You will not find the phrase, “Me Tarzan, you Jane” in this production, hell you won’t even find Jane at all in this 1959 Tarzan film produced by Sy Weintraub, and as a fan of all things Tarzan I must say I couldn’t be happier. Gone is the Pidgin English-speaking ape-man, in his place is a complex and literary hero, and as for the missing Jane, well even Burroughs tried to kill her off back in 1919 with his story Tarzan the Untamed, so I’ll let that slide, but clearly Weintraub understood that tying Tarzan down to just one blonde wasn’t a necessarily good thing for continuing jungle adventures. Burroughs certainly felt the same way, for after failing to kill Jane – public outcry forced him to bring her back – he constantly gave Tarzan amnesia – seriously, he gets hit in the head a lot in those books – or found some other reason to separate Tarzan from wife.
This outing was helmed by director John Guillermin, who would of course rise to fame with the desired epic The Towering Inferno, the less than impressive King Kong remake in 1796, and then the laughably bad King Kong Lives. Now Guillermin did make one other Tarzan movie, Tarzan Goes to India, but it was nowhere near as good as Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure!
In this movie, Tarzan is played by Gordon Scott, and as I mentioned this wasn’t the stilted possibly brained damaged version as portrayed by most actors prior to this film, or even earlier Gordon Scott Tarzan films for that matter. The Tarzan in the Burroughs books was a man who became fluent in several languages, and not just human ones either, so seeing a thoughtful intelligent Tarzan as portrayed by Scott in this film was a nice surprise. The only criticism I have of his version of the Ape Man is that he still has a 1950s haircut and lives in a treehouse with Cheetah, the only real two holdovers from the Johnny Weissmuller days.
“Cheeta, time to swing on over to the local jungle barber salon.”
The movie begins with a group of men sneaking into a native outpost to steal some explosives, two men are killed and colouring is found on one of the dead man’s hands, confirming that it was white men disguised as natives. Also, the dying utterance of the radio operator was the repeated word, “Slade.” This is a man that whom Tarzan has a history, so when the jungle drums call him to the scene he is quickly on the case. Tarzan believes that the perpetrators have taken a boat upstream, even though there is nothing up there but a dangerous jungle, and when the local constable asks if Tarzan is going to stay for the burial services for the two dead men we get a glimpse of Tarzan’s views on religion.
“No, I need no sermon to tell me how I feel about Dr. Quarles.”
While at the outpost Tarzan meets Angie (Sara Shane), a bush pilot who is a bit cavalier about the deaths of the two men, and as the movie goes on it’s her character that truly makes the journey.
“Death is never a pretty sight. We’ll see it again before the hunt is over.”
The villain of the piece is played by the great Anthony Quayle, and his portrayal of Slade is that of a brilliantly complex character, who though a homicidal maniac is also clearly self-aware of his faults. When he finds out that Tarzan is on his trail he knows the danger they are in, and he almost relishes the thought of facing off against the Lord of the Jungle. Among his crew is O’Bannion, played by pre-Bond Sean Connery, who’s a fun lovin drunken lout who believes Tarzan is no threat to four armed men.
“I like my jungle men shaken not stirred.”
Also onboard is Toni (Scilla Gabel), Slade’s much put-upon girlfriend, then there is the boat’s pilot Dino (Al Mulock), who may have some series mother issues, and next is Kruger (Niall MacGinnis), a German and possible ex-Nazi. It seems that Slade knows the whereabouts of a diamond mine and with Kruger’s expertise with jewels, the team hopes to become millionaires, if only they can survive Tarzan and each other. The group really doesn’t get along well and much of the body count is due to their own infighting and not Tarzan’s hunting skills.
“Don’t delude yourself that we’re four to one. Tarzan won’t come in the front door, you know.”
Note: Most Tarzan films leave out the fact that archery was probably one of Tarzan’s greatest skills, one that served him well in many of his book adventures, so seeing him sporting a bow and quiver in this film lifted my spirits. Sadly his accuracy with the bow and arrow in this film left a lot to be desired.
A jungle man and his accessories.
When Angie’s plane crashes after she joyfully buzzes Tarzan in his canoe, because why not, she finds herself stuck with the Ape Man on this manhunt, and between almost getting eaten by a crocodile, shot at by various scoundrels, threatened by a large snake, treed by a lion and captured by the villains, she learns a thing or two about real danger.
“Statistically speaking, it’s still the safest way to travel.”
Slade becomes obsessed with the idea of killing Tarzan, laying several traps to take him out, and he almost gets him a few times as even Tarzan has no real defence against thrown dynamite, but when quicksand, an arrow from Tarzan – one of the few that didn’t miss its target – a pit trap that gets one of Slade’s own men, and the inevitable betrayal, all goes towards winnowing the bad guy’s side down to just Slade, and thus the fight becomes a brutal mano a mano.
Who of course wins in the end is never in question.
What is fascinating about this movie is how Angie handles all this, she stoically marches along with Tarzan on this hunt with nary a complaint, and when Tarzan is injured she sneaks aboard the villain’s boat to get penicillin, but at the end, when Tarzan is off to confront Slade, Angie takes the boat and leaves, having seen enough death she sees no need to witness anymore. Though the film ends with Tarzan triumphant it also shows Tarzan alone as well, as he watches Angie’s boat disappear into the distance. This is not how your typical Tarzan story ends and is what makes this film a great example of what makes a good Tarzan story.
This is easily one of my favourite Tarzan films, and there is not one cast member that doesn’t give an excellent performance, with Quale a real standout with his twisted portrayal of Slade, and though the film was shot in Africa sadly most of the animals are from stock film libraries, which are not all that well integrated into the movie, but this doesn’t do much to harm what is really a taught jungle thriller.
If you are a fan of Tarzan this is a must-see film, don’t Cheeta yourself out of seeing it.
You can find all my Tarzan movie reviews here: Tarzan at the Movies
Tarzan's Greatest Adventure
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Movie Rank - 7/107/10
Summary
Producer Sy Weintraub and director John Guillermin gives us a taught jungle thriller with Gordon Scott as one of the closest to the books Tarzan we ever got.
The best review of the greatest Tarzan film ever made. In virtually every review I have read, the character of Angie stands out, which is quite an achievement considering the quality of the cast.
As you have mentioned, it is her character that grows as the film progresses, and, although many fans might have preferred an ending in which Angie is waiting for him on the boat, and they sail off into the distance, this would have been totally at odds with the film as a whole.
However, I do find it supremely ironic that the producers asked both Anthony Quayle, and Sean Connery back for the next Tarzan film(Tarzan The Magnificent), and both turned it down, the one actress that they could have asked back was Sara Shane, who could have reprised her role of Angie, and expanded the character even more, still, what could have been.