Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

flapdoodle64 A lot of fans like to bag on the RKO Tarzan films because they lack the production values of the 6 MGM Weismuller Tarzans (which they do), but a recent channel surfing session gives me an alternative perspective. Specifically, not long ago while eating a sandwich on my couch I found myself watching a section of the first Johnny Weismuller 'Jungle Jim' feature (1948). Seeing Our Hero slogging through Southern California and Stock Footage Africa in a Columbia ultra-cheapie, phoning in his performance and fighting what appeared to be a paper-mache crocodile made by a third-grader, has given me the ability to appreciate the RKO-Tarzans for what they are...solid B-Movie/Saturday Matinnee escapist adventure films.Many intelligent Tarzan scholars disagree on who the greatest film Tarzan was, but none can disagree regarding the cultural impact of Weismuller and no movie Tarzan has ever had a fraction of Weismuller's staying power. Weismuller isn't for everyone, but then again, not everyone likes Elvis. This is the first Weismuller Tarzan film I have seen in about 25 years, and I have to say that after all these years I really enjoyed Weismuller's charisma, confidence and conviction. Weismuller wasn't a good actor per se, but darned if he didn't nail the Tarzan part.Obviously, Weismuller was beginning to have a gut in these later films, but he was still strong and he still carried himself with the pride of an Olympic athlete. If you are a man over age 40, take a good hard look at your own gut some time.RKO apparently didn't have the rights to use the patented bone-chilling hybrid Weismuller/MGMfx Tarzan yell, but as a consolation prize, we get to hear a 100% Weismuller Tarzan yell. The 100% natural yell isn't quite as impressive as the MGM version, but knowing it was 100% Weismuller adds to the enjoyment and novelty.This film has a good plot involving a basically good-natured lady played by the smoking-hot Patricia Morison (clearly upstaging wholesome-sexy Brenda Joyce) who is hunting for zoo animals. Tarzan is ahead of his time in this film, as he opposes taking animals from their native habitat, just as he opposes killing them for anything other than self-defense or sustenance. (In the real world in 1947, keeping animals captive in zoos was universally considered to be humane and ethical.)Cheeta is referred to as a 'she' in this film and has a fetish for putting on make-up. IIRC, in some films Cheeta was a 'he.' Who knows, maybe Cheeta was also ahead of his/her time regarding the idea that one can choose one's own gender identity.Tarzan has one decent hand-to-hand combat fight scene, and while I would have appreciated a little more, the film is filled with appropriate Tarzanic stage business, such as Tarzan stealing all the hunters' firearms while they sleep, and shooting a goose with his bow and arrow. The concluding sequence, where Tarzan initiates an elephant stampede, causing mass carnage and death among the hunters, is well-done and highly satisfying, despite the usage of some stock footage.This film is a fine use of your time if you are a fan of vintage B-features, or a fan of the Weismuller Tarzan. Not his best, but definitely enjoyable and satisfying, with a script and direction much better than your average B-pic.

bkoganbing Tarzan And The Huntress finds Johnny Weissmuller battling yet another trapper coming on to his jungle turf to take some animals back for the zoos of the world. Especially for those countries whose zoos were depleted after the late war.The twist is that the villain is Patricia Morison, an accomplished an independent feminist in her own right whose many talents also include flying a plane. Tarzan would never allow Jane that kind of freedom. The film is a curiously anti-feminine one.She directs the operation to capture the animals as she is also a female Clyde Beatty, but the heavy villainy is left to John Warburton and Barton MacLane. They also get involved in tribal politics in the area where chief Charles Trowbridge is killed and his son thought to be also killed by a nephew looking for big payoff from the trappers.Patricia Morison would shortly get the role of her life, but on the stage. She never rose above playing slinky temptresses on the screen in B films and some of them pretty dreadful. However in two years she created the role of Lilli Vanessi in Kiss Me Kate. Who could have suspected what a great soprano she was from the parts she played in films?Tarzan And The Huntress is one of the better Weissmuller Tarzans that RKO did. And as usual Cheta was the wild card and I mean really wild.

MartinHafer Johnny Weissmuller made a name for himself as Tarzan at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio. However, and I am not sure why, Weissmuller and 'Boy' (Johnny Sheffield) jumped from this prestige studio to the less than stellar RKO--where the budgets shrank considerably as did the quality. The scripts got a lot more weird and the films became chock full of poorly integrated stock footage and animals that often weren't even African. Additionally, 'Jane' (Maureen O'Sullivan) remained at MGM and a new leading lady needed to be found. After having the character be 'off on vacation in England' or 'helping with the war effort' in a couple films, RKO decided to re-cast this character with Brenda Joyce--who bore little similarity to O'Sullivan.This installment finds a party of greedy trappers trying to exploit the jungle to the fullest. However, the wise leader of a very white looking group of natives in the middle of Africa will only allow them to take a male/female pair of each species--and they are just too greedy for this. So, their foreman (Barton MacLane) arranges for the King to be 'accidentally' killed and the new King is more than willing to let them take what they want! What can Tarzan do--especially when these evil trappers come into his territory next?! This is a surprisingly lame entry--even for RKO. The most obvious problem is that there are absolutely no black people in the film--yet it's set in Africa!!! Instead, tan-skinned SOMEWHAT Polynesian-looking guys abound!! What?!?! Next, the number of stock clips is larger than normal--and the film looks pretty cheesy as a result. Even more cheesy is the completely unnecessary and dopey scene of the chimp, Cheeta, flying from a home-made glider (complete with obvious wires pulling it across the sound stage). Fortunately, Cheeta is very entertaining in this movie otherwise--and perhaps has the best performance of anyone in the film! This, however, is not enough to elevate this above the score of 5--and this is possibly being a bit over-generous.By the way, when you see the airplane look carefully--it changes type throughout the film and are obviously at least two different planes.

Ben Burgraff (cariart) TARZAN AND THE HUNTRESS suffers from a low budget and a ho-hum plot, although it is far less silly than the previous feature, TARZAN AND THE LEOPARD WOMAN; entrepreneur Tanya Rawlins (Patricia Morison), and her milquetoast lover (John Warburton), mount an expedition to capture animals to restock war-depleted zoos, a not unworthy goal...except they are primarily interested in making big money, which means depleting an area of a large part of it's wild animal population! The local 'lost city' ruler, King Farrod (Charles Trowbridge), showing remarkable farsightedness for the 1940s, limits them to one male and female of each species, which, although showing wise animal management, would not serve the money-hungry Rawlins, at all. Fortunately, she has a ruthless expedition 'boss' (Barton MacLane, making his second 'villainous' appearance in a Tarzan feature), and Farrod has a greedy nephew (Ted Hecht), so a scheme is hatched, to kill Farrod and his heir (Maurice Tauzin), and pay the new King a healthy kickback, in exchange for 'unlimited' hunting (an oft-used scheme of 'bad guys', which would continue to be popular, as recently as George Clooney's SYRIANA).Of course, this being a Tarzan movie, our aging hero is friends with Farrod, and when the ruler is murdered, and the young prince disappears, Tarzan gets involved, which is BAD NEWS for Rawlins and her crew! The film utilizes more 'stock' animal footage than any of the other RKO/Weissmuller features, and unfortunately, it doesn't 'match up' well with the other footage, making the studio scenes look even cheesier; adding to this is a general listlessness in most of the performances, which hurts the overall movie. Even Cheeta seems bored!The most interesting aspect of the film is Johnny Sheffield, who looks startlingly 'adult' in this, his last appearance as 'Boy'. That fact is not lost on screenwriters Jerry Gruskin and Rowland Leigh, who have Tarzan remark, on several occasions, how Boy is becoming "a man". After this feature, Boy would be off to "school in England" (and Sheffield would move on to his own series, as "Bomba, the Jungle Boy").Weissmuller appears tired and a bit out-of-shape, although Brenda Joyce, as Jane, is as fetching as ever! The Tarzan series was obviously "winding down"; the next feature, the surreal TARZAN AND THE MERMAIDS, would mark the end of Weissmuller's reign as "King of the Jungle"...