Tarzan and the Slave Girl

This may not be a great film by anyone's standards. But apart from Tarzan speaking in short words, this film I suggest, after more than fifty years of reading and considering Tarzan properties, is the closest any filmmaker has come to capturing the essence of Tarzan as Edgar Rice Burroughs created him. Consider this unpretentious little film's many assets. It features a very attractive and ethical young Tarzan and Jane in the persons of Lex Barker and Vanessa Brown. The feel of the film is jungle, outdoors, hot, humid, on the fringes of a rather rough civilization at best, a zone on the edge of danger. There are very fine supporting performances by a cast that includes Arthur Shields, Robert Alda, Denise Darcel, Anthony Caruso, Robert Warwick and Hurd Hatfield, Mary Ellen Kaye, Peter Mamakos and others. The storyline involves Tarzan and the others with a somewhat alien civilization whose desperate servants, ethically-challenged leader and villains put the whole surrounding group of tribes as well as Tarzan and the others at risk by their illegal actions. The script is well-above average; the characters are quite well-developed and often multi-dimensional; and the climactic escape from living death in a temple engineered by Tarzan I found to be at once exciting, important and decently filmed. The plot line in "Tarzan and the Slave Girl" is at first sight unusually rich for an adventure story. The Lionians and their king have grown desperate. They are not producing children. Under the bad advice of Sengo, played by Caruso, they have begun capturing young women from surrounding peoples in order to solve their dilemma, instead of seeking help through other means. Tarzan becomes involved with the problem when he tries to single-handedly stop a raiding party from carrying off yet another victim. Finally, it becomes necessary to try to reach the Lionians' capital city via an expedition through a country populated by people who disguise themselves as trees and fire blow-darts as weapons. The disease attacking the Lionians is discovered by a doctor, Arthur Shields; fending off amorous advances from his nurse, a sexy half-caste played by Darcel, Tarzan and his trusty, brave but drink-prone helper Alda,and Shields reach the city of the Lionians and find the imprisoned girls there--and also Jane and the nurse, who have also been captured during their roundabout journey to the city. They fail to move the king, Hatfield; and Caruso convinces him to seal Tarzan and Jane in their temple as dangerous enemies to his rule. Tarzan climbs to the top of the structure and overturns the idol sealing the aperture there, thus escaping the trap. Meanwhile, the High Priest of the civilization, Warwick, is being fed to the lions for daring to speak out against the King's unethical scheme. Trazan's prowess in battle with help from his friends wins the day, and Caruso falls into the lions' den, Warwick being freed. Shields finds a cure for the malady and the King embraces amicable relations with all once more. The enslaved girls are returned to their homes; and Alda convinces Darcel to take care of him alone and forget about seducing Tarzan. Having said so many good things about the film, it is necessary to report that apart from some good action scenes, especially those involving boats emerging from or reentering a swamp with islands in it, a very Burroughsian touch, and the city's palace interiors, the production by Sol Lesser's production company in B/W suffers from lack of richness. The tribes involved in the danger mostly resemble Mexican villagers with strange wigs inflicted upon them; and director Lee Sholem, who does well with his very fine cast of actors, has no means of overcoming the budgetary handicaps under which he labors. Lesser was able to produce several much-richer-looking later Tarzan efforts, to his great credit; but this transitional film introduced a post-Johnny- Weismuller Tarzan in Lex Barker, solved some of the problems that needed solving in order to improve the MGM-family-oriented domestic barriers that kept Tarzan from seeking out important adventures; and incidentally the film provided an attractive and very-Burroughsian realization of the original adventure vision the author had dreamed up, as an anti-Communist argument for genetic human worth as against conditioned obedience, four decades earlier. Nearly a very-good film.

Lex Barker dons the Tarzan trunks for the second time in what is a fun Tarzan adventure, even if it's just a bit too crammed with intentions for its own good. Vanessa Brown slips into Jane's short jungle skirt and Denise Darcel is also on hand to provide some extra sex pheromones; and to indulge in a girl on girl scrap with Jane! Cool!

Plot is basically Tarzan out to rescue a bunch of femme natives from the clutches of some mad culty tribesmen led by Hurd Hatfield. There's a jungle disease issue to take care of as well, Cheetah's (owning the movie unsurprisingly) alcohol problem, and of course there's some baddies to be dispensed with which allows Barker to use his athleticism to great effect.

Tarzan gets to be vocal, well more a case of muffled utterances really, and Lee Sholem directs it with economical assuredness. Come the end, baddies vanquished, Jane and Cheetah are smiling, and this Greystoke bloke is a hero again. Hooray! Good solid wholesome Tarzan froth. 6/10

In this second Tarzan picture starred by Lex Barker had more action and adventure, after a tribe's woman has been kidnapped by strange people Tarzan captures one of them, his man has an unknown illness, some warriors and Tarzan try find those tracks and try reach where they living, meanwhile Jane and Lola were kidnapped too, there a fabulous Egyptian civilization hidden on the rain forest, two things call my attention, a new Jane was introduces, sadly wasn't in the same level as Brenda Joyce, another is about the Prince of the Lionians, the great actor Hurd Hatfield, a lavish sets were the main attraction, a marvelous harem of a dozen beauties were stunning and finally the wild Lola who stolen the show, engaging with his sex appeal, fine picture!!

Resume:

First watch: 1978 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 6.5

Lord of the jungle Lex Barker (as Tarzan) and leggy mate Vanessa Brown (as Jane) are riding the elephant when they happen upon a damsel in distress. As it turns out, she's been kidnapped by a tribe of "Lionians" who like to make slaves of attractive women. When a mysterious disease threatens everyone in the area, Mr. Barker brings doctor Arthur Shields (as E.E. Campbell) into the picture. Tagging along are his full-figured blonde nurse Denise Darcel (as Lola) and her boozy boyfriend Robert Alda (as Neil). The former does everything she can to get into Barker's loincloth, and the latter provides Cheeta with another drunk scene...

Eventually, Ms. Brown and Ms. Darcel are abducted into the slave harem, which is run by handsome Hurd Hatfield, the Prince of the Lionians. Again, Darcel indicates her readiness for a good-looking male. Former silent screen star Robert Warwick is the tribe's high priest. But the lead villain is Anthony "Tony" Caruso (as Sengo), who keeps stroking his scar and dreaming of Brown. Fortunately for romantics, Barker and Brown remain true to each other. This was Brown's only appearance as "Jane" in the series, with rotating mates becoming the norm. She, Darcel, and the scantily-clad harem girls provide a lot fodder for sexual fantasy.

***** Tarzan and the Slave Girl (6/21/50) Lee Sholem ~ Lex Barker, Vanessa Brown, Denise Darcel, Anthony Caruso

I've seen the begining of this film and I've seen the ending of this film but not both at the same time, due to its presentation at unusual time schedules on tv. Nonetheless, I've seen enough to know that it's a pretty fair "Tarzan" low-budget action film.

Lex Barker plays Tarzan with Johnny Weismuller's pidgin English, but with a California accent. Vanessa Brown plays Jane with a lot of spirit, just the way Jane should be played. Let's face it, if a woman is going to be running around the jungle with an ape man and chasing slave hunters, she better have her wits about her, and Brown's Jane certainly does.

The story opens with Barker and Brown riding their elephants through a Hollywood jungle when they hear screams. Ever-alert to danger, Tarzan swings down off of the elephant and runs to a local village, thinking that the screams came from there, with Jane and the monkey sidekick Cheetah close behind. When they get to the village (inhabited by people who look more Middle Eastern than Central African), they find the witch doctor performing a ceremony, but the chief says that they did not scream, so Tarzan darts back to the river to check on the local village girls who were there gathering water. When they get there, they find a bowl one of the girls was using and Tarzan gets hot on the trail. Tarzan catches up to a group of three slavers, who look vaguely Egyptian. He subdues one, but the other two escape after conking Tarzan on the head.

The villagers take the captured slaver back to the village to make him talk, but he's infected with a disease and can't stand up, grabbing his knees and falling to the ground. Soon, other villagers are grabbing their knees and falling to the ground, so Jane tells Tarzan to go to a mission to get a doctor. Tarzan goes and brings back the doctor and his voluptuous assistant, who looks very European and speaks with a French accent but wears a sarong.

At some point in the story, Jane and the voluptuous assistant Lola are captured by the slavers and taken to a lost city, along with the other village girls. Presented to the ruler of the city, the girls are informed that they are to be either sold as slave girls or will join the harem. Naturally, Jane and Lola resist and must be punished, eventually being sealed inside a pyramid to die. Tarzan learns where they are and he tries to save them. I won't go into too much detail here because I don't want to ruin the drama, but essentially Jane comes through at Tarzan's darkest hour and together they free the slave girls and escape from the city.

Now, even though the title has "slave girl" in it, don't think for a second that there's going to be nudity or anything prurient like that. However, we do get to see Vanessa Brown in a two-piece leather outfit (rare for a Jane character, it seems) that reminds me of a cheerleader costume - full cut shoulder straps, V-shaped neckline, longer top gathered in the middle with a mid-thigh cut skirt. This has the effect of making Brown look very athletic (which she is) and really shows off her perky figure well. And, as I mentioned earlier, Lola comes in a sarong and has the full figure to pull it off (nowadays, she'd never make it as a B-movie actress but back in the 50s I'm sure she was a ticket). The other actresses look quite lovely in their sarongs and, later, in their harem costumes, too. Some of them look like they could've modeled for Vargas paintings or nose art on WW2 bombers.

This film certainly isn't a high point of modern art, but fans of "Tarzan" and cheap weekend movies will appreciate it for what it is: a piece of 1950s nostalgia and good, clean fun.