Burroughs-Tarzan Pictures in Britain
by Peter Ogden - ERBANIA Magazine

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The New Adventures of Tarzan was first released in the UK by Wardour Films in 1935, complete at 75 minutes and with Herman Brix credited. Tarzan and the Green Goddess was released by Associated British Pictures, December 1937 for the Xmas season and before the American release. It had a running time or 72 minutes. Both films were extremely successful.

In 1940 New Realm obtained the rights to distribute the two films but altered the format of the opening credits and changing Brix to Bruce Bennett. This release of The New Adventures of Tarzan, featured the disclaimer about the sound quality, but was not dubbed and had the same running time as the earlier release. Tarzan and the Green Goddess also had the credits changed, but suffered more, as the imaginative opening flashback sequence (using the  crystal ball scene from the serial) was deleted and in its place was a ludicrous travelogue on Guatemala showing African fauna in that country. Even so the films were still very popular and over the next decade were reissued many times. 

New Adventures carried the sound disclaimer on all its reissues but it was not until sometime in the late 1950s that New Realm chopped it down to 59 minutes and dubbed it with an atrocious new soundtrack. The supporting players fared well, but the actor who dubbed Brix, had a nasally high pitched voice. Even with the dubbed soundtrack, it still used the disclaimer about the sound quality. Why it was dubbed after it had been shown successfully for twenty years or more is a mystery. 

Unfortunately, it appears to be the only version in the Warner archive and the only version which is on DVD. American Movie Classics ran this version  during their Tarzan films marathon, several years ago, boasting that all their movies are uncut original versions.  I wrote to them explaining the history of the copy of New Adventures that they ran, hoping they could get Warner to supply them with the original version. But either they didn’t bother, or Warner didn’t have the original, because AMC just stopped running New Adventures.

There is also a 75 minute version of this film on DVD, but merely the 59 minute version, padded with 15 minutes of stock jungle footage.

There are copies of the early versions on 16mm, I have an early New Realm print and I  know of collectors who have copies of the original US release, so maybe we will see a decent copy on DVD one of these days. 
 

SWING FEVER GET READY FOR 
TARZAN'S TV MARATHON
79 YEARS OF FLICKS ON AMC
NY Daily News ~ June 3th 1997

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In 1993, 34 YEARS after he starred in what many experts have called the worst Tarzan movie ever made, Denny Miller got the last word. `I found my old loincloth," he says. "And it still fits. So after all these years, I can say I am still a man of the cloth." No matter what else they say, it can never be taken away from him that he was Tarzan. 

When a struggling writer named Edgar Rice Burroughs created Tarzan in the October 1912 edition of "The All Story Magazine," he had no idea how much work he would create for Adonis-like actors and shapely actresses over the next 85 years. At the moment, for instance, he's creating work for the somewhat unlikely couple of Wesley Snipes and Rosie O'Donnell, who will be the voices of Tarzan and Jane in an animated "Tarzan" Disney expects to release next year.

That will join some 40 past Tarzan movies, many of which have been assembled by the cable channel AMC for a three-day, 32-flick Tarzan retrospective that begins Friday. (See list for full lineup.) 

It does not include Denny Miller and his 1959 remake of "Tarzan the Ape Man." So many Tarzans, so little time. But that makes Miller, in a sense, the perfect person to reflect on Tarzan's appeal. `It's a great mythological story," he says. "For both men and women." That is to say, it has all the elements. Noble savage. Independent woman. Environmentalism. Cute animals. Dangerous animals. Rippling muscles. Steamy romance.  "It's sort of a cross between Dr. Doolittle and Chippendales," says Miller. "You see how the size of the costumes goes up and down like hemlines, an `As much as we can get away with' kind of thing."

The most notorious Tarzan movie costume, of course, was no costume at all. The 1934 "Tarzan and His Mate" called for an underwater love dance between Tarzan and Jane, and Olympic gold medalist Josephine Kim, standing in for Maureen O'Sullivan, wore nothing. Though the film was strategically blurred, the resulting outcry got it snipped from the final print, and this became one more reason the movie industry created the blue-nosed Hays Office to ensure proper self-censorship. 

Enticing as all that rippling flesh may be, however, Tarzan's real selling point has always been adventure scenes, as Miller notes, that stir young boys to grab ropes and swing across swimming holes over imaginary crocodiles. Tarzan himself has tackled Nazis, crooked New York judges and slave traders, as well as a rotating cast of craven villains seeking to strip his land of its diamonds, gold, elephant tusks and whatever. With more than 90 books, 40 movies, 350 radio serials, three TV series and a web site, Tarzan long ago entered the vernacular of America, with his gold dust rubbing off on even fleeting portrayers. 

Like Miller, who adds that his own "Tarzan" wasn't really all that bad. "It was a circus," he says. "And I've never been to a bad circus. Besides, I've seen two or three `Tarzan' movies since then that push my movie back to only third or fourth worst." He doesn't mention the second remake of "Tarzan the Ape Man" in 1981 with Miles O'Keefe and Bo Derek, but maybe he's just too polite.

For his own part, he's sorry his Tarzan career was cut short. "I'd love to have done 14 more." But he went on to act in hundreds of movies and TV shows getting beaten up, for instance, by Charles Bronson and Tom Selleck and he did a "Gilligan's Island" where the joke was that he was king of the apes, but he fainted every time he saw one. He also once ran a fitness club called "Me Tarzan, You Train." 

But in general, he says, Tarzan is bigger than any actor, even Johnny Weissmuller. "It's like Disney. Every few years you get new people discovering the characters, so someone new plays them. Tarzan will go on forever."

 

TARZAN GOES TO . . . GUATEMALA

NEW ADVENTURES OF TARZAN is something unique, in that Edgar Rice Burroughs himself had input into the project. He slammed out a story which served as a basis for the screenplay, he selected the actor to play Tarzan, and he saw that the character was presented as literate, articulate and yet savagely violent when appropriate. It's the dichotomy of the sophisticated Lord Greystoke and the feral Apeman which gives Tarzan so much of his appeal to me. 

As much as I really wanted to like this serial, it's still a mixed bag of good and bad. On the one hand, it remains a film interpretation of Tarzan nearer to Burroughs' original vision than any other (Gordon Scott's version is also pretty faithful and my personal favorite movie Tarzan). Herman Brix (later Bruce Bennett) is visually perfect, lean and muscular in an athletic rather than bulked-up weightlifter way. He had been in the 1928 Olympics and obviously did not sit around with donuts and beer all day. This Tarzan also acts intelligent, speaks normal English and looks comfortable in a formal dinner jacket or white tropical trousers and shirt (although he spends most of his time in a ragged loincloth, of course). Brix can wrestle several men at a time or rush up a tree and it's convincing because he actually WAS fit enough to do it. 

The mandatory lion-fighting scene is led up to with some suspense as Tarzan finds himself tied up in a small chamber with the big cat chained near at hand. It's a question of whether the Apeman will be cut free by gal pal Ula (helpfully reaching in through a hole in the wall with a knife) before the lion breaks loose. In the books, Burroughs always had Tarzan try to land behind the lion, wrap himself around the beast and stab it furiously in the chest before those claws and fangs would shred him. Here, as in most movie versions, Brix literally wrestles with the lion the way you'd tangle with a human opponent. Maybe this would work for someone like Hercules or Samson, but a mortal man trying this approach would certainly be killed in a few seconds. Still, it's a tradition of the series. 

The serial was shot on location in Guatemala, so the scenery is often stunning (like the rushing river going over waterfalls) or miserably hot and filthy like real jungles are. (Stock footage seems to be telling us that there are rhinos and giraffes in Central America, which is kind of a shock to learn.) The actors are obviously sweaty, grimy and uncomfortable in most shots, which seems more authentic than the usual Hollywood backlot emoting. Unfortunately, this location shooting also means the sound recording is atrocious. Dialogue is hard to follow, and the lack of normal noises sometimes gives the impression of watching a silent movie but without the benefit of constant musical scoring. Money spent on a decent Foley artist or dubbing in some of spoken lines would have helped immensely. 

Also, the editing is usually so choppy and incoherent that it reminds me of today's split-second MTV-style style. The fights are sped up way too much; you expect a little discreet undercranking but these guys go overboard. I much prefer the Republic approach, where the action is clear and exciting. Brix is so good in the role, it's a shame he wasn't given a better vehicle to show his approach. (Check out FIGHTING DEVIL DOGS to see him in a better light as an action hero.) My copy of the feature version is rather grainy and murky, but that's not necessarily how the original twelve chapters looked in theatres as I'm relying on cut-rate fly-by-night modern DVD companies. 

The story itself is nothing special, just the usual tug of war over a hot potato. In this case, the knick-knack everyone is desperately trying to snatch from one another is the Green Goddess, a rather unattractive slab of stone. The Mayan-descent natives of a ruined city in the jungle worship the Green Goddess and naturally want it back, while archaeologist Major Martling is contending with ratfink Raglan. These intruders from the world outside know that inside the idol is the secret formula to a new super-powerful explosive that every European nation would gladly drop a bundle to buy. So there follows the series of brawls, kidnappings and escapes, deathtraps, encounters with wild animals etc that normally take place in serials. In NEW ADVENTURES OF TARZAN, though, the pacing is slack and I had the distinct impression that many times no one involved was sure what was supposed to happen next. Improv is fine for comedy, for adventure not so much. 

My favorite scene took me by surprise with its goofiness. Comic relief George is sitting on a log, fooling around with a snapping turtle for no good reason. Another turtle sees him and (wait for it) calls for help. Half a dozen of the large beasts swarm up rather quickly behind George and one clamps its beak hard right where you would expect. As George howls and prances around, bouncing off trees with a turtle hanging down from the seat of his pants, I had to smile at this unexpected tomfoolery. I especially like the way Tarzan rolls his eyes disgustedly when he examines the panicky man and is told he was attacked by "thousands and thousands" of turtles. 

Along with expedition for no apparent reason is shady lady Ula Vale (played by the rather attractive Ula Holt), who turns out to have motives of her own and is a bigger help to Tarzan than the others in the party. As in several Burroughs stories, the woman of mystery always is revealed to be a spy or something similar. The other character with a distinctive look is the high priest of the lost tribe. With his neatly trimmed white beard, headband and wild staring eyes, he reminds of this guy I used to see loitering around gas stations near the Thruway exit. 

Dir: Edward Kull (not of Valusian descent, as far as I know)

http://dr-hermes.livejournal.com

ADVENTURE GIRL 
Filmed in Guatemala in 1934 TRIVIA: Joan Lowell (1902-1967), film actress, author, and film director starred in Adventure Girl (1934), a film loosely based on her fictionalized autobiography, Cradle of the Deep. Lowell, a self-styled adventuress, retold her "true" adventures in the jungles of Guatemala. The native, Princess Maya, in the film was played by Ula Holt. An interesting scene in the film was a very long wrestling match between the two women. A year later Ula co-starred with Herman Brix in The New Adventures of Tarzan (1935). Some of the film's jungle footage was actually edited into the Tarzan film.
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SYNOPSIS Young adventurer, Joan Lowell, with her elderly father, Nicholas Wagner, and two crew members, ex-marine William Sawyer and Otto Siegler, sail from New York to the Caribbean in their 48-foot schooner Black Hawk . Soon after their departure, Joan and the crew battle a hurricane, which damages their mast and casts them to a shipwreck graveyard. As Bill and Otto lay claim to the mast of one of these abandoned boats, Joan and her father board an old gunrunner, where Joan discovers a one-hundred-year-old map to a lost Guatemala jungle city and the hiding place of a giant sacred emerald. Afraid her superstitious sailor father will disapprove of her tampering with a dead man's belongings, Joan says nothing about her find but steers the schooner toward the lost city. Shortly afterward, however, she discovers that their boat's entire water supply was drained by the hurricane. Dying of thirst, Joan and Bill drift in a rowboat to an island where a native gives them coconuts and life-saving water. When they reach the village near the lost city, Joan lies about her intentions to the local matriarch, Princess Maya, in order to obtain permission to explore. Head villager Manola is suspicious, but Maya reluctantly gives her consent but threatens Joan with death if she betrays her trust. Trailed by Manola and his men, Joan, Bill and Maya set out on the river and use the old map to locate the Mayan ruins and the temple that houses the coveted emerald. With Bill's help, Joan, blinded by her greed, diverts Maya and begins to hunt for the emerald, callously destroying a sacred goddess idol when she is caught in the act by Princess Maya. She tries to escape while Bill fights off Manola and his men but Princess Maya overtakes her and they fight fiercely until Joan overcomes her and tries to escape again. She is captured by Manola and Princess Maya sentences her to burn alive for her lies and sacrilege to the goddess idol. As the fire burns around Joan, she is rescued at the last moment by Bill. Manola and his men chase the escaping adventurers in their boat. But just as it appears they will escape back to the schooner the outboard motor stops and villagers close in to recapture them. Joan and Bill pour gasoline into the water and set fire to it to deter the villagers but the flames begin to engulf their own boat. Joan and Bill chop a hole in the bottom of the boat, dive in, and swim under the flames to safety to their schooner. Joan confesses her greed to her father and vows never to be tempted by material wealth again.

SATURDAY 
12:30 a.m.: "Investigating Tarzan"
1:30 a.m.: "Tarzan Finds a Son" (1939)
3 a.m.: "Tarzan's Secret Treasure" (1941)
4:30 a.m.: "Tarzan's New York Adventure" (1942)
5:45 a.m.: "Tarzan Triumphs" (1943)
7:15 a.m.: "Tarzan's Desert Mystery" (1943)
8:30 a.m.: "Tarzan and the Amazons" (1945)
10 a.m.: "Tarzan and the Leopard Woman" (1946)
11:15 a.m.: "Tarzan and the Huntress" (1947)
12:30 p.m.: "Tarzan and the Mermaids" (1948)
1:45 p.m.: "Tarzan Escapes" (1936)
3:30 p.m.: "Tarzan Finds a Son" (1939)
5 p.m.: "Tarzan and His Mate" (1934)
6:45 p.m.: "Tarzan's Magic Fountain" (1949)
8 p.m.: "Tarzan's Peril" (1951)
9:30 p.m.: "Tarzan the Fearless" (1933)
11 p.m.: "Tarzan and His Mate" (1934)

MONDAY 
12:45 p.m.: "Tarzan and the Great River" (1967)
2:30 p.m.: "Tarzan and the Jungle Boy" (1968)