After MGM finished its Tarzan series, RKO picked up the series and hunky Lex Barker took over as the heroic ape-man. Surprisingly, RKO even bothered to take the project to Africa itself...something the fancier and richer MGM failed to do with the series. As for the results, they are pretty much what you'd expect...no more, no less.
In this third RKO installment, a super-evil gun runner named Radijeck (George Macready) has escaped custody and is back to his old gunrunning ways. He wants to destabilize the region by selling guns to the natives and his getting rich is his only real concern. As for his partners and any one else, they are expendable and Radijeck is a truly soul-less jerk. Can Tarzan manage to bring him to justice?
Barker was just fine as Tarzan, though I though Jane (Virginia Huston) lacked, well, a lot. She looked as if she just arrived from the beauty shop and lacked the humor and sex appeal of Maureen O'Suillivan, MGM's Jane. As for Macready and the other folks (such as Alan Napier), they were all good. What really stood out for me when I watched is that the animals actually WERE African animals. Most prior Tarzan pics featured animals from all over the globe...such as Asian elephants and American Alligators! All in all, a reasonably well made and satisfying film...but nothing more.
