Okay, I was all set to hate this episode because I remember it being boring and cliché, plus it was a non-Jai episode and the children, I remembered, barely had personalities, and it felt predictable. It’s funny how time changes perspective sometimes. I really enjoyed it.
Ron Ely’s TARZAN
Episode 18. THE DAY THE EARTH TREMBLED
Review By Charles MentoWe’re off to a bad start through as a helpless female played by the wonderful Susan Oliver (as Peggy Dean) is menaced by a hapless lion who is then killed by Tarzan in what seems like it was running away from the girl! It was stock footage of Ely with the darker hair. We see a bit more of stock. AND Tarzan having just come from killing a pig. We’re smack dab already in the middle of an adventure. The woman is transporting six children including Chuck who wears a metal brace on his leg and Pete, who looks suspiciously like Manuel Padilla Jr but who isn’t. Both boys seem to have had their voice dubbed by someone who might have also dubbed some of those Rankin and Bass animated movies and specials but who knows? There are also three little girls, who of whom dives into the water to retrieve a doll and gets a man (Thorn played by Gene Evans)—who was trying to rescue her and made the doll for her---- killed, and another boy who barely features.
BTW the start theme music is rearranged and sounds different in the end credits as well. It makes a nice change.
For once we get some solid info on location: Zambesi is often spelled differently (Zambezi) and DOES have earthquakes.
Tarzan isn’t very likable in the first half of this, bullying the girl, not letting the kids have food when they are running out of food sources, killing animals and fish (well, for food), and threatening the three convicts with death several times. THIS IS TARZAN though. He’s savage here and rough, maybe for the very first time in this series. He softens, of course, as the men, one by one, turn out to be NOT the cliché villains and men of heart. Dolan grows close to Chuck and actually gets free but doesn’t run away. Joggo saves Pete from soldiers ants (in what is a nice, new threat for this series and see the movie THE NAKED JUNGLE) at a risk to his own life. And Thorn makes the doll for the girl and loses his life trying to save her. Tarzan could have saved her if he didn’t lose his life but there you go.
There’s a strong Irwin Allen connection here with two actors who appeared as strong guest stars in VOYAGE (both the actors who play Dolan and Joggo) and GIANTS (Joggo) and probably THE TIME TUNNEL. Carey Wilbur wrote for Irwin shows, too, mostly LOST IN SPACE but also LAND OF THE GIANTS.
Despite all that, Wilbur’s script manages to thread in the threats along the way with an interesting premise and for a way to stir the character interplay and relations. Dean and Dolan have had a romance until he was imprisoned for desertion (he may be a general but maybe he’s against war in general). Thorn was in jail for ten years and killed at least five men for money. He came from poverty. The earthquake freed the three convicts. I don’t think we ever hear what Joggo’s crime was. Some of the connections between convicts and kids are noticeable here as an Irwin Allen staple as is disaster (drowning, earthquakes, animals).
First, there is a lion; quakes, a stampede, a food shortage, another lion—this time a male---which Tarzan does NOT kill to save Joggo, a horrifying attack by horrible ants whose bites sting; and a croc attack (and yes, Tarzan kills it but at least this time worn---this must be the fourth croc attack in the series, maybe more-----threat is shorter here and tends to soften Thorn who is thankful to Tarzan for saving him from a bad way to die).
All in all an enjoyable danger trek with redemption for all three men who are anything but standard “bad guys” and in fact, not bad guys at heart.
Utterly surprising that I enjoyed this as much as I did. A strong cast, a strong script, and a sense of locale and of course, the music and stunts, as well as Ely’s strong sense of the character, make this one of the best.
There’s a tradition among movies and some TV shows of putting kids, teenagers, even young children in dire danger, even death and having their comrades shot and killed as in the wildly sinister and violent movie EYEWITNESS (aka THE BOY WHO CRIED WOLF) and the Ray Milland Italian based film THE STUDENT CONNECTION (aka EYEWITNESS TO MURDER---https://scificfanhorrormedia.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-student-connection-ray-milland-aka.html).
Ron Ely’s TARZAN
Episode 19. CAP'N JAI
Review By Charles MentoThe forgotten movie with John Carradine THE HOSTAGE has a small boy taken by horrible criminals in a truck. And COHEN AND TATE are two murderers who have Harley Cross, a small boy, in their sights. And though there are no deaths in LET’S KILL UNCLE, one of William Castle’s later films, the prevailing attitude is anti-Disney.
Thing is this episode starts out all jolly and even has the accompanying Disney like music to boot, all happy go lucky as if this will be a Jai filler episode where Jai gets into some slap happy mischief. Truth is: it’s deadly.
First, Dutch lies to Jai about one Joe Hatcher being his brother and that he will not harm him. Dutch Jenson actually doesn’t kill Joe here but his partner, the Swedish (I think) Cookie (yes, this man’s name is Cookie and he wears glasses like a lot of evil crooks and killers in TARZAN movies) shoots him in the back. While we don’t actually see any bullet holes get made, we do, later see a blood hole on the man’s back! While we’re on it, six natives work for Joe on an old plantation.
When Joe is attacked by Dutch, Zanto, and Cookie in the main house, the six come running with machetes and the like. Dutch seems to knock one out (or kills him?) and Zanto out and out shoots another down (again, we see no bullet hitting or marks but it’s strongly implied and the man does down, that much we do see). After Joe runs out of the house, Zanto and Cookie soon follow. What happened to the other four natives? Were they killed, too? Or knocked out or what? We’re never told.
Frankly, throughout Dutch is an unlikable character, even at the end. I never really took to him. He lies to Jai, fakes writing a long note that Cheetah will carry to Tarzan (who appears only at the start and the end), and has plans to abandon Jai when Jai’s ankle or foot is hurt helping Dutch get out of a hole in a pit where a treasure was: one that the four men stole together and that Joe ran away to hide from the other three. Jai helped the three men get their travel truck from its side and led the men right to Joe Hatcher, so he’s responsible really. In a VERY odd scene, Joe stumbles out, shot in the back and falls near Jai, who bends down and holds the man’s back for an instant until the commercial break…but then when Dutch arrives and begins talking as if Joe is just sleeping and but then reveals Joe is dead and deserved it, Jai doesn’t look a bit worried or upset! WT? With blood on the man’s mouth and Dutch just rolling the body over in front of Jai as Jai watches, unperturbed!
Maybe the station issues a notice that Jai was not to be in too much anxiety or distress? I do know Irwin Allen was issued several notices about such things regarding Will and Penny on LOST IN SPACE---ridiculous things: the kids could not be alone with Dr. Smith or the Robot or both (both were then killers); the kids could not show much fear at all, even against monsters, which were not to be too scary; and the mother was not to be put in peril around her children; then later…the mother was not to be put in ANY dangerous situations as it would upset the kids! There were other things, too, but you get the idea in regard to Jai’s distress.
Speaking of distress, this episode looked like a difficult one to make (not that the other looked easy to make!) and Manuel’s tiredness is probably a mix of good acting from him and REALLY being tired and strained to the max physically but this tough looking shoot and climbing, holding onto Dutch, etc. Manuel looks really ill in one shot or two when he’s riding Dutch’s back piggy back style after Jai has hurt his ankle. He looks like he’s really sick and tired and buries his face in the actor’s back. He also looks like he’s in real pain. And then a vined thin tree hits him as it snaps back from the actor playing Dutch into Manuel.
Jai looks like he’s had a hair cut and for some reason, to me, he looks younger in this episode. Was this episode a hold over from earlier filmed?
On his way home, Cheetah encounter a lion just like Cheetah in movies like TARZAN FINDS A SON. Dutch is similar to characters on shows like FLIPPER (who befriend the young boy and try to con him or do con him), LOST IN SPACE (Dr. Smith, several pirate characters) and LAND OF THE GIANTS (Mr. Fitzhugh), who lies to young boys (usually boys) and con them. I guess this is based on Long John Silver, a villainous character who cons Jim Hawkins in TREASURE ISLAND but the two share a bond that makes both likeable.
It seems Cookie, Elroy Dutch Jensen, Zanto and Joe were all ship mates. Dutch talks of settling down in Java once he’s rich. They robbed diamonds from a diamond mine company in South Africa. Joe left to make it look like he was running a plantation where he found diamonds while diamond mining. I’m not sure it’s every disclosed how long ago this happened but it seems like at least seven years back? Maybe longer?
In the end, Dutch knocks Zanto off the cliff into the spring of algae to his death and then…Cookie has Jai’s hand in his hand, threatening to throw Jai over the cliff if he doesn’t get the diamonds. In order to free Jai, Dutch throws the diamonds to Cookie who tries to catch them and he falls to his death doing so. Thing is he lets go of Jai’s arm and hand to do so…but how did Dutch know that would happen? He was risking Cookie taking Jai off the edge with him.
The tarantula that crawled up Dutch when he was helping Jai get out from the pit was…unnerving. We don’t see what Dutch did to it and he says something like BLOODY SPIDER!
As ever, the locations are beautiful and exotic as Jai and Dutch climb, crawl, and use a dugout to get to where they have to go and yet we are in another cave set…and that’s a good one, too. The episode looks like a million dollars, especially as the two reach the top of the mountain. The view down is spectacular.
So…Manuel can hold down the show when Ely is taking off, I guess. I wouldn’t want this every week though because the relationship between Jai and Tarzan, at least for me, is what drives the show and Tarzan is the star. Though when Jai is not in it, it feels as something and someone VERY IMPORTANT is missing and he is.
Joe quotes Robert Browning but here is the whole poem:
poem written by Robert Browning when he was in Italy:HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM ABROAD
"Oh to be in England
Now that April's there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England - now!
And after April, when May follows,
And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!
Hark! where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge
Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
Blossoms and dewdrops - at the bent spray's edge -
That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture!
And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children's dower
- Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower."
“Tarzan’s right, you have to be more careful about how you use us. He can’t be running all over the place just because you snap your fingers.”
Ron Ely’s TARZAN
Episode 20. A PRIDE OF ASSASSINS
Review By Charles Mento“You know finding her if she’s alive is going to be a miracle. Bringing her out is going to be an even greater miracle.”
Say, is that Samantha from BEWITCHED at 1:11? Sorry.
Tarzan calls the territorial policeman Endicott as if they are known to each other and possibly friends. He also claims whenever they ask for his help they claim dire worldwide consequences.
We’ve seen three of these actors before. Chuck Wood who plays a small role as the lead killer’s assassin, who fails but managed to hit her with a poison dart. He seems particularly interested in killing both Diane and Tarzan. Is he some character Tarzan met before? His red shirt matches the red flowers all over the place pre titles. BTW Chuck’s character gets off scott free in the end and is almost forgotten about. I smell a fan fic sequel that could have been quelled from this.
The lead killer is Gene Evans playing Albers who wants Diana Lawton dead, a woman who left him to make a deal with authorities to stop a sale of arms that will cause a tribal war. He has a way of curling his mouth in the first 20 minutes or so that’s his version of villainous or something. It’s kind of irritating. He also has enough sense to know that Chuck’s character is not enough to kill Tarzan and Diane alone, nor is it enough for even the two of them to kill Tarzan alone. THEN WHY does he, after hiring two MORE killers, experts, does he order them to try to kill Tarzan ONE AT A TIME???? I thought for once we had a villain that made some sense but…NO!
Albers hires Victor French (yes, that Victor French of Mr. Edwards of LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRARIE fame and of HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN) as Cotonasos, a knife killer. Cotonasos has used many names.
He also hires Michael Whitney as Baeder, a rifle expert or gun expert. We’ve seen him before, too in END OF THE RIVER. Cotonasos’s first kill was his wife who complained about his use of alcohol. He uses alcohol in tandem with each kill.
Diane is a jet setter, grew up rich, and is cold, calculating and wants the financial advancement of herself. She’s in her early 30s as Endicott believes. Eventually, this shrinking violet proves herself but for the first time it looks as if Tarzan, despite his initial hatred of all she stands for, is really…and I mean REALLY interested in a romance with her but he doesn’t seem to get it. Instead, in the end, he gets Jai hanging onto his leg and himself as a sort of father/son, big brother/little brother, uncle/nephew sort of thing. The great thing about their relationship is that it’s never totally defined in traditional terms.
Jai appears only briefly at the start and the end. At the start to interrupt Tarzan’s official friend, one of the territorial police (?) or gov’t official officers---Endicott.
In a moment that would never happen now without a big fuss or from a villain or nasty person, Tarzan threatens the what he calls rude Jai with a spanking, telling him he will find it hard to sit down for a few days. In fact, Jai’s just doing what he’s always done: making inferences and conclusions by asking questions and making comments as all TV companions of super heroes and heroes do. At the end, Tarzan teases Jai in a cute scene on a dock as Jai and Cheetah fish (Cheetah earlier kissed a photo of the woman). Tarzan pulled his line from the other side…or something?
The funny thing is that Tarzan seems amused when Jai first starts to talk to Endicott in what he later calls “rudely” or something. Truth is Jai wasn’t really being rude but sticking up for him.
Half a dozen tribes were talking of an uprising…with the weapons if they get them. Diane knows where the weapons are coming into the country. The last communication indicated that she got cut off.
Unfortunately, the entire plot and action are entirely predictable. First, Tarzan has to get the girl from a village that is holding her for ransom. He does. Then, off screen, I believe, he cures her from the poison dart that Chuck Wood’s character hit her with. A helicopter with all three villains in it chases Tarzan and blasts at him from above but can’t seem to hit him. Tarzan uses some kind of ploy to make them think he’s carrying the girl but he’s not? This doesn’t really work though because we don’t see how it finishes out: how does Tarzan use the dummy? How does he get away from the copter and head back to the real girl?
Instead of sticking together the villains come at the pair one by one, which is rather stupid. Tarzan fights with the knife killer and predictably the killer ends up with the knife in his own stomach. Also nice and neat is Tarzan’s finish with the rifle man. The trick Tarzan pulls in the water is a bit better and the fight rough and rugged with the killer getting in some good punches and shots to Tarzan’s body with his fists. He even gives Tarzan a bloody nose on the top of his nose which Tarzan sports throughout the rest of the episode (although the end scene with Jai, he might not have it). Also: Ely’s teeth looks funny as he’s had them bashed in. In one scene he tries to get rid of a lion but it just lays down so he calms it, telling it it’s all right. BTW Tarzan also got a knife in his shoulder or upper chest and still fought on.
At one point, before her inevitable “nice girl” turn around, Diane hold a knife on Tarzan’s neck. In close up, it’s not there. In longer shot it IS there. WT? There’s also, not long after this, the inevitable Tarzan wards off lion to make the girl realize that he’s the real deal. Of note, all the bad guys’ deaths are something Tarzan doesn’t seem to want and he even looks as if he’s ready to go into the water to try to save Baeder when the croc’s already got him but realizes it’s far too late.
Now, also of a nice and neat wrap up: the gunman is put on a tree, unconscious, left by Tarzan who returns to Diane. The killer is dragged off and killed by a croc and there is lots of blood in the water this time out and it is grisly.
During his last fight with Albers, Tarzan flips him…off a cliff. Diane became the nice girl we knew she would from contact with the “half naked savage” though she calls him that, he’s really more than half naked.
During their interplay, Diane mentions atomic bombs and nuclear oblivion while Tarzan mentions Hiroshima (of the jungle which is what will happen if the guns get run into the country). Diane really doesn’t get many lines before 25 minutes in.
The music feels all new and sounds terrific and like every episode this one looks marvelous visually. The town Albers goes to in order to hire the men is the first real full town we’ve seen with buildings, doors, and lots of activity. Some of the market stands have writing on it that looks Mid Eastern in some way. And the building looks a bit like Mexican? It almost resembles a fort. Some of the women in town look as if they are wearing burkas. And the man that Albers gives money to looks Arabian possibly. And for some reason other men, similarly dressed, have a black panther and other large cats, a cub being pulled a bit on a chain. I didn’t like that part.
There’s also a dog in the village Tarzan rescues the girl from or…a wolf? Playing with kids who use a ball to play with it. The scene where the knife killer throws a knife into a large tarantula looks, uncomfortably, real and cruel. Did they use a real tarantula? It sure looks like it. Not that I care much about spiders but…it just seems unfairly cruel and savage. Tarzan seems to hide in plain sight as the villagers give chase. There ARE some tremendous shots from the copter’s POV of the village down below and the villagers running for their lives, though no one is really threatening them. And men with baskets on their heads. In some scenes of Ely running, his hair is totally dyed black again…probably stock footage. There’s also Ely diving off a cliff…or rather Tarzan, which I suspect is stock footage and stock of him underwater, possibly from PEARLS OF TONGA.
I hate to say this again but this episode isn’t bad but it’s just not one of the best because it’s so predictable. It DOES deliver on a lot of action. There’s also some stock footage of animals---lions, hippos, elephants, giraffes, crocs, and birds fleeing from the killers’ rampage. It’s smart of the makers not to use music when the copter attacks Tarzan with loud sounds from the copter, the guns, and the animals. Again, however, this reminds me of at least one Mike Henry scene where he was Tarzan running from a copter that had men shooting at him from. And again, I’m reminded of the excellent TARZAN’S FIGHT FOR LIFE with Gordon Scott against a bunch of killers (including Sean Connery?).
Not a bad watch but very much filled with clichés and things we’ve all seen before.
Harmon Jones who directed one LAND OF THE GIANTS (A PLACE CALLED EARTH) and one VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEAs (THE WAX MEN), both good episodes, directed this and eight other episodes of TARZAN.
I salute this effort to do something completely …well, almost, different. The action comes early on in a very terrifying pair of openings. First, a horrific fire destroys a mission building as Tarzan and a mysterious heavy set man (played by the excellent Sean McClory as Red McGeehan, ironic as he is not red headed here; in the haunting LOST IN SPACE episode THE ASTRAL TRAVELER he plays a redheaded, redbearded ghost who had gout in when he was alive) save at least three children so that no one dies in the fire (their African father and seemingly dark but white mother—a first in that time if that is true are together outside, the father seemingly doing nothing to save the kids, one of the kids BTW looks as if he’s white but covered in soot and hopefully it is NOT black face because it looks strange).
Ron Ely’s TARZAN
Episode 21. THE GOLDEN RUNAWAY
Review By Charles MentoThen pygmies seemingly aim poison darts from blow stick at a surrendering Cheetah while Tarzan is swimming (and splashing at Cheetah). They also aim at Tarzan, too. Apparently, a suit case full of money is given to Tarzan (from McGeehan) to help rebuild the mission but authorities will not because they believe the money has been stolen.
Chundra Lal is a comic character who seems to be one of those officials who send Tarzan off on missions or who help Tarzan, only now I’m going to have to recheck the episode as he’s cowardly, greedy, and helps the main villain who turns out to be (not a surprise) Henry Fitzroy, the white man (American) who is the “protector” to Martha (the credits rarely give last names to characters, unfortunately but IMDB gives her the last name of Tolbooth (Tolbooth, really?) but it hardly sounds like that in the episode and the DVDs are NOT subtitled, unfortunately). He seems to be British, by jove, old boy.
Martha is played by the wonderful Gia Scala who with brunette hair. She had blond hair in VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA second season episode JONAH AND THE WHALE (aired first in the second year). She was terrifically wonderful in that, too, and made the episode even more dramatic as a Russian woman who loses her partner in a whale attack and later she’s swallowed by a whale while exploring in a diving bell with Admiral Nelson. In real life, her mother was Irish and her father Italian from Sicily, giving her an Italian accent and lighter looks. She’s exotically pretty. In 2008, the Democratic Republic of the Congo released a postage stamp bearing Scala's image. Her life was tragic.
What’s different about this episode, you might ask? Well for one it’s the TARZAN show doing a romantic comedy years and years before ROMANCING THE STONE (an awful movie in my opinion and this is far better, just). The sequel to that JEWEL OF THE NILE was to be the second before the third CRIMSON EAGLE, never made it past the development stage. RACING THE MONSOON, which never made it past the idea stage, was to be a forth, more recent return of the characters from that horrid movie.
I digress. Red’s pursuit of Martha is, at first, creepy in a charming kind of way or is that charming in a creepy sort of way but as she smilingly starts to respond to his less aggressive attempt to woe her, their relationship grows warmer and it is nice to see the girl NOT fall for Tarzan. Red also tries to take Tarzan and his pride (and here Tarzan does show a significant amount of over-pride) and the results are actually kind of funny. Thus, the comedy of this episode does sort of work, though it’s only mildly funny and the music accompanying such scenes signal us that this is not a serious episode, despite the very scary pygmy tribe and the tribe helping the villains. At one point the pygmies seem to strangle one of villains’ henchmen with a noose but he seems to be alive and tied up, thus perhaps no one actually died on screen here. There’s also comedy sound effects when Tarzan beats Red a few times at physical confrontations. Fortunately, the comedy sound effects are NOT overdone.
Martha is in the jungle, ready to go into Ju Ju country to find her brother and clear his name of having stolen money (he did steal money but instead of Red being his accomplice, it turns out the brother, Carlo, had Henry as his accomplice). In fact, Carlo and Red were together in the small plane when it crashed in Ju Ju country. Red was a pilot and leaving when rebels took over a camp. Carlo asked for a ride and then put a gun to Red to take him somewhere, Portuguese country (?). Somehow Red survived and Carlo did not and also somehow Red came to be liked, even loved by the pygmy tribe, who seem not to speak much and when they do, it is not English. The warning to not enter their country is a skull on a vine. Martha finds Cheetah hilarious.
At one point, Red, trying to get Cheetah to turn off the water, turns it back on (?) and then tells Cheetah to turn it off? He also calls Cheetah a madam so maybe the chimp was played by a female? Was she doubling from LOST IN SPACE? BTW, this episode and Sean’s LOST IN SPACE episode aired in the same year.
At first, I thought this might have been a Christmas episode as Sean seemed to be a Santa Claus type giving to the mission but it didn’t air in December of 1966.
Also unfortunately, at one point, Tarzan calls Red a mercenary, which I guess is okay but then he calls him a killer, too. So…are we to side with a known killer who’s now become nice and trying to protect the Ju Ju whose land and river or lake have diamonds on the bottom?
I’m not sure what to make of this episode. There is some action and there is an attempt here to do something different with the jungle/Tarzan format. Tarzan is almost the sidekick to Red, who, along with Martha, ARE the main characters. Tarzan becomes a supporting character in his own show and Jai is NOT present at all, other than his name in the credits.
There are really few surprises here and though mildly funny, almost no real belly laughs as the romantic comedy comes from the situation…though it’s not particularly romantic or funny. There IS chemistry between the unlikely pairing of Red and Martha, thanks to the charm of the actors playing them and both actors had difficult lives going forward, so there’s that kind of melancholy in thought if not in the episode itself.
As ever the show looks great and sounds great with what seems to be yet another new score. There are a few stock footage shots of the black haired Ely from earlier last year.
One thing I have to add to this review is that Ely, who always looks terrific in body and face, here, looks even more muscled than usual with veins popping, chest out, muscles straining and looking even bigger, a washboard stomach, etc. He also seems to be healing from that bloody nose wound he had last episode so that makes me think that it was a REAL injury.
There’s also two giraffes hitting each other’s necks which makes me think it is a mating ritual.
BILL HILLMAN
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