The Story
From
ERBzine 0620
A young couple are killed in
a plane crash in the jungle. A monkey brings the infant survivor of the
crash to Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) and Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan) who
name the child, Boy. Five years later, a search party (Ian Hunter, Henry
Wilcoxen, Frieda Inescort and Henry Stephenson) come looking for the child
who is heir to a fortune. They wound an elephant after which they get into
a scrape with the Gaboni tribe but Tarzan arrives to call off the natives.
Jane cooks them a meal of ostrich egg and tells them that they buried that
there were no survivors of the plane crash. Boy appears in many of the
scenes: swimming, playing with the animals, impressing the visitors and
being rescued from a spider web, a waterfall and a rhino by Tarzan. The
party learn that Boy is their relative and insist on taking him back with
them. Tarzan steals their guns at night and tosses them into a pool while
Cheetah awakens the party by taking their photo with a camera he has found.
They refuse to leave without their guns so Tarzan dives for the guns but
he is left stranded.. Against Tarzan's advice Jane is persuaded to help
lead them out of the jungle so that they can return Boy to civilization.
Sir Thomas, the only good guy in the party, is killed by his nephew
while trying to warn Jane that she has been duped. Refusing to follow the
route chosen by Jane the party is then captured by the savage Zambele tribe.
Jane helps Boy escape and he runs through many jungle obstacles to get
back to Tarzan. He is unsuccessful in getting a rope to Tarzan in the pool
so he gets elephants to push a dead tree down to the stranded apeman. Tarzan
and Boy, the great apes and an elephant herd.all race to the village to
rescue the surviving members of the party. Jane has been seriously
wounded by a native spear. In the original script she dies from the wound
but following a barrage of protests from fans... and ERB... the studio
resurrected her and had her recover in Tarzan's arms. The Tarzan family
return to their idyllic life in the jungle.
Tarzan Finds a Son!
~ 1939 (01h:22m:04s)
Review of the MGM DVD Version
from the Digitally
Obsessed Site by Nate Myers
You read the title right,
Tarzan finds a son, he doesn't actually have a son. Whew! Jane must still
have a steady supply of contraceptives lying around the jungle paradise
home she and Tarzan made. Of course, the house is so spacious that it's
about time those two start a family, even if the child is not rightfully
theirs.
The child's true identity
is that of the Lancing family, who must be wealthy since they are flying
in a private plane as the movie begins. Mr. and Mrs. Lancing (Morton Lowry
and Laraine Day, respectively) have a spell of bad luck when their pilot
flies into some bad air that ultimately causes them to crash in a rather
well-staged scene that employs miniatures with great results. The baby
survives the crash and is rescued by apes and, eventually, Tarzan's comrade,
Cheeta. That Cheeta must be one smart monkey, because it knows to take
the baby to Tarzan and Jane, where it will be adopted.
Oh, how rude! Referring to
a baby as "it" is frightfully unacceptable; the baby's name is Boy (well,
at least after Tarzan gets his way). There's just one hiccup: the Lancing
family returns. Sir Thomas (Henry Stephenson) and his nephew Austin (Ian
Hunter) have come looking for survivors of the plane crash (five years
have passed, which raises the question about how truly invested Thomas
and Austin are in finding their relatives alive). Austin and his wife,
the woman with no first name played by Frieda Inescort, actually have good
reason to not find their doomed relatives: if Boy's parents are dead, Austin
stands to inherit the entire estate of Greystoke.
It doesn't take long for
the Lancings to come across Tarzan, Jane, and Boy (who now, age 5, is played
by John Sheffield), but none of them initially suspects the dark little
secret that Jane hides from them. Eventually, however, Austin and Thomas
realize that the boy is their own flesh and blood. At this point Austin
becomes cold-blooded in a character metamorphosis that could only occur
in a Hollywood movie, wanting to take Boy back so that he will be the legal
guardian of Boy and still get the money at all costs. The Lancings find
a sympathetic ear with Jane, but Tarzan refuses. Of course, what fun would
it be if the Lancings just went along with Tarzan's wishes?
After a disappointing debut
with the Tarzan series, Thorpe has returned to make his second installment
and takes us for a fun ride. The emphasis has switched away from the sets
and back to the characters, giving some very nice personal moments (especially
in the scenes containing Henry Stephenson's Sir Thomas). However, there
is a burden of uncreativity throughout most of the movie, which bogs down
an otherwise fine distraction for a rainy day.
