Tarzan and the Trappers

After dispatching a nasty hunter who is illegally collecting wildlife for menageries , Tarzan has to confront his brother who seeks vengeance by means a violent hunting for human game . Along the way , Tarzan arranges to free all of the captured animals as an elephant baby . While a safari of mean hunters attempt to discover a lost city full of treasures.

Tarzan and the Trappers is an adventurous film dubiously faithful to Edgar Rice Borroughs , it packs perilous feats , fights , betrayals , angry natives , wildlife , starving animals , stock footage and gorgeous exteriors. However, being spoiled by a black and white cinematography , resulting to be Gordon Scott's first Tarzan and only with no color . In fact , Scott starred 5 Tarzan films , his Tarzan movies ranged from rather cheap re-edited television pilots to larger scale epics . These are the following ones : Tarzan fights for life by H Bruce Humberstone , Tarzan's greatest adventure produced by Sy Weintraub directed by John Guillermin , Tarzan the Magnificent by John Guillermin and Tarzan and the lost Safari . Although Gordon Scott also played other kinds of genres as Spaghetti Western : Tramplers , Buffalo Bill Hero of the West , Euro-spy : Death Ray, Secretissimo , Pirate movie : Marauder and especially Peplum : Hercules and the Princess of Troy , Romulus and Remo, Coriolanus , Maciste in court of the Great Khan , A Queen for Caesar, Ercole versus Moloch, Goliath and the Vampires , Conquest of Mycene , Gladiator of Rome , Hero of Rome , Samson and the seven miracles of the World . In Tarzan and the Trappers 1950 Gordon Scott brings wit and style to the classic role . His handsome features , imposing height , muscular physique made him a magnificent choice to replace Lex Barker as Tarzan , and he won out over 200 candidaters for the character. It was producer Sol Lesser who changed his name from Werschkul to Scott . Here Gordon Scott is accompanied by the beautiful Eve Brent as Jane and Ricky Serenson as their child . And nice secondaries as Maurice Marsac , Scatman Crothers , Leslie Bradley and Bruce Lester . Of course , special mention for the sympathetic chimpanzee Cheeta , giving some hilarious moments with leaps , frolics, mayhem and antics.

The classic Tarzan movies starred by Johnny Weissmuller were financed by MGM , subsequently took the production some independient producers , as this Tarzan and the Trappers was produced in medium budget by Sol Lesser , subsequently replaced by Sy Weintraub . However , this one seems to be a re-edition from three three episodes of a never shown television series that was rejected by three general networks . The motion picture was uneven but professionally directed by Charles Haas , Sandy Howard and uncredited H Bruce Humberstone, the latter to direct other Tarzan movies . .

At six foot three inches, with a muscular frame, Gordon Scott cuts a fine figure as legendary ape-man Tarzan: he's perfectly cast, even though his hair is rarely out of place while swinging from vine to vine.

But as impressive as the ex-lifeguard is in the role, Tarzan and the Trappers isn't one of the character's more memorable cinematic adventures, the film being edited together from three episodes for a television series that never happened. The result is, unsurprisingly, rather episodic and cheap looking, with a scrappy narrative that sees Tarzan foiling the plans of a party of animal-trappers, one of whom wants revenge on the ape-man for having his brother sent to jail, while another seeks a fabled lost city.

The action is formulaic and rather dull, with only a couple of fun moments to break the tedium: Tarzan riding a giraffe, and Cheeta the chimp raiding a bee hive for honey, with inevitable results. What this film sorely needed was a man-eating plant, some quicksand, a giant spider, and a tribe of cannibals. Eve Brent adds a little welcome glamour as Jane, but Rickie Sorensen is a little too 'Leave It To Beaver' as Boy.

This Tarzan feature from the Gordon Scott series has just enough to make it watchable if you like the series in general. Scott definitely looks like Tarzan, and he has enough of a screen presence to be believable, but his wooden acting style takes the energy out of some of the scenes. The story has a few good moments, but at other times the characters and situations are just too unimaginative not to be noticeable.

The story does have a fair amount of action, as Tarzan must first battle a greedy but rather foolish trapper, and then face the trapper's more malicious brother plus a treacherous jungle trader. Plenty of outdoor footage and scenes of African animals are worked in with the studio shots, and most of the time this helps to mask the low production values. 'Cheta', in fact, gets some of the best moments of the movie.

So many Tarzan movies had been made before this one that it must have been hard to come up with new ideas. This one does at least have a worthwhile idea behind the plot, but it is otherwise rather uninspired in the way that it tells the story.

TARZAN AND THE TRAPPERS (1958 B&W) features Gordon Scott as Tarzan. This is a mediocre jungle adventure edited together from two or three episodes of a TV series that never surfaced. Gordon Scott plays a great muscular Tarzan but, as another Amazon reviewer noted, the film is compressed in such a way that the images are out of proportion. For example, Gordon Scott appears almost short and stout, albeit muscular. I know this isn't true because I just saw another Scott Tarzan film ("Tarzan and the Lost Safari" from 1957) wherein Scott is tall (6'3") and his waist is incredibly lean. In any event, although this is far from the best Gordon Scott Tarzan picture (his "Tarzan's Greatest Adventure" from 1959 is one of the best films in the entire series), "Tarzan and the Trappers" is well worth watching if for no other reason than to feast your eyes on the awe-inspiring voluptuousness of Eve Brent, who plays "Jane."

GRADE: C

This Tarzan film was originally put together from episodes of an unsold T.V. series. This explains the films bifurcated structure. I have been told producer Sol Lesser then edited the episodes together and released it overseas as a feature in some markets. I also understand Americans did not get to see this film until 1966 when it was sold as part of a Tarzan film package to television. As a theatrical release, it looks like a third rate Tarzan film designed to fill out the second half of a double bill. But viewed as what it was intended as; a saturday morning kiddie show from the fifties, it looks better than other shows from the same era such as SHEENA, QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE and RAMER. I'm surprised this potential Tarzan T.V show did not sell.By the way, Eve Brent makes a sexy blonde Jane.