Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Aedonerre I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

mark.waltz Buster Crabbe takes on the role of Tarzan a year after MGM produced its blockbuster smash hit epic with Johnny Weismmueller. While that certainly is made on a higher budget and very good, this serial which was edited down to a 90-minute feature is equally entertaining and often even better because of the low budget it was made on. Crabbe isn't as eloquent in his performance as Weismuueller would become over the decade and a half that he played the role, but there's something more realistic and manly about the way he played Edgar Rice Burroughs famous character. Jacqueline Welles, AKA Julie Bishop, isn't playing Jane here, obviously not allowed to use the character's name because of the rights owned by MGM, but with the basic story being in the public domain, this version was allowed to adopt it. She's an American girl searching for her father who happens to know Tarzan, and she's accompanied by a man who has instructions to find the supposedly missing Tarzan in order to give him an inheritance. But greed takes over, not only with the attorney's representative, but other members of the explorer's party who discover that there is valuable treasure to be found in the African jungles. Tarzan realistically fights lions, saving one of the villain's life, temporarily saving his own, and battled a high priest played by an unrecognizable Mischa Auer whose staff is in a combination of fashions representing what Hollywood believed native Africans to wear, also looking like ancient Egyptians or Arabs. A cute little chimpanzee is Tarzan's best friend, and there are lots of other adventures involving animals. Tarzan battles lion to save a cute gazelle and shots of large snakes, elephants and other jungle creatures are part of the stock footage utilized to give this an authentic look. It's all very entertaining yet impressively done inside of obviously being made cheaply. Music heard the previous year in the Bela Lugosi horror film "White Zombie" is mixed in with the modern music that seems absolutely out of place in the African jungle where Tarzan resides. I would much prefer the edited feature version over the serial, because the future retains the book of the action yet cut a good hour of story edits out.

Wuchak TAZAN THE FEARLESS (1933 B&W) features Olympic medal winner Buster Crabbe as Tarzan. On the plus side, Crabbe has the requisite physique for the role and his expressions are more developed than Johnny Weissmuller's blank look; in addition Crabbe has one of the best Tazan yells that I've heard (this is in contrast to another reviewer who panned it). After slaying a lion he lets out a near-bloodcurdling victory cry that well captures the scream as depicted by Burroughs in his books. On the down side, Crabbe wears a loincloth that is ridiculously skimpy on the backside, almost like the costumer was gay and wanted to flagrantly show-off Crabbe's buns. Another negative aspect is that this is a second-rate production compared to the Weissmuller films of the same era, no doubt the result of rival producers wanting to cash-in on the huge success of the Weismuller films.GRADE: C

bkoganbing Tarzan The Fearless has swimming icon Buster Crabbe in the role of Edgar Rice Burroughs noble savage of the African jungle. What I'm reviewing is a condensed version of a Tarzan serial which this film was. Condensed when referring to serials is never good. I'm not a big fan of serials in general, but editing them down to feature film you lose a whole lot of continuity. I have to confess I gave up trying to follow the plot.Crabbe though was one magnificent specimen. We have a blond 'Jane' played by Julie Bishop who with her fiancé Edward Woods is on an expedition to find her scientist father E. Alyn Warren. Bishop and Woods have a pair of treacherous guides in Philo McCullough and Matthew Betz who've got an agenda of their own which is to locate a fortune in emeralds from the lost people of Zar whom Warren is trying to locate and study.Crabbe even in the condensed version is wrestling with lions and crocodiles and the people of Zar bailing these intruders out of trouble. All in all viewed today it's pretty silly.

Poseidon-3 Landing far towards the bottom in many folks' ranking of the Tarzan films, this one has far more charms than it's usually given credit for. Produced separately (and far more cheaply) than the famed Weissmuller/MGM films of the era, this one stars former Olympic champion Crabbe as the ape man. He has befriended a gentleman explorer and researcher (Warren) whose daughter (Wells), along with her suitor (Woods), is en route to find him in the dense jungle. When the safari guides spot Crabbe, they decide to kill him in order to collect a 10,000 pound reward on his head from his enemies in England. Wells, however, is rescued from an alligator by Crabbe and she falls for him, determined to do whatever it takes to save him from slaughter. Meanwhile, a fanatic religious cult, a riled up band of natives and assorted lions add to all the troubles in the jungle. If it sounds like a crowded plot line, it's because the storyline was part of a 12 episode serial and this film is cobbled together from parts of the larger whole. As a result, the story is choppy, the editing is awkward at times and it lacks the coherence of a work intended to be a self-contained feature film and not a prolonged saga. However, especially for Tarzan enthusiasts, there are some pluses. Crabbe is stunning to look at. His adorable face and thick, curly hair compliment his impressive physique. His rather startling loincloth is brief, to say the least (except, oddly, in the swimming sequences when it is inexplicably replaced by a pair of leopard-print trunks!) He approaches the role with complete physical abandon, thrashing animal-like when excited, barely speaking at all and doing a significant amount of his own stunts. When Wells annoys him, he gives her a thump in the shoulder and when Tarzan says it's bedtime, it's BEDTIME! The rope swinging (and there is PLENTY of it!) is among the most realistic of all the films and there are some striking tussles with lions that certainly beat the one Victor Mature did in "Samson and Delilah". Some of the aspects of the film are laughably bad, such as the Eqyptianesque fanatics and crude editing which features people looking at things in the wrong direction or running the wrong way or not being able to see something that is in full view. Stay tuned for the scene near the end when a man in a gorilla suit enters the fracas when trying to get an elephant to rescue Crabbe from a pit!! There is also a lot of pausing before and after lines of dialogue, a symptom of the early days of sound film-making. Still, it's certainly worth a look and Crabbe will not be easy to forget, not only for his looks, but for his charm. The kooky finale has a chimp and an elephant dancing (!) along to music from a phonograph!!