Customer Reviews

Tarzan Finds a Son [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It was not until I actually started working my way chronologically through the Tarzan novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs that I discovered Tarzan and Jane did not find their son in a wrecked airplane. The novel "The Son of Tarzan" was actually made into a fairly faithful silent film in 1920, but Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan is not going to father Korak the Killer in this 1939 effort. This begs the question "Why?" Is it because women would faint at the idea of Maureen Sullivan's Jane giving birth in the jungle, no doubt with Cheetah as the mid-wife? Or would it be because pregnancy results from sex and the Hays Office would have a conniption over the implied jungle love? Then again, it might just be that the theme of the purity of the jungle versus the sins of civilization play up better with this film's storyline.

The plot is pretty simplistic. A plane crashes in the jungle and a baby is the only survivor. Cheetah brings the infant to Tarzan and Jane. Of course, Jane insists they will raise it as their own and acquiesces to the idea of calling the baby boy "Boy" (we can only wonder what would happen if the couple were to come across a second male child in terms of names). Boy (Johnny Shefield) is happy in his jungle home when suddenly a saffair made up of his parents' relatives arrives up the scene to begin a custody dispute, jungle style, which means involving a LOT of elephants.

The bottom line is that "Tarzan Finds a Son!" is the second best of the Weismuller Tarzan films, behind 1934's "Tarzan and His Mate," bringing out a paternal streak in the Lord of the Jungle that becomes him. The chemistry between the trio (okay, the quartet when you include Cheetah), makes this film work despite the limited vocabulary Weismuller's Tarzan has to work with in this series. Not to mention Boy has a pretty good variation of the Tarzan yell going for him. Of course, if you see this one be sure to check out "Tarzan's New York Adventure," where Boy is kidnapped by an evil circus promoter and taken to New York City where Tarzan and Jane follow to rescue him.

I only saw this installment in the terrific MGM Tarzan series for the first time recently and must admit I was impressed. I feel this story further developed the storyline of Tarzan and Jane living the good life in the jungle.

This installment certainly added extra dimension to both of their characters with Tarzan displaying paternal emotions for the character of Boy and Jane being revealed as not always making the right choice and having a disagreement with Tarzan that causes a rupture, however temporary, in their relationship.

By the time this installment was released in 1939 (it was the fourth in the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films) technology had developed considerly from the first film (Tarzan the Ape Man) in the early 30's which today seems abit primitive. In this film , apart from a few very fake vine swings , the special effects are wonderfully handled and show a real refinement.The underwater sequences are superbly handled and where actually filmed by the actors themselves. The film really has everthing from wild animals to rampaging tribes of natives, plane crashes etc. Everthing to make this film an exciting adventure story and one of the very best in the MGM Tarzan series

The stories main feature is of course the introduction of Johnny Sheffield as Boy, a character that remained in the rest of the Tarzan features. I wont relate the plot line of Boy's introduction into the story as other reviewers have already covered that but to say that Johhny Weissmuller personally picked young Sheffield for the role and their on screen chemistry is wonderful. I feel Boy's introduction adds a logical development to the Tarzan character and from now on the king of the jungle had a family in the true sense of the word.

No Tarzan film would be complete without its quota of villians and "Tarzan finds a Son" has a very exceptional list of fine character actors as supporting performers. The great Henry Stephenson appears fresh from his great performance in the previous years MGM classic "Marie Antoniette" as Boy's long lost great Uncle looking for the possible survivors of the earlier plane crash. Another great performer is Cecil B. DeMille regular Henry Wilcoxon who plays one of the white explorers. Both add a real prestige element to this film.

I think "Tarzan finds a Son" is a terrific piece of entertainment and one of the best in the MGM series. At this point the series was still alive and fresh and the expert direction by Richard Thorpe really keeps the action moving along. Enjoy!

This is the fourth of six Tarzan films that Johnny Weissmuller, Tarzan, made with Maureen O'Sullivan, Jane, at a time when O'Sullivan was pregnant and beginning to show her first born, but the filmmakers hid the growth well. Tarzan and Jane are living in the jungle together unwed, without standing in front of clergy, or having their wedding sanctified. This is by no means a brutish jungle-type union, because sex was how people consummated a marriage even in the Bible, as mentioned in Deuteronomy 24:1, "When a man takes a wife and marries her." It was only in post-biblical times that Judaism recognized that marriages could be achieved by the man giving his bride an object, such as a ring, or by a contract, as a wedding certificate. But Judaism never required the presence of clergy; it was optional. Later, the Roman Catholic Church considered marriage a sacrament.

Tarzan and Jane find a child in the jungle, the only survivor of a plane crash, adopt him, and being somewhat language disabled, Tarzan insists on calling the lad "Boy." This adoption too was done without civic approval and certification. Again, adoption was also informal in past ages, people who wanted to live together, simply did so. Thus in the biblical book Esther 2:7, where the Hebrew uses the word omein, referring to Mordechai's relationship with Esther, which means "adopt" in modern Hebrew, the English is "brought up," since the concept of adoption did not exist in biblical times.

The action in the film takes place five years later when a close family relationship exists between the jungle trio. Two men and a woman, relations of Boy and his dead parents, come searching for them because they had inherited over a million dollars, a considerable sum in 1939, when the film was made. Two of them hope that they can prove that the family is dead so that they can obtain the money; the third is honest. Tarzan is adamant that Boy will not leave him, but Jane feels that it is better for Boy's future if he would be brought up in civilization in a very wealthy home.

let me say at the open that I'm a Tarzan fan and like all the Weismuller movies in particular. Johnny Sheffield was great in this movie, his acting was impressively natural. His relationship with his "parents" Tarzan and Jane seemed real and unforced. He acted just the way you would imagine a kid would act growing up in the jungle with Tarzan That part of the movie I liked.
The problem I had was with the tacked on confrontation between Tarzan and Boy's relatives. It was awkward and the villains weren't really worthy of testing Tarzan's mettle. They were unimaginitive cardboard characters and the plot revolving around them was grade A hack material. The greedy grasping relatives seemed so bland and uninspired compared to the relationship between Tarzan, Jane and Boy. I would have liked to have seen something that re-inforced the relationship between Boy and his parents. In closing, the parts with Boy, Tarzan and Jane are great. A boy couldn't hope for a better life than growing up in the jungle with Tarz. The rest of the movie though is a flop. it's worth watching, just stay near the fast forward button on the remote.

"Him no choke" was the famous line from this movie when Jane asked Tarzan to hold the bottle up as so young Boy would not choke. This movie was another of the GREAT Weissmuller collection! The Best part is when the natives get Boy's greedy ,slimey second cousin and get him ready to shrink him down to about 2 feet high, first using him as some sacrifice (what ever they did to him and several of the tribal boys looked pretty bad even though you couldn't see what was going down as they began to chant over their victims)Boy those natives they were pretty rough! I own all of the MGM series and this is my favorite next to "Tarzan and His Mate"next to"Tarzan Escapes"and I could go on ! This is truly a Classic and I still don't see how "Gone with the Wind" was able to win the Acadamy Award in 1939 over this picture - talk about a scam - this movie should have won hands down ! Do yourself a favor and buy yourself a piece of real Hollywood History as this movie is the TOTALPACKAGE ! note:another great line in the movie is "That used to be a full grown man" "ENJOY"

"Tarzan Finds A Son" introduced the character of Boy to the series. After an impressively staged plane crash in the thick jungle a solitary baby is recovered from the wreckage of the craft. Enter the character of Boy! Johnny Weissmuller personally picked Johnny Sheffield for the new and much needed integral part for the series. You might say that Sheffield provided a "baby boost" to the series! Weissmuller assisted the strapping Sheffield as he trained for the rigors of the role. The film was shot entirely at Silver Springs, Florida. Several lakes there were brilliantly clear and were perfect for the underwater photography. Maureen O'Sullivan who wanted to quit her role as Jane dies in the arms of Tarzan in the original script. The scene was actually shot, but under protests from Edgar Rice Burroughs and many fans MGM re-shot the scene keeping O'Sullivan in the series. I like this film because it focuses more on the characters and their relationship as a family unit rather than on their relationship with the various jungle friends and threats which were growing wearisome by the time of this entry in the series.

I wanted to make sure when I purchased this product that the picture and listening quality were good and it was exactly what I wanted. It was like watching the original movie on TV when I was a young child.

This video cover looked great (I wasn't interested in watching the movie) and it is now part of a local exhibit on movies filmed in Florida. It was well packed and sent very quickly. Thank you

Super super fast delivery. Lady who got this for herself is 81 years young, does not own a computer & was so thrilled that I could order this for her through Amazon.
She's thrilled with movie.

This was another interesting, fast-moving Tarzan film with plenty of action and even a little more humor than normal.

The action scenes are hokey (shots of wild animals on a screen in back of the live actors) and even the background scenery is obviously painted but, hey, it's an old film. You just put up with, and vast amount of "darlings" uttered by "Jane" (Maureen O'Sullivan). However, the rest of the film is very entertaining, very good and even very clever at times.

The story is about Tarzan and Jane acquired "boy" (Johnny Sheffield) when the latter was five years old.

Overall: entertaining and one of the better Johnny Weissmuller-Tarzan entries.