her fiance, on an expedition to Africa to capture wild animals to sell to a zoo. Ben Alleu Bey spots Eleanor and wishes her to become the one hundredth wife in his harem. When she refuses, he follows their safari.

Both groups are followed closely by Tarzan, who releases the animals and woos Eleanor away from both Nevin and Bey. When Nevin discovers that Eleanor plans to remain behind with Tarzan, he attempts to kill him, but only grazes his shoulder with a round fired at close range. Tarzan attacks Nevin, but releases him at Eleanor’s behest. As the Reeds’ ship sails down the river, Tarzan and Eleanor go for a swim.

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Tarzan Escapes

Tarzan Escapes

1936

Tarzan Escapes

  • Tarzan: Johnny Weissmuller
  • Jane: Maureen O’Sullivan
  • Director: Richard Thorpe, John Farrow (uncredited), James C. McKay (uncredited), George B. Seitz, William A. Wellman
  • Release Date: November 6, 1936
  • Run Time: 89 min.
  • Language: English

Plot

Jane’s two cousins Eric and Rita arrive in Africa to tell Jane about a fortune left to her back in their world and to try and convince her to return with them. They are led to Tarzan’s escarpment home by Captain Fry (John Buckler), a hunter with an agenda of his own. Jane convinces Tarzan to let her go back with Eric and Rita, promising that their separation will only be temporary, but Captain Fry (unknown to the others) attempts to capture Tarzan to take him back civilization so he can be put on public display and actually succeeds in caging Tarzan. Fry’s treachery includes making a deal with an unfriendly native tribe to give him food, canoes and protection for the journey back in exchange for his handing over Jane, Eric and Rita for “ju-ju” and taking away the greatest “ju-ju” – Tarzan. Fry’s plan goes wrong when the natives capture Tarzan in his cage and all four white people are taken prisoner. Tarzan manages to escape with the help of elephants and Cheeta and guides what’s left of Fry’s party through a cave passage filled with treacherous quicksands. Just before they exit the caves to safety, Tarzan forces Fry to go back the way they came as punishment for his betrayal. Fry starts to go back, then seizes a heavy branch to attack Tarzan, but before he can exit the cave he falls into a quicksand bog and is swallowed up. Rita and Eric tell Jane that it is not necessary for her to return with them and that she belongs with Tarzan. The film ends with Tarzan and Jane reunited at their treehouse.

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The New Adventures of Tarzan

The New Adventures of Tarzan

1935

The New Adventures of Tarzan

  • Tarzan: Herman Brix
  • Extra: Ula Holt as Ula Vale
  • Director: Edward Kull
  • Producer: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ashton Dearholt, George W. Stout
  • Release Date: May 21, 1935 U.S., December 11, 1938, Finland, January 1950, Germany
  • Run Time: 257 min (12 chapters
  • Language: English

Plot

Several plot elements bring the characters together in search (and pursuit) of the Guatemalan idol known as The Green Goddess: Tarzan’s friend D’Arnot has crash landed in the region and is in the hands of a lost tribe of jungle natives. Major Martling is leading an expedition to find the fabled artefact for a powerful explosives formula hidden within it. Ula Vale’s fiancé died in an earlier expedition to rescue the artefact for its archaeological benefit and so she starts one of her own in his honour. Raglan has been sent by Hiram Powers, Ula’s lawyer, to steal the valuable idol for himself – in addition to containing the explosives formula, it also holds a fortune in jewels.Tarzan, Ula and Major Martling find the idol and rescue D’Arnot from the natives that worship it in the 70-minute-long first episode. However, Raglan escapes with the Green Goddess and heads through the jungle for the coast. Tarzan and the others pursue him across the jungle, encountering many perils, including recapture by the natives to whom the idol belonged. The adventures end out at sea where, during a hurricane, they are able to permanently secure the idol while Raglan is killed by another of Powers’ agents because of his failures. The murderer perishes when the ship sinks. Returning to Greystoke Manor in England with Tarzan, Ula consigns the explosives formula to fire in the final episode, where she and Tarzan also recount several adventures from the first part of the serial to an assembled party of friends and colleagues.

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Tarzan and His Mate

Tarzan and His Mate

1934

Tarzan and His Mate

  • Tarzan: Johnny Weissmuller
  • Jane: Maureen O’Sullivan
  • Director: Cedric Gibbons
  • Producer: Bernard H. Hyman
  • Release Date: April 16, 1934
  • Run Time: 104 min
  • Language: English

Plot

The film begins with Tarzan and Jane Parker living in the Jungle. Henry Holt, with business partner Marlin Arlington, meet up with them on their way to take ivory from an elephant burial ground. Holt tries to convince Jane, who was with him on his first trip to the jungle, to return with him by bringing her gifts from civilization including clothing and modern gadgets but she tells them she’d rather stay with Tarzan.

Later, when Tarzan refuses to let the men take ivory from the burial ground he is shot by Arlington and left for dead. Jane, thinking Tarzan is dead, contemplates leaving the jungle. Meanwhile, Cheeta and his ape friends nurse Tarzan back to health in time for him to stop the men who shot him.

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Tarzan the Fearless

Tarzan the Fearless

1933

Tarzan the Fearless

  • Tarzan: Buster Crabbe
  • Pseudo-jane: Jacquelene Wells as Mary Brooks
  • Director: Robert F. Hill
  • Producer: Sol Lesser
  • Run Time: 71 min (feature), 12 chapters (serial)
  • Language: English

Plot

Tarzan rescues Dr. Brooks, an elderly scientist, who is held by the followers of Zar, God of the Emerald Fingers, in their lost city. Mary Brooks, his daughter, and Bob Hall have also been searching for him, led by villainous safari guides, Jeff Herbert and Nick Moran.

Tarzan goes in search of Mary, and soon all are captured by the people of Zar and brought before Eltar, their high priest. Jeff and Nick are killed, but the others are free to go, provided they never return.

Mary and her father decide to stay with Tarzan instead of returning to civilization with Bob Hall.

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