Customer Reviews

Tarzan Escapes [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a tough and mean Tarzan movie. Johnny Weissmuller was the best of the loincloth-clad heroes and he gets you cheering in this one. It's good vs. evil all the way. Code of the Jungle. A favorite of mine, this excellent film is a real testament to the notion of "kill or be killed." This is a good hard-hitting action and adventure tale. It contains discriminating effects and ravishing photography. Good supporting cast. Great score. The villains once again meet their match in this realistic drama. A good one.

Tarzan Escapes! is the most actiondriven of all the MGM productions consisting O'Sullivan and Weissmüller as the rulers of the jungle. It also has its moments of intelligence and ethical challenges, as when Tarzan escapes a trap and is led to believe by the slimy Captain Fry that Jane has decided to leave him in the hands of fateand bad will of his antagonist, incarnated in the body of a greedy safari. Then Tarzan, stricken with grieve over is beloved Jane's alleged betrayal, sadly enters the cage himself. Of course, everything turns out well, with the elephants (the cavalry!) coming to rescue, and the bad men being punished. A rare moment of Christian forgiveness, Tarzan pardons the black servant Bomba when he kneels before him in the climax of the end, when the bill has to be payed. But the stubborn and ill-hearted Captain Fry receives what is deserved upon the unrepentant, a gruesome death in the smoking swamps within the cave of death. Justice is being served, and once again, and thanks to it's monosyllabillic patriarc, the peace of the jungle is being restored.

It all starts when Jane's cousins come to Africa to get her to go to London and sign a will leaving her a couple hundred grand. Jane must decide whether or not to go. When it was first released it included lizards and other scary stuff, it devastated audiences, it even scarred people for life. Then it was re-worked and re-released-a big hit.

"Tarzan Escapes" is considered one of the best in the Johnny Weismuller series of Tarzan films. It's very entertaining with the typical mix of adventure, humor, good guys vs. bad guys, romance and the like.

In this film, elephants are the heroes, coming to the defense of Tarzan ; the humor is provided by a member of the safari team; Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan) doesn't appear the first half hour and the action ends with some great film-noir like photography in a swamp. Along the way are an assortment of wild animals and birds, always interesting to view. It's a fast-moving 89 minutes.

Notes: 1 - The title is a misnomer. Tarzan doesn't get trapped anywhere to escape from until the last 20 minuets and he isn't in a cage long enough to warrant that title. 2 - This film also is noted for it being chopped down a bit at the last minute. Apparently, a scene or two was a little too scary for preview audiences (giant bats in a swamp, for instance) so they edited it out at the last minute. They didn't re-shoot the material to make the transition smooth, so there are a few holes in the story's last 15 minutes. But it's nothing major and doesn't detract from the interesting adventure.

Tarzan Escapes begins with two of Jane's cousins entering the jungle to bring Jane back to civilization so they can inherit money left to her. When they find her, they see that life in the jungle is not as savage and horrible as they expected; the treehouse is very advanced in this film. There is hot and cold running water, a fireplace for cooking meat, and other luxuries. However, Jane agrees to help her family by returning despite how upset Tarzan becomes when he hears this news. He also begins to hate the tour guide with just reason; he plans to trap Tarzan and turn him into a freak for a circus show.

This film is much more structured and commercialized than the previous two Tarzan films. The scenery is breath-takingly photographed although the studio took the easy way out in using stock film from the other Tarzan pictures for this one.

Maureen O'Sullivan is very beautiful and thoughtful here as Jane even with her fuzzy, untamed hair. Her costume is much more censored than in previous films.

Johnny Weismuller is more developed in this film than in the first two; he has more screen time and more ability to show emotion which he does very well. For the first time, we really get a sense of Tarzan's personality and his love for Jane.

Ok..I should qualify by saying the third in the series for Johnny Weismuller. While this film uses a lof of stock footage from the two earlier films it still stands on its own as a strong and rather violent entry into the Tarzan series. Rita and Eric Parker, two of Jane's cousins hire a hunter to find Jane so they can convince her to leave the jungle and return home. Captain Fry, the Hunter, has other motivations...he wants to capture Tarzan and take him back to the states to put him on dispay as an attraction, like an animal. Tarzan is eventually capture but escapes in time to rescue the others who have been taken captive.

Not quite as action-packed as the first two films, it still has its share of harrowing moments including Tarzan's battle with a crocodile. The chemistry is quite good, of course, between Maureen O' Sullivan and Weismuller and cheetah provides some comic relief. Enjoyable with solid performances.

The Tarzan movies in the Weismuller series are like the Burroughs novels upon which they are based--the early works are impressive ,and as the series developed an air of routine set in .This follows on from the second of the Weismuller movies Tarzan and His Mate ,and while still enjoyable and tautly directed it is a lesser work than its predecessor .In fairness it should be noted that the work as we have it is not the movie as originally shot-preview audiences were reputedly upset by the violence ,reportedly quite graphic for its day ,and the movie was extensively re-shot .
As with Tarzan and His Mate ,this features an expedition sent into the jungle to track Jane ;her sister and her sister's fiance are seeking Jane to advise her of a substantial bequest that needs her to return to London to attend to the formalities.
A white hunter takes charge of the expedition seeking to capture Tarzan.
The trek to Tarzan's lair is very similar to the one depicted in the earlier movie , even down to using some of the same footage in the native attack sequence .

Will Jane leave Tarzan for the bright lights ?Will the hunter's nefarious schemes work out or will right triumph ?

You will have a good time finding out in this tautly directed and actionful movie which is quite intense in atmosphere and moves at a brisk clip .
One interesting aspect is that ,with the Hays Code having come into being after the previous entry ,this is markedly less heavy on exposed flesh -Jane's sleeping attire is decorous and the swimming scenes is minus the tasteful nudity of the earlier movie.On a down side there is unfunny comic relief courtesy of the Cecil Kellaway character and Cheetah -always for me the greatest irritant in the series -has more screen time than I would have liked .

Good fun and a strong entry in the series .

I saw this movie a couple thousand times, maybe more. It was good for a movie made in it's time. Of course I'm sort of a die hard Tarzan fan. If anyone feels the same way I encourage you to go see that new disney movie on June 18th.