Tarzan wird gejagt

Those unfamiliar with 1940s American slang will miss the clever undertone of the title. Back then, a "huntress" was what women called other women who tried to steal their men. Perhaps to feed a certain misimpression of what the movie was about, a poster of the time shows Patricia Morison's character looking on enviously as Tarzan and Jane enjoy a tender moment. A famous publicity still showed the beautiful Morison clutching her coiled whip. Of course, the promise of hanky-panky and jungle homewrecking was totally false. Morison plays a real huntress, who's after animals. And to tell the truth, except for the visuals, this is one of the duller Tarzan films, short on suspense and exciting action. Morison may look naughty, but she's not a very menacing villain.

Already in agreement with the other comments about the place of this film in the tradition of Tarzan movies, I would like to concentrate on one sub-plot, the animosity between Tarzan (played by Johnny Weissmuller) and Monak (played by ex-prize fighter Mickey Simpson), loyal servant to the scheming, evil Ozira (yes, my namesake; I am a major Tarzan fan).

Ozira stands to receive generous bounties for helping a safari catch African animals to re-stock the zoos after the Second World War. Since his uncle, King Farad, won't cooperate, Ozira stages the shooting of Farad (by Monak) to look like an accident and Farad's teenage son Suli is also believed killed, pushed into a pool of crocodiles, again by Monak.

As Monak leads the gun bearers and safari hands to help the hunters get their animals, he has a number of brushes with Tarzan. Tarzan liberates captured animals, knocks out several of Monak's guards and, when other bearers are sent back to the city for help, one safari hand is killed by a lion. Monak seethes to get revenge and tangle with Tarzan.

In one scene, after Tarzan and Boy steal the guns and rifles, Cheetah the Chimp tries to steal the compact of the female hunter (the Huntress of the movie, Tanya, Patricia Morrison's character). Monak hurls his knife, almost getting Cheetah. We are also treated to a closeup of Monak, a big man, proud, powerful, commanding, a large, smooth chest, fine belly, wide, deep jungle navel. Certainly, he would never miss with a knife again.

The guns retrieved, the safari continues to collect animals and Tarzan and Boy find Prince Suli very much alive. The city of Toronga must know the truth about this and Ozira's treachery unmasked.

As Tarzan attempts to lead Suli to safety, Monak, rifle in hand, bandoleer across his powerful, commanding chest, knife stuck in his sarong-like wraparound, spies him and, along with two gun bearers, bandoleers crisscrossing their majestic chests also, Monak goes after them, pausing to take a few unsuccessful shots. Tarzan takes to the trees and the three separate to get at him and to finish off Suli.

Weissmuller sharpens a vine to use as a spear and hurls it into the bare belly of one of the gun bearers who topples to the jungle ground. Tarzan then flings his knife into the back of a second gun bearer, who falls onto the ground, the bullets framing his brave chest, his life lost for Monak and Ozira.

Monak has climbed a tree to direct the battle. Tarzan is in that same tree and so is Suli. Monak, smiling with confidence, slyly pulls his knife out and it flies through the air but inexplicably misses Suli. Monak then sees Tarzan approach and the battle is on. Monak pulls off his bandoleer and tries to hit Tarzan with it. The two actors are now side by side and it is clear what a formidable man Simpson was. Then thirty-four, he was at least fifteen to twenty years younger than Weissmuller, depending upon the uncertain birth date of the former Olympic swimmer. Monak almost takes Tarzan, but Tarzan jumps down to a lower branch. Monak tries to push Tarzan off the tree with his foot. Tarzan catches hold of Monak's foot and twists it. Monak grimaces in pain as he realizes the tide of battle has turned. Losing his balance, he falls, attempts to grab onto a branch but, not able to hold on, tumbles down many feet, past a smiling Suli, and rolls over onto his back as he hits the jungle ground. His arms spreadeagled, his broad, expansive, brave, adventurous, daring, bold, jungle leader chest is splayed on the jungle floor.

Monak has given his life for Ozira. (Ozira and some of the hunters will soon die in one of the most exciting elephant stampedes ever brought to the screen). Monak's death is the turning point of the story for now, following the stampede, Prince Suli will be restored to his people. Ozira will die by being driven over a cliff in the ensuing confusion of the elephant stampede and hitting his head on a rock. Ozira will never know that only a short distance away, the fine body of his "most trusted servant" lies still, having risked everything to serve his greedy, malevolent master.

After the hugely enjoyable Tarzan and the Leopard Woman, the Weissmuller Tarzan series slides back into mediocrity with a rather stale tale of unscrupulous trappers—led by 'huntress' Tanya Rawlins (Patricia Morison)—collecting specimens to restock the world's zoos, much to Tarzan's disgust, of course. A woefully underdeveloped sub-plot about the assassination of a jungle king by his power hungry nephew adds little to the film's overall entertainment value.

As usual, Cheetah is on hand to provide the laughs, annoying the other jungle critters and taking Boy's model aeroplane for a short flight, Jane (Brenda Joyce) gives the film some sex appeal (surprisingly, the titular 'huntress' provides little in the way of titillation), Boy (Johnny Sheffield) learns an important lesson about life (trading lion cubs for a torch is wrong!), the family indulges in a spot of synchronised swimming, and Tarzan saves the day (and the captured animals) in the final reel with that old chestnut, the stampeding herd of elephants; but whilst all of this makes for adequate 'rainy Sunday afternoon' family viewing, it offers avid Tarzan fans nothing much to get excited about.

5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

In 1942, America's biggest film studio MGM scrapped its legendary Tarzan series, with the option being snapped up by the smaller RKO. There, Johnny Weissmuller was to strap on the surprisingly-revealing Hays Code-approved loincloth a further six times. The first couple saw him scrapping with Nazis, with the second - Tarzan's Desert Mystery (1943) - being as good a piece of nonsensical fluff as you're ever likely to find. I was a bit down on films three and four, as they're tired and largely gloomy affairs, but the penultimate entry - Huntress - is a partial return to form. Its major strength is an understanding of the series' in-built mythology and a welcome sense of fun. Like Superman Returns, then, only not as good. As with the first two MGM entries - the patchy Tarzan, The Ape Man and the superb Tarzan and His Mate - Tarzan's jungle paradise is invaded by hunters, a more sensible plot line than we've come to expect from these Sol Lesser yarns. The villainous gang includes former Warner heavy Barton MacLane and the eponymous huntress - Patricia Morison. Though the film is a touch confused about the morality of stealing animals from the jungle (presumably that was how the bulk of its supporting players came to Hollywood), Tarz does ultimately get pretty narked about the whole thing, leading to a series of lively showdowns. He's accompanied once more by Brenda Joyce and Johnny Sheffield, whose Boy is now a man, with a deep, booming voice. Where the film really scores is in its embracing of the Tarzan legend as our hero lets rip not once, but twice, with his famous yell. The first - so unexpected after four films without it - is a euphoric moment that seems to strip away 15 years of typecasting and weight gain from its wonderful star - if only for a few seconds. For all the film's deficiencies, like a messy, jumbled narrative and comedy scenes shoehorned in at apparently indiscriminate junctures, those two scenes are jolts of pure joy.

Penultimate Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan film and the last to feature Johnny Sheffield, who played Boy in eight Tarzan films before getting his own series as Bomba, the Jungle Boy. Patricia Morison heads an expedition to Tarzan's neck of the woods to nab some animals for zoos back in the States. Helping her is vicious big game hunter Barton MacLane. By now, if you've seen even a few Tarzan movies, you should know where this is going. The bad guys take the animals but Tarzan steals them back and, with help from Boy and his animal friends, runs the villains out of Africa. There's also a subplot about political intrigue with local royalty.

Johnny Weissmuller is good but he's basically going through the motions at this point. There's nothing in this he hasn't done before. Johnny Sheffield, who's almost as big as Weissmuller at this point, does well in his final outing as Boy. There's a thread running throughout the movie about Boy learning responsibility ("Boy man now. Do man's work."). Brenda Joyce has little to do as Jane but her few scenes are nice. Lovely Patricia Morison is interesting as the title character (who is not really a huntress). She's written sympathetically most of the way through but it ultimately amounts to nothing as she never switches sides like you are expecting. A major misstep is that the film doesn't give us a catfight between Morison and Brenda Joyce. There aren't a lot of action scenes in this one. Tarzan has a brief fight scene with another man but no tussles with crocs or anything. The climactic animal stampede is exciting, though. The drama is solid and the cute family stuff between Tarzan, Jane, Boy, and Cheeta is always fun to watch. A highlight of the movie for me is the scene where Cheeta flies a bamboo airplane Boy made.

Not among the best of the Tarzan films but still worthwhile. Fans will like it, I think. A couple of final notes: in one scene, Tarzan is freeing the various animals that were captured by the hunters and he is shown releasing two bear cubs from their cages. Why are there bears in an African jungle? In another scene, Morison's character tells the King that "In our civilization, we believe in keeping an open mind." To which the King replies "In your civilization, open mind means that one must agree with what you yourself say." Brother, tell me that isn't as true now as it was 70 years ago!