This film is in the public domain and you can download it from the link provided on IMDb. If you get a hold of the DVD, don't expect anything better as the film has been brought out by Alpha Video--a company that seems to NEVER do anything to restore its releases. Fuzzy picture and no captions or special features is what you'll get with Alpha.
Tarzan is an odd sort of series. Normally you'd think that an author would license his character to a single studio, yet oddly EVERY sort of studio (from classy MGM to not so chic RKO to tiny studios like Sol Lesser Productions) seemed to be making Tarzan pictures. While the MGM versions with Johnny Weissmuller were pretty good, many of the others, were, frankly, pretty awful---so I watched this Lesser Production with some trepidation. And, apparently, it was filmed on the back lot of Twentieth-Century Fox Studios--and it was typical for a poverty row studio to rent space on a major studio's lot.
As far as the film footage goes, it's what you'd expect--lots of stock footage of mostly African animals along with Asian elephants (used because they are more trainable and less nasty than their African cousins).
The film begins with Eleanor (Olympic champion swimmer Eleanor Holm), her family and her wimpy fiancé going for a safari in the jungle. When she falls into some water, Tarzan (Olympic decathlon champ Glenn Morris) comes to her aid--and the scene is pretty cute. Later, the evil Ben Alleu Bey (the excellent baddie actor C. Henry Gordon) kidnaps her--planning on adding her to his huge harem. So, it's up to Tarzan to save her virginity and rescue her.
While this is not a great Tarzan film by any standard, it is better than the RKO-produced Tarzan films with Johnny Weissmuller (after he and the series left MGM). And, it's a lot better than the later Tarzan films from the 1950s and 60s. However, it should be pointed out that despite decent production values and script, the leading man wasn't exactly interesting---and I can see why this was Morris' only Tarzan flick.
Tarzan is an odd sort of series. Normally you'd think that an author would license his character to a single studio, yet oddly EVERY sort of studio (from classy MGM to not so chic RKO to tiny studios like Sol Lesser Productions) seemed to be making Tarzan pictures. While the MGM versions with Johnny Weissmuller were pretty good, many of the others, were, frankly, pretty awful---so I watched this Lesser Production with some trepidation. And, apparently, it was filmed on the back lot of Twentieth-Century Fox Studios--and it was typical for a poverty row studio to rent space on a major studio's lot.
As far as the film footage goes, it's what you'd expect--lots of stock footage of mostly African animals along with Asian elephants (used because they are more trainable and less nasty than their African cousins).
The film begins with Eleanor (Olympic champion swimmer Eleanor Holm), her family and her wimpy fiancé going for a safari in the jungle. When she falls into some water, Tarzan (Olympic decathlon champ Glenn Morris) comes to her aid--and the scene is pretty cute. Later, the evil Ben Alleu Bey (the excellent baddie actor C. Henry Gordon) kidnaps her--planning on adding her to his huge harem. So, it's up to Tarzan to save her virginity and rescue her.
While this is not a great Tarzan film by any standard, it is better than the RKO-produced Tarzan films with Johnny Weissmuller (after he and the series left MGM). And, it's a lot better than the later Tarzan films from the 1950s and 60s. However, it should be pointed out that despite decent production values and script, the leading man wasn't exactly interesting---and I can see why this was Morris' only Tarzan flick.