Customer Reviews

The New Adventures of Tarzan, Chapters 1-12

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This rare serial and important addition to the Tarzan canon is totally ruined by the awful treatment giving to it in this DVD set.
The picture quality is fair at best with most of it too dark or either too washed out. The sound is so bad that it's almost impossible to understand 90% of the dialogue through the loud sea of hiss.
Save your money, this is a total rip-off.

Growing up in the 50's every Saturday morning I would journey to the local theater house in northern New Mexico to lose myself in fantasy land. The routine was 4 approc 20-25 minute episodes Flash Gordon, Capt Marvel and Zorro etc. These were produced in the 30's and 40's at Republic and Columbia. Flash Gordon was my favorite, starring Larry "Buster" Crabbe also starred as Tarzan, these weekly episodes are also known as cliffhangers, usually in 12 or 16 episodes insuring the same audience every saturday morning for 16 weeks. The concept is at the end of each week the Hero or Heroine would be in some sort of eminent catastrophe such as going over a cliff, In a burning building, a fiery airplane and you would return next week to see the outcome. Flash Gordon was my favorite with the recurring cast of Flash, Dale, Dr Zaroff and "Ming The Merciless". The special effects and costume were pretty good considering they were fimed in the 30's. My only warning is in the case of Flash Gordon some epiosodes are being sold under two different titles such as "Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe" and "Flash Gordon The Puple Death" so you maybe stuck with two identical serials under two titles.

I had seen this movie when I was around 12 years old and I really wanted to see it again. I wanted to feel the excitement I felt then and believe me it was almost the same. Thank you for still bringing us something to remember.

First let me address Herman Brix's performance. Johnny Weismuller is and in my mind always will be THE Tarzan. First runner up in my opinion is Gordon Scott. Brix is the third best Tarzan on my personal list and is probably the best representation of ERB's original character.

The story is good. It takes place mostly in South America where it was filmed. The storyline is very much like a story Burroughs would have written. Every chapter is filled with action, ends and cliffhangers, and features plenty of the Tarzan vs. jungle animals scenes that made Tarzan books and films entertaining to begin with.

Finally the quality. Is the film digitally restored? No. Is it as good as you can hope for in a 30s serial? Yes. It is not always clear but is easily watchable. The lack of restoration and the fact that the DVD glitches between chapters 11 and 12, forcing me to jump straight to chapter 12 from the main menu, gives this a 4 star rating.

For Tarzan fans this is a good buy. For people who only show a passing interest in Tarzan I suggest checking out the first two Weismuller films (Tarzan the Ape Man and Tarzan and His Mate) or the last two Gordon Scott films ( Tarzan's Greatest Adventure and Tarzan the Magnificent). Enjoy.

This is an amazing series, and I totally dug it. I am in love with old movies and television shows though. This one was great.

I almost didn't buy this because of the bad reviews. I had no problems at all. People on amazon.com think that content from the 1930's is going to look amazing on there lcd television.

Great buy!

If a studio is going to put out old movies, they should really take the time to remaster the movies. In this case they did not. the sound is almost none existent and the picture is so dark and bright you can hardly watch it. Madacy Studios is not a company to buy movies from. not waste your money and time on this dvd. it is not worth it. there is however another copy from Roan Studios. they know how to present and presever movies.

These are the days of cheesy and horribly classic films and television shows. This is one of the best of those (in my opinion). There is something fun about old movies and television shows that puts you back to simple film making, simple plots, simple people.

This gets 5, the re-mastering looks great!

I agree that the transfer to DVD could have been better. But the truth is, this is a good Tarzan story. Tarzan is intelligent and acutally dressed in clothing when hanging out with people. He only goes loin cloth when in the Jungle. That is how Burroughs wrote the charater in most of his novels. Also Burroughs hand picked Herman Brix to play Tarzan makes so this movie something closer to what the author had in mind.

I bought both the MADACY and ROAN GROUP versions to compare, and couldn't see much difference, in fact the ROAN GROUP version had extras that had no connection, that I could figure out, with Tarzan at all, and billed an item that I couldn't even find on the disc!
See my review in the ROAN GROUP dvd site.

I bought this on DVD and became an instant Herman Brix fan. Though his acting is somewhat stiff, I can see why Edgar Rice Burroughs found Brix to be the "perfect" Tarzan. His build is spot-on, and he excels in the action scenes. If only he made more Tarzan films.