Tarzan's Three Challenges

Although this film was shot in Thailand, the small inaccessible kingdom where the action of the film takes place looks more like a Tibetian type culture. Jock Mahoney plays Tarzan for the second and last time in Tarzan's Three Challenges. And the title is a misnomer, the heir to the kingdom has three challenges, Tarzan is his champion in the fourth which is a kind of medieval wager of battle.

Woody Strode is both the old and dying king and his younger ambitious brother. A young child played by Ricky Der is named the heir probably in a process similar to how the Dalai Lama is chosen. The brother who is a warrior and has trained his son to be the same thinks the time has come for a warrior to lead in this modern age and the hell with traditions of pacifism.

Tarzan comes to this kingdom to aid young Master Der on his journey to claim his rights. And of course Strode the warrior tries to stop him as the king Strode dies. When Der completes his three challenges Strode does the wager of battle thing that involves barrels of hot oil. Quite a good challenge as Tarzan is the only guy around who would have chance against Strode.

Actually Strode the warrior does make some rather valid points about moving into the 20th century. Even the Dalai Lama in exile has come to grips with modernity in some ways.

Tarzan's Three Challenges holds up very well for today's audiences, these films shot on location are so much better than those shot on the back lot of RKO back in the day.

There's a TARZAN curse when you look into the actors: Johnny Weismuller was golfing in Cuba during the Castro takeover, and decades later ended up doing his Tarzan call throughout the lonely corridors of an old folk's home; Lex Barker died middle-aged before marrying a younger woman; Mike Henry was bitten by a chimp and suffered from monkey fever; and far worst of all, Ron Ely hosted Name That Tune with Kathie Lee Gifford...

At least Gordon Scott turned out okay, but his replacement in actor/stuntman Jock Mahoney... after getting through TARZAN GOES TO INDIA without trouble... dared to swim across a giant, extremely polluted Thailand river and caught amoebic dysentery, never gaining back complete strength for future stunt or acting roles...

Which supposedly explains why he looks so frail here... but even in INDIA he was the skinniest Tarzan ever, appearing more like an in-shape long-distance-runner than the kind of bodybuilder type the part's known, and, given the character's legendary strength, most often calls for...

But he makes a decent vine-swinger... and his initial CHALLENGES happen in the course of eight-minutes, leaving the rest of the picture for villain Woody Strode, evil uncle of a child about to rule over the Asian country, trying to get his own young son to replace him...

Taking place within the vibrant yet antique oriental cities and monasteries, providing terrific visuals between random jungle romps, Tarzan could have used more action and less of the baby elephant...

But he does finally have an effective sidekick that's not some vulnerable kid or a goofy adult forcing comic relief... but a swift and agile local (Jimmy Jamal) who unfortunately dies too soon...

Which is normal since anything with enough potential peters out quickly enough to where the audience forgets the villain's motivation, or Tarzan's motivation in stopping him: a shame being Jock's last romp while Woody Strode (though his voice was dubbed) definitely looks the part of a worthwhile adversary...

But most of the time they seem in two different movies... until squaring-off in an adjoined-competition/challenge that takes far too long to happen, and ultimately aren't very... challenging... except for the incredible final sword-fight over a roped-covered flame-pit that (with the casting of Strode) could even put SPARTACUS to shame.

Tarzan is called in to watch over the heir to a kingdom whose uncle, played by Strode, is determined to make his son ruler instead. The movie is filled with the uncle trying to keep Tarzan from making it to the end of the obstacles or 3 challenges. The fight scenes are good. The story was good, the other actors were OK. Strode was great, in my opinion. I've never seen him play a bad guy before and he did a wonderful job. There was a lot of action and a pretty good plot. It kept my attention. However, as a lover of Tarzan movies since I was a kid in the 60's, I was shocked to see such a frail looking actor play Tarzan. I learned, as an adult, that he had been sick. Then they should have replaced him. Tarzan movies didn't call for great acting skills, but it did require "presence" Sadly, he didn't have it. Poor Mahoney certainly looked different from the funny guy in the 3 Stooges movies who was in love with "Nell, honey!"

This is Tarzan at its best. A man of nature dealing with the nature of man. Defending the spiritual from the corporeal. Terrific allegory. Jock Mahoney, although a bit old at the time of this film, is a terrific Tarzan. My favorite.

In an Asian country, the old ruler Karim is dying. His child heir Kashi is threatened by his evil uncle Gishi Khan (Woody Strode). Tarzan (Jock Mahoney) is summoned to protect Kashi from Khan.

I didn't know that Tarzan gets summoned around the world like a superhero. In some material, Tarzan is treated like a superhero. I certainly didn't expect Tarzan to show up in Asia. He's old and in his loincloth. Did he get a drum signal? How does he get there from Africa? Did he take a plane? Did he fly coach or first class? Where does he keep his money? These are my questions for this movie. I guess none of that matters. It's The King and Tarzan. It's such an oddity and a little fascinating. It's got good Thailand locations and exotic local flavors. Tarzan veteran Woody Strode is doing yellow-face, but I'm ignoring that. As a movie, it's rather boring except for the locations, animals, and other secondary exotic stuff.