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Tarzan's Savage Fury (1952)
Topic Started: Dec 10 2017, 11:04 AM (260 Views)
Laughing Gravy
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Tarzan's Savage Fury (1952) Dir. Cyril Endfield

A Sol Lesser Production
Released by RKO Radio Pictures
79 min. / B&W / 1.37:1
DVD: Warner Archive

Tarzan is looking forward to meeting his cousin, another Greystoke, but foreign villain Charles Korvin has killed the guy and substituted hapless stooge Patric Knowles in his place. Their target: a cruel, vicious lost tribe who had befriended Tarzan when he was a child and who are sitting on a fortune in uncut diamonds. They convince Jane that the diamonds are needed by England for their efforts against the Iron Curtain countries, and she convinces Tarzan (apparently, from her body english, by sleeping with him, nice job, Jane) against his better judgment. Oh, and there's a new Boy in town, too: an orphan named Joey has been adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Tarzan. Cheeta, surprisingly, doesn't seem too jealous.

To me, this era of Tarzan pictures produced the quintessential Saturday matinee type fare (with all apologies to you western fans): good, mindless action/adventure fun. Granted, it's a role that requires nothing more in the way of thespian training than hitting the gym regularly, but in this fourth of five appearances as the Ape Man, Lex Barker has grown to rival the great Weissmuller himself in the part. He sure went through women, though: this is his fourth Jane in four pictures. Dorothy Hart is lovely in the role (great legs!) and I'm sorry this was her only appearance in the series. Korvin is excellent but with those looks and that accent, he may as well have written "I'M THE VILLAIN" right there on his forehead in indelible marker. He does some nifty magic tricks, though. Somebody named Tommy Carlton is the new Boy; he's not bad at all (we meet him being used as crocodile bait by a friendly tribe of hunters) and it wouldn't bother me if he shows up in the next film, Tarzan and the She-Devil, but I doubt he will. The African tribespeople are suitably scary and unusually interesting, particularly regarding Tarzan's parents' Christian past(!), and Cheeta is... well... Cheeta.

Million-dollar Dialog:
Tarzan to his little monkey friend: "Cheeta, go home tell Jane Tarzan take orphan to mission."
Cheeta, returning home to Jane: "Ooo eee ooo eee *grunt grunt* oooooo."
Jane: "If I know Tarzan, he's bringing the orphan here!"

Tarzan's faux cousin, having been wounded: "Tremendous honor, being carried up a tall tree by a 10th Earl."

Yeah, I long for a simpler time when kids would flock to the movies for pictures like this, with cartoons and a serial and a co-feature. Oh, and this is a gorgeous print on the Warner Archive DVD, by the way.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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