a_chinn Tarzan vs. Nazis! Johnny Weissmuller is back as Tarzan, although no longer at MGM and instead produced at a more modest of budget at RKO, this time has the Lord of the Jungle fighting Nazis with the help of Frances Gifford, the princess of a lost city that's been invaded by Nazi paratroopers. This is more of a silly Hollywood WWII propaganda film than a genuine Tarzan story. Still, seeing Tarzan so out of place with this story is pretty entertaining both as a so-bad-it's-good type fo film due to the gonzo idea of Tarzan fighting Nazis, but also still kind of works as a straight adventure film. Overall, it's ridiculous, but it's also entertaining. Look for Sig Ruman as a Nazi, who'd later be better known as Sgt. Johann Sebastian Schulz on "Hogan's Heroes." FUN FACT! MGM would not let RKO use their iconic recording of Tarzan's jungle yell and RKO has to make their own new knockoff "Tarzan Yell."

JohnHowardReid Copyright 12 January 1943 by Principal Artists Productions. Presented by Sol Lesser. Released through RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Palace: 4 February 1943. U.S. release: 20 January 1943. Australian release: 23 December 1943. 7,601 feet. 84½ minutes. (Copyright length: 76 minutes).SYNOPSIS: Tarzan makes war on the Nazis. A political allegory in which Zandra represents Britannia (she is even costumed accordingly - at least to some degree), and Tarzan, American isolationist non-involvement.NOTES: Producer Sol Lesser's 5th Tarzan feature - but his first for RKO release.COMMENT: This is another Tarzan and the Lost City - not as interesting as Tarzan and the Amazons owing to the more clichéd script and pasteboard characters, the less inventive direction, and a distinctly second-string support cast. Nonetheless, despite its dated subject matter, it is still frequently aired on TV. There's more than enough action to compensate for the over-use of stock footage and other cost-cutting infelicities. What's more, Frances Gifford makes a most attractive heroine, while Sheffield is still young enough to grab the viewer's indulgence and Weissmuller himself is both comparatively animated yet still reasonably athletic.However, the comic relief from Sig Rumann's harassed sergeant and Cheta's harassing chimpanzee grows more than a trifle wearisome. The straight material with its obviously allegorical plotting is presented with the same degree of sledgehammer subtlety.Yet despite routine direction, Poverty Row sets, amateurish special effects and less than slick production values, Tarzan Triumphs holds the interest. The climax in which Weissmuller taunts the Nazi before leading him to a gruesome death (even though not explicitly shown on camera) has a prolonged, psychologically violent intensity rare in the kiddies' matinee film.OTHER VIEWS: Jane is away in England, so Tarzan battles the Nazis. Quickie, low budget offering, though the last half of the film is rather more expansively produced than the first and the climax itself is moderately exciting. - John Howard Reid writing as Geoge Addison.

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.

Ben Burgraff (cariart) While Tarzan was a popular moneymaker at MGM, with the outset of WWII, the studio felt Johnny Weissmuller was getting too old, Maureen O'Sullivan wanted out of the series, and the overseas market was lost, so the series was dropped...but RKO would prove the Ape Man had a LOT of life left in him! Veteran producer Sol Lesser, 53, loved the character, and snapped up the rights for the studio, wisely keeping Weissmuller, 39, and 'Boy' Johnny Sheffield, now nearly 12, in their signature roles. O'Sullivan, no longer interested in 'Jane', was written out (caring for her ailing mother in London), and the elements that fans loved best (nearly superhuman heroics, comedy from chimp co-star, Cheetah, wild animal footage) were 'beefed up', dropping the romantic interludes, the large number of black 'extras', that provided authenticity (but were expensive for a smaller studio to maintain, for a single series), and, indeed, most of the 'glossiness' that marked the MGM entries. Even the signature Tarzan 'yell' had to be replaced (as the manufactured howl, part Weismuller, part studio magic), was the property of the studio; Weismuller created a 'new' one, that would become so popular that it would be kept, long after he finally retired from the role.The first RKO entry was perhaps the best of their series; TARZAN TRIUMPHS brought the Nazis into the jungle to tap the mineral resources of a 'lost' city, eventually kidnapping Boy, and leading the previously isolationist Ape Man to utter the famous tag line, "Now Tarzan make war!" With lovely Frances Gifford as a native princess, providing sex appeal (and a really weird scene of Boy trying to 'hook up' the princess and lonely Ape Man, to enlist his help against the Nazis), and Sig Ruman, who went from Marx Brothers' foil to one of Hollywood's busiest 'Nazis', as one of the villains, the action adventure is very entertaining (if extremely violent...Tarzan actually encourages the locals to grab a gun and kill, Boy shoots one Nazi soldier with a pistol, and even CHEETA machine guns one!), and the film was a huge hit for the studio.Tarzan, at a new home, was back in the 'swing' of things!