Tarzan's Peril (1951) Reviews

• Exciting Knife Fight in Tarzan's Peril

  Ozirah542005-07-04

  If one is interested in the action/adventure component of Tarzan movies, Tarzan's Peril does have something to offer. While the plot may be simple, this first Tarzan movie ever filmed in Africa does have its moments, mostly revolving around one of the sub-villains, King Bulam, played by noted African-American actor Frederick O'Neal, founder of the American Negro Theater in New York which launched the careers of such notables as Sidney Poitier. Gun runners have broken out of jail and have come to King Bulam's village to trade guns for jewels. Bulam, who has tangled with Tarzan before, intends to use the guns to make war on the peaceful Ashuba people, led by Queen Melmendi (Dorothy Dandridge). Tarzan (Lex Barker) is unsuccessful in stopping Bulam and his Yurongan warriors and is even thrown over a waterfall and presumably drowned. King Bulam conquers the village and, after being rejected by Melmendi, he withdraws and his warriors get drunk. Tarzan returns and organizes an uprising after having freed the Ashuban men. When Bulam arrives to check on the situation, Tarzan gives his famous yell and the Yurongans are caught off guard. Bulam sees that Tarzan is very much alive and flees in confusion and fear. Tarzan catches up with the husky, proud, ambitious, and greedy African war chief and a knife fight, one against one, ensues. While a much trimmer stunt double is sometimes visible, this is still an exciting screen fight. Bulam manages to knock Tarzan's head against a tree trunk and then pulls out a rather hefty, oversize knife that we have seen dangling at his waist for much of the film. The knife is almost in Tarzan's neck when Tarzan grabs Bulam's wrist and causes Bulam to fling the knife away. It lands in some ferns, blade side up. Using his legs as scissors, Tarzan manages to spin Bulam away, and the chief rolls over several times. Here is the part I savor. Bulam rolls over onto the clump of ferns where his knife is projecting skyward. As his ample belly passes over the knife, it is shoved into his body. The wicked, adventurous, risk-taking war chief is stunned; he has been stabbed with his own knife! Bulam makes several attempts to rise and continue the fight and Tarzan even draws his own knife, not certain as to whether Bulam is really done for. But, as his head lolls for the last time, with the knife partially obscured by all the vegetation the king has rolled into, it is certain that Bulam has been vanquished. The next scene shows the warriors being herded into a corral and Tarzan is begged to stay for a celebration but he must go after the gun runners who are even now having a falling out of their own and, eventually, endangering Jane.

• Tarzan and Dandridge

  Michael_Elliott2011-08-14

  Tarzan's Peril (1951) ** (out of 4) Third film in RKO's Lex Barker-Tarzan series has the ape man trying to stop a bunch of gunrunners who are selling weapons to a tribe planning to use them by attacking other tribes. With the jungle at such an unrest, it's up to Tarzan to try and rescue one of the main tribe's leaders (Dorothy Dandridge). Quite a few reviews called this the best of the Barker Tarzan movies and while it's certainly an improvement over the last entry I'd say it still falls a little short of the first one. There's quite a bit of stuff to enjoy here but sadly we're once again treated with a familiar story that just becomes more and more cliché as it goes along. I will admit that I thought the film started off with an interesting idea as Tarzan doesn't appear for the first fifteen-minutes. Instead of the ape man getting all the screen time the film tries to shine the spotlight on the bad guys who are obviously more interesting the more you can hate them. For the most part I thought the villains were quite evil enough but the screenplay never really made them very fun, which was a letdown. The supporting tribes are finally being played by black actors, which is a plus but sadly the screenplay doesn't given them too much to do. Once Tarzan, Jane (Virginia Huston) and Cheetah enter the picture it's pretty much all action from this point. Once again Barker is good in the role and I think it's fair to say that he finally gotten comfortable in it. Huston makes for an interesting Jane as she's certainly got the sex appeal but her chemistry with Barker isn't the greatest. George MacReady, Douglas Fowley and Glenn Anders all do a nice job in their villain roles. Dandridge is the one who easily steals the film though. Her beauty, charm and charisma jump right off the screen but sadly she isn't given too much to do. She certainly makes the most of the part and she makes it more memorable than any other actress would have but at the same time it's pretty sad to see her having to do a film like this. People always want to put THE BIRTH OF A NATION down but that was 1915 and here this film is 1951 and Hollywood still wasn't doing anything for one of the brightest black stars. The other highlight in the film happens when Tarzan must battle a man-eating plant. The scene actually manages a few nice, tense sequences. The lowlight of the film has to be a hilarious scene where Cheetah is about to be attacked by a huge snake but thankfully Tarzan comes to the rescue. What's so funny is the fake snake that they use and just wait until you get a look at its funny face!

• Tarzan Meets Cold War

  EdgarST2014-12-27

  Third Tarzan film starring Lex Barker is still good, directed by Byron Haskin, who had made "I Walk Alone" and "Treasure Island" and who would go on to make the science-fiction classic "The War of the Worlds" and the adventure films "The Naked Jungle" and "Captain Sindbad". Labeled as the first Tarzan film made in Africa, the material mostly consists of establishment shots and good sequences of dances and tribe life, aptly directed by Philip Brandon and photographed by cinematographer Jack Whitehead. It matches only moderately well with the studio shooting, but still gives add some distinction to the product. As it happened before with Charlie Chan, Mr. Moto and Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan is affected by the United States foreign policy, so he is part of a Cold War intrigue. Thankfully it is not openly exposed, but suggested: the villain (George Macready) is called Radijek, he probably comes from Poland or any other country behind the Iron Curtain, and he is providing guns to the Africans, although not under the Soviet aegis: he is a ruthless, egotistical, murderous dealer, who wants to sell his weapons and collect . His first opponent is a retiring British commissioner (Alan Napier), who defends the colonialist regime of the Crown, and wants to leave the natives under control and evangelized by Protestant missionaries, a work that took him 30 years. But things get violent soon in this entry, quickly increasing the body count and including women abuse, as Queen Melmendi (Dorothy Dandridge) is subject to the whims of the feisty but mean ruler of another tribe, King Bulam (Frederick O'Neal). As usual Cheetah keeps stealing things and getting scared even by rubber snakes.

• The Perils of Tarzan

  lugonian2011-08-15

  TARZAN'S PERIL (RKO Radio, 1951) directed by Byron Haskin, the third of five installments starring Lex Barker as Edgar Rice Burrough's most celebrated jungle hero, is, by far, the most prestigious project to date. An improvement over the previous two entries, thanks to some authentic location filming in Africa where much of the Tarzan stories takes place, and the casting of George Macready as the most sinister villain thus far, ranking this possibly the best in the Barker series. Aside from location sequences mixed with the studio jungle sets, TARZAN'S PERIL was reportedly intended to become the first in the series to be lensed in color, something that never happened, at least for now anyway. Rather than the traditional opening focusing on Tarzan, Jane and/ or Cheta's daily activities, which turns up 16 plus minutes into the story, TARZAN'S PERIL opens with a native celebration in British East Africa as Melmendi (Dorothy Dandridge) is made queen of the Ashuba tribe. Commissioner Peters (Alan Napier), about to retire after thirty years of service, witnesses the event with his soon-to-be replacement, Connors (Edward Ashley). King Bulam (Frederick O'Neal), a brutal chief of the Yorango tribe, comes to propose marriage to Melmendi, but is refused. Later, the pounding of drums brings forth a message that Radijack (George Macready), a ruthless slaver and gunrunner, has escaped prison and somewhere in the jungle. Assisted by Doctor Herbert Trask (Douglas Fowley) and Andrews (Glenn Anders) as his henchmen, Radijack intends on bringing in a load of illegal rifles to the natives. As Peters and Connors approach Trask to inspect their hidden items, Radijack makes his surprise attack by shooting them. During their journey climbing a cliff, Radijack arranges for Andrews to meet with an accident that handicaps him with a broken leg. Being left there to die, Andrews crawls through dangerous territory before grabbing gold onto a log and floating down the river. While canoing with Jane (Virginia Huston), Tarzan (Lex Barker) foresees danger and rescues Andrews from a crocodile attack. Taking the injured hunter to a doctor, Tarzan, having learned from Andrews of the killing of his friend, Peters, and Radijack's evil intentions, Tarzan swings into action to stop Radijack from supplying the Yorango tribe with guns to attack the peaceful Ashuba tribe. By doing so, Tarzan faces some perils of his own almost in the manner of a weekly chaptered serial. Making every attempt on bettering this long running series to a point of recalling some highly entertaining adventure made famous by Johnny Weissmuller during his days at MGM, the strength to TARZAN'S PERIL rests on well developed screenplay by Samuel Newman and Francis Swann with enough action to hold one's interest. Although routinely made, much of it is presented in the manner with some originality. George Macready, as mentioned earlier, gives a standout performance as the villain. Aside from putting other characters to permanent rest, his intention on doing the same to Tarzan finds the jungle hero subdued by his native followers, only to somewhat finish him off by having him thrown into water rapids to plunge down from a high waterfall. Other dangers faced by Tarzan is one where he's entrapped inside spider-like arms of man-eating plants, a similar situation earlier used in Weissmuller's TARZAN'S DESERT MYSTERY (1943), plus his encounter with a giant poisonous snake that nearly takes Cheta. There's also interesting casting of Dorothy Dandridge as the African tribal queen, shortly before achieving immortality for her leading roles as her Academy Award nomination in CARMEN JONES (20th Century-Fox, 1954), and PORGY AND BESS (Samuel Goldwyn, 1959) opposite Sidney Poitier. As with her screen career, Dandridge's role comes short yet essential to the plot. The weakness to TARZAN'S PERIL once again falls upon the Jane character, this time enacted by the blondish but average acting Virginia Huston. Aside from her short 1950s style haircut and noticeable facial makeup in the Virginia Mayo mode, her Jane character isn't dressed in traditional jungle dress tog but white animal skins resembling that of an Esther Williams bathing suit. Unlike previous efforts where Jane takes part in Tarzan's adventures, this time Tarzan says, "Jane, go home," leaving Tarzan to fulfill his mission alone with Cheta, his chimpanzee, along for the ride. Jane, being off screen for a long stretch, does reappear, doing housework in her tree house before being face to face with a deadly visitor. While no masterpiece, TARZAN'S PERIL comes close to becoming 79 minutes of non-stop action, making whatever weaknesses that take place to be overlooked or forgiven. Never distributed to video cassette, TARZAN'S PERIL, formerly broadcast on American Movie Classics prior to 2000, and finally Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: July 16, 2011), has become available on DVD through Turner Home Entertainment. With more "Tarzan" adventures in the horizon, and the slow faze out of Jane before the end of the decade, the next installment in the series is TARZAN'S SAVAGE FURY (1952). (*** drums).

• A Nice Classic Tarzan Film

  lemon_magic2009-12-08

  Oh, sure, this movie has flaws, but I liked it a lot. Lex Barker was a very handsome, muscular Tarzan, and he moved very well.However, the grunts and broken English phrases that worked so well with Weismuller's stoic, wooden presence seem quite odd and out of place coming from an actor with Barker's chiseled features and classic good looks. On the other hand, as my friend Dave Sindelar pointed out, it's a lot easier to believe that Barker's Tarzan is the son of an English Lord. In any case he was a pleasure to watch in action. There were some minor missteps: The chief of the "bad guy" tribe (who wanted to buy guns to conquer the peaceful Ashuba ruled by Dorothy Dandridge) looked utterly ridiculous in his head-dress, which circled his entire head and made it look as if he were peering out of a fur-lined toilet seat for the duration of the movie. The actor deserved a better costume design than this. Also there was also a completely weird and gratuitous and badly staged fight scene with what appeared to be some carnivorous jungle plants that had nothing to do with anything else in the movie. And the other miscue that stuck in my mind was the odd decision to inter-cut Tarzan's final fight at the end of the movie with the villainous gun runner Radijek with scenes of Cheeta swallowing a gold watch and burping. That effectively neutralized any suspense and excitement they may have been trying to generate. The big problem with "Tarzan's Peril" is that the movie lacked a sense of urgency or real forward momentum. Not a lot happens, to be honest. But the production values are good (the producers made pretty good use of the live footage shot in Africa) and the two big fight scenes are well done, and the actors do a pretty good job inhabiting their characters. If you have to watch a Tarzan movie for some reason, this would be a pretty good one to pick.