his film until theirs was out of the gate. Lesser, who spent the bet- ter part of his career making sec- ond-rate Tarzan pictures, hired KING OF THE JUNGLE star Buster Crabbe to rival MGM’s Johnny Weissmuller (both men were Olympic swimming cham- pions). Instructed to emulate MGM’s model of Tarzan as a grunting primit ive, Crabbe giggles crazily and looks re- tarded much of the time; he would find much more success in the title roles of Universal’s upcoming FLASH GORDON and BUCK ROGERS serials. The film, which was initially released as a 12-chapter serial, co-stars Jacqueline Wells (1934’s THE BLACK CAT) as Mary Brooks, a blonde Jane surrogate who be- comes smitten with the ape-man while trekking in the jungle to find her scientist father. Conflict comes in the form of safari guide Jeff (Philo McCullough), a bounty hunter out to kill Tarzan, who steals treasure from Caucasian natives in ancient Egyptian garb. Though the film lacks polish compared to the MGM series, Crabbe’s vine swinging is at least executed more realistically, with no embarrassing trapeze bars in sight. He hangs around with an unnamed chimp (in one scene, he literally spanks the monkey), and his annoying yell hits the same notes as Weissmuller’s, without the yodeling effect. In- terestingly, several ideas would find their way into MGM’s epic TARZAN AND HIS MATE (1934), including a crocodile fight, a lion sacrifice, and Tarzan’s confusion over a gramophone. TARZAN AND THE GREEN


GODDESS (1938, 67m 36s) is the second of two features cut from serial chapters, and origi- nally played in 1935 as THE NEW ADVENTURES OF TARZAN. The project is of particular interest to Tarzan junkies in that it was


Herman Brix (here with Ula Holt) had the distinction of being hand-picked by Edgar Rice Burroughs himself to play his creation in TARZAN AND THE GREEN GODDESS.


co-produced by creator Edgar Rice Burroughs, who personally chose Olympic shot-put cham- pion Herman Brix to play a culti- vated, articulate ape-man (how odd it must have seemed to those who only knew the character from the MGM and Sol Lesser produc- tions). Looking very debonair with slicked-back hair and casual cloth- ing, Tarzan helps the Martling ex- pedition hunt down a stolen idol that houses a secret formula for a bomb “powerful enough to blow whole cities sky high.” Though the story takes place in Guatemala, where the film was actually shot, a confused editor keeps cutting to stock footage of African lions, rhinos and gi- raffes! Nkima, Tarzan’s monkey friend from the novels, makes a rare film appearance, but Jane is nowhere in sight—she’s been replaced with Ula Vale (Ula Holt), whose exoticism and capability anticipates some of the smarter Bond girls. Brix, who later changed his name to Bruce Bennett and appeared in “A” productions like


SAHARA and THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, cer- tainly looks the part of Tarzan, but his line readings are stiff and his yell (probably not Brix) is disconcertingly weird, sound- ing like a car shifting gears (according to ERBzine, he’s screaming “Mmmmmmmm- annnn-gannnn-eeeeee!”). At one point Tarzan mimics a lion to confuse his captors, a talent that would be exploited heavily in Hudson’s GREYSTOKE (1984). Unimaginative direction, con- fused plotting and a low budget mire what should have been a superior, author-sanctioned project. Platinum serves up a television print that credits Brix under his Bruce Bennett alias. TARZAN’S REVENGE (1938,


69m 27s) stars yet another Olympic gold medalist, decath- lon champion Glenn Morris, whose physique is certainly im- pressive enough but whose face is too kind, too soft for even a noble savage. The plot con- cerns a rich American family on


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