leaps to the rescue and sets the place on fire. For supplements, Warner
serves up a theatrical trailer and an audio commentary with director Hugh Hudson and line producer Garth Tho- mas. Line producers are rarely approached for commentar- ies, but they should be, as they are embroiled in the day-to-day shooting as much as the direc- tor and are often more privy to the behind-the-scenes dramas unfolding. Thomas hopes that viewer will appreciate the hard- ship they all went through to shoot in a hitherto unseen part of Cameroon, Africa. Though the discussion runs out of steam in the middle, as Hudson falls into the trap of verbally explaining the plot as it unfolds, the two men still relate plenty of fascinating stories, including their “extraor- dinary experience” with a real pygmy tribe (people who had never before seen a movie cam- era, but instinctively understood directions since their own way of telling stories is to act them out in front of fires), their location manager’s attempt to appease an angry “ju-ju” tree, the “fear- less” techniques of John Alcott (he would shoot on location with the aperture wide open, and yet achieve stunning results), the building of their state-of-the-art studio jungle, how the female staffers would all flock to the set to see MacDowell in her new costumes (“She had a beauty which they could relate to”), and the puckish Ralph Richardson’s habit of riding a motorbike to the set and hiding a pet rat up his sleeve! Hudson interjects that Rick Baker “will talk about the difficulties of location shooting,” suggesting the makeup artist was being considered to weigh in on his experiences, but un- fortunately he’s a no-show. Strangely, both men feel their
Gordon Scott lets rip with a familiar cry in TARZAN AND THE TRAPPERS,
included in the cheapo box set TARZAN: 5 FILMS, 2 DVDs.
film is faithful to Edgar Rice Burroughs, but they never dis- cuss particulars of the novel or how it was adapted for the screen. Hudson mentions that he was approached to helm a se- quel but was not even remotely interested. Though neither man men-
tions it, GREYSTOKE producer Stanley S. Canter made TARZAN AND THE LOST CITY for Warner Bros. in 1998, a film that could be very remotely considered a sequel in the sense that it’s adapted from the second Burroughs novel, THE RETURN OF TARZAN. But with pretty-boy Casper Van Dien replacing Chris- topher Lambert and a tone so far removed from Hudson’s work, few moviegoers made the connection.
TARZAN: 5 FILMS, 2 DVDs
1918-1958, Platinum Disc Corporation, DD-5.1, $5.99, DVD-0 By Bill Cooke
Complementing Warner Home
Video’s recent wave of Tarzan releases, this budget-line box set of five public-domain Tarzan movies offers an intriguing sam- pling of the various actors and athletes who portrayed Edgar Rice Burroughs’ ape-man other than the celebrated Johnny Weissmuller. The prints are ragged and the transfers less than stellar, but since more pres- tigious companies aren’t exactly racing to track down better ma- terials, this may be as good as it ever gets.
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