ThiefHott Too much of everything

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

flapdoodle64 'Now...Tarzan Make Propaganda!'A lot of people seem to have a bias against the RKO Tarzan films, but in truth, it was MGM which gradually morphed the Tarzan franchise from A-picture status to B-picture status, gradually reducing the budget and running time of each picture. And MGM had a bad habit of recycling footage from previous entries in the series...how many times did audiences have to watch the trapeze-vine and the crocodile-wrestling scenes? In fact, it was probably a good thing that the franchise migrated from MGM to RKO, because RKO made some of the best B-pictures of all time, including many classy ones like the Val Lewton horror series, whereas MGM treated their B-pictures like red-headed step-children. Here we get a brand-new plot and a good script, and we get to see Tarzan fighting a bunch of WW2 Jerries. Thanks to Indiana Jones, it turns out that Nazis are timeless villains, which likely would have surprised the creators of this film, who clearly were content to make a fun propaganda piece. Above all other considerations, we get Weissmuller and his distinctive portrayal of Tarzan. Maureen O'Sullivan, who was wonderful in her own right and who brought out the best in Weissmuller, is absent here, but we find that Our Hero delivers a good-to-excellent performance throughout, being strangely moving in the scene where Boy reads Jane's letter and his righteous fury is very effective when he utters this famous line: 'Now...Tarzan make war!' Frances Gifford was an excellent choice as the beautiful and brave princess Zandra, who besides being eye-candy for the adolescents and adults in the audience, has very good chemistry with Weissmuller. Perhaps the chemistry is a little too good...Zandra attempts to persuade Tarzan to help by engaging in some enjoyable flirtation...if Jane had seen the two swimming and sunbathing together, if she had seen Zandra leaning her head on Tarzan's bare chest in a moment of despair, she might not have come back from London in 'Tarzan and the Amazons.' The MGM Tarzan films were marred by blatantly racist depictions of African tribes. For some reason, the RKO Tarzans seem to have few dark- skinned African tribes, but numerous groups of hidden pale-skinned cities. I don't know why RKO's fictional Africa was populated this way, but I will speculate that it may be due to the fact that in WW2, the US govt. made certain efforts to squelch racism in the media, due to the fact that excessive racial oppression was deemed bad for the war effort. DC Comics, who published the Justice Society of America, did some anti-racism comics during the war, at the behest of the War Department. Whatever the reason, we are spared the usual bad African stereotypes, but at the same time, it is odd to think of an Africa inhabited mostly by pale-skinned people. The action and violence in this film are, by the standards of B-movies and Weissmuller Tarzans, very good and satisfying, particularly the sequence where Tarzan tracks and taunts the lead Nazi. Sig Ruman, who played Sgt. Shultz in my favorite Christmas movie, 'Stalag 17,' plays a comedy-relief Nazi here, to good effect. The Nazis go to Africa seeking oil and strategic mineral wealth, and they use military domination to secure their holdings...the Jerries' troops were called 'Africakorps.' Today, the USA and other military powers are still active in many African nations, perpetrating intrigue, fomenting violence, allying themselves with unsavory characters and regimes, so as to secure petroleum and strategic minerals, such as coltan, which is vital for cell phones and personal electronics. The USA has 'Africom.' Now more than ever, the world needs a Tarzan. Barring that possibility, at least we can watch and contemplate this fun adventure.

JoeKarlosi The first of the RKO Tarzans and quite an enjoyable entry. Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) finds himself involved in battling the Nazis when they invade the peaceful nearby village of Palandria and try to make slaves out of its citizens. For this film, Tarzan's partner Jane is absent while doing business in London, so we have the gorgeous Frances Gifford subbing for the feminine interest of the story as a princess of Palandria who makes contact with Tarzan and his son Boy (Johnny Sheffield). Gifford would have made a stunning and perfect Jane. A fun, fast, and entertaining installment with an occasional display of violence, with good actors like Sig Ruman, Stanley Ridges, and Philip Van Zandt playing the Nazi bad guys. *** out of ****

estabansmythe Tarzan Triumphs is one of the best of the series. Part of the credit goes to its cast. Boris Karloff to put part of a gangster's brain into Stanley Ridges head in Black Friday in 1940, three years before he starred in this killer Tarzan entry as a classically dastardly Nazi. Francis Gifford (as Zandra) is a genuine babe. Wow! And of course, Johnny Weissmuller is your perfect Tarzan. However, in a brilliant bit of casting, it must be noted that the real star of this epic is ... Cheetah as Cheetah. Thank God, they didn't use Ray Corrigan and his fabled gorilla suit!Heretofore unbeknown to most of us, it's quite apparent from seeing Tarzan Triumphs that Cheetah really has an axe to grind against the evil Nazi's, who invade central Africa and take over Zandra-ville. When Cheetah gets word of this, he goes ... ape! Tarzan unwisely gets himself captured. Brilliant! Ungowa, indeed! This leaves one one man, er, monkey for the job of saving not only Tarzan, but Zandra, her entire town and, for that matter, the whole of central Africa: you got it...Cheetah.In reality, this film gives us all sorts of talents we didn't know Cheetah possessed prior to this film. For instance, who know that Cheetah was deadly with a Browning water-cooled machine gun? I didn't. Deciding to take matters into his own little hands, Cheetah blows up a Nazi machine gun next or two atop a tower in town. Then he goes to work. Geez, in a matter of a couple minutes, he kills thousands of Nazis. Who knows, maybe tens of thousands? That darned monkey killed millions of Nazi's and what was his reward? The Congressional Medal of Honor? No. The Silver Star? Uh-uh. Zandra? Sorry, even though he was dumb enough to get captured, Tarzan got her. No, Cheetah didn't get diddley squat. Not even a ding-dang banana. Where were the Oscar voters back then? To show his frustration (probably at not getting babacious Zandra), he did a couple back flips, everyone laughed - and the movie ended. By all means, don't miss Cheetah, star of Tarzan Triumphs...oh yeah, and Johnny Weissmuller and Francis Gifford (yee ha!).

TroyAir Johnny Weismuller and Johnny Sheffield are back as Tarzan and Boy, but Maureen O'Sullivan declined to appear in this film for personal reasons. Rather than recast the part, the writers decided to explain her absence by having Jane be in England tending to a sick friend. But, they felt that the film wouldn't be successful without a love interest for Tarzan, so they developed a character named Zandra, who is the queen of a lost city in the African jungle.Nazis appear in Africa, searching for raw materials for their war machine. They parachute a team of explorers into the jungle to set up a base camp, but their radio operator gets separated from the rest of the platoon and is injured during the drop. Tarzan comes along and rescues him, while the other Nazi soldiers make their way to the Lost City and enslave the peaceful inhabitants, using them as cheap labor for the mines. Zandra tries to stop them but is defeated and has to flee the city, pursued by the Nazi invaders. Just as she is about to get captured and/or killed, Tarzan comes along and rescues her.Boy likes Zandra and convinces her to flirt with Tarzan, and at one point Tarzan, seeing Zandra on a distant river bank wearing Jane's leather skirts, mistakes her for Jane. Could this be a blossoming romance?Eventually, the Nazis learn that Tarzan has their radio and they attempt to get it back. They kidnap Boy and demand the radio as ransom. Tarzan and Zandra sneak into the city to rescue Boy and are captured and scheduled for execution. Fortunately, Cheetah comes along and brings Tarzan his knife, which he uses to cut his way through his bonds. In the fight that ensues, the Nazis are defeated.Overall, its not as good as the classic "Tarzan And His Mate" film, but is still good entertainment even with the hokey "Let's beat the Nazis" theme. But then, this film was made in the dark days of World War 2 so a certain amount of patriotic fervor is understandable. Sure, the plot is formulaic but this is a "Tarzan" film after all so don't expect any deep social drama. The Zandra character was somewhat interesting and could probably have been developed into a recurring sub-plot in later movies, possibly to set up a love triangle between Tarzan and Jane. The two Johnnies do a good job with their roles and Frances Gifford is attractive in a 1940's sort of way. Curiously, after Jane's 2-piece leather outfit raised eyebrows in "Tarzan and His Mate", the costume was changed to a one-piece leather dress. So what is Zandra wearing? A 2-piece outfit that looks vaguely Arabic and shows a bit of mid-section. I guess its ok for supporting characters to show tummy but not a main character.