No sooner has Jane (now played by Brenda Joyce) return to Africa from war duties in her native England (even though she is obviously a Yank) then she's in danger while out searching for Boy (Johnny Sheffield) who is taking a bunch of treasure hunters to the city of the Amazons. It is ruled by the very slow speaking Maria Ouspenskaya who announces that she is going to hold them captive for the rest of their lives. You know the moment you see her in her queenly garb that this is going to be camp. In fact, had this been in Technicolor, it would be a rival to the previous year's "Cobra Woman".
As this was the second RKO entry in the Tarzan series (after over a decade at MGM), the designers went all out to create an exotic atmosphere to represent the Amazon city. Wait to see the woman banging the big gong. Johnny Weismueller has moved over to RKO with Sheffield, although I'm not sure that Cheetah is played by the same chimp. He's very funny as he looks through the binoculars and gets scared over to lion cubs that he spots, literally spilling over in his chair.
Of the unwanted visitors, Barton MacLane is the villain with Henry Stephenson decent but misguided. MacLane can do this type of part in his sleep so it's easy to hiss him. Ouspenskaya is deliciously awful, a hoot to watch, delivering each line as if she thought it was just a rehearsal and that the camera man was just lighting up shots. This was a Saturday morning staple, first in the theater and later on TV, and stands the test of time as something so wonderfully audacious that you can't believe what you're seeing. Funny that Weismueller seems to aged out of swinging from trees and doing his famous yell. It's either stock footage or a stuntman for the one swinging scene there is. I guess even a man in a loin cloth has to grow up sometime.
As this was the second RKO entry in the Tarzan series (after over a decade at MGM), the designers went all out to create an exotic atmosphere to represent the Amazon city. Wait to see the woman banging the big gong. Johnny Weismueller has moved over to RKO with Sheffield, although I'm not sure that Cheetah is played by the same chimp. He's very funny as he looks through the binoculars and gets scared over to lion cubs that he spots, literally spilling over in his chair.
Of the unwanted visitors, Barton MacLane is the villain with Henry Stephenson decent but misguided. MacLane can do this type of part in his sleep so it's easy to hiss him. Ouspenskaya is deliciously awful, a hoot to watch, delivering each line as if she thought it was just a rehearsal and that the camera man was just lighting up shots. This was a Saturday morning staple, first in the theater and later on TV, and stands the test of time as something so wonderfully audacious that you can't believe what you're seeing. Funny that Weismueller seems to aged out of swinging from trees and doing his famous yell. It's either stock footage or a stuntman for the one swinging scene there is. I guess even a man in a loin cloth has to grow up sometime.