The Tarzan Collection Starring Johnny Weissmuller, Vol. 2 (1946)

A lot of fun...

This RKO series was even more fun than the original Metro offerings. It looked like Johnny Weissmuller was actually having fun. He seemed to be more at home in his loin cloth, albeit a little wider in girth, but really having a good time with the character. Brenda Joyce does a good job as Jane and Johnny Sheffield plays a wonderful foil for the antics of Cheeta.
Now let's hope that they will release the Lex Barker and Jock Mahoney Tarzan movies. September 22, 2008

The Classic Tarzan

When I was a kid we'd spend 10¢ every Saturday to go see a Western -- or better yet a Weissmuller Tarzan movie. An Olympic champion swimmer, Johnny was no actor, so they invented the "Me Tarzan. You Jane." routine, and that was the perfect way to revive Edgar Rice Burroughs's legend. Note: Cheetah was played by the same chimpanzee until he was ab. 40, then retired to a nice house trailer with good food, beer, and cigars. He lived 20 years more, richly rewarded for being the best actor in the movie series. This collection of Weissmuller Tarzan movies is one of my favorite DVDs and rates A+A+A+A+. September 7, 2008

New Adventures, Same Gold Medal Performances

When it comes to clearing the path for major Olympic athletes to strike gold in pop culture, Johnny Weissmuller is the leader.

Weissmuller earned 52 U.S. national swimming titles, while setting an incredible 67 world records and winning a total of five gold medals - and one bronze - in The Games of 1924 and 1928. He became the sixth cinematic Tarzan and starred in a dozen films.

The six films in the second volume of the boxed-set retrospectives are Weissmuller's RKO performances from 1943-1948. The action adventures initially carry themes for the war years - Nazi soldiers as the bad guys - but then revert back to the exploitive explorers and traditional evil-doers.

With his natural athleticism, Weissmuller as Tarzan always pulls out victory when it seems that doom will finally triumph. But getting to those final scenes is all the fun. August 14, 2008

The further adventures of Tarzan and friends

Although there have been plenty of other versions of the character, probably the classic movie version of Tarzan is Johnny Weismuller's portrayal in a dozen movies in the 1930s and `40s. The first six of these films were made by MGM (and are in a different set); RKO took over the franchise then and made the final six.

If you watch all twelve films, you can easily see differences between the two sets. Most notably, the MGM films had Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane. In the first two RKO films, Jane is in Europe while Tarzan contends with Nazis, and in the last four, Jane is played by the good-looking but clearly second-string actress, Brenda Joyce. Gone in the second set is Tarzan's famous yell; all we get is a lesser imitation. The later movies often have Tarzan, Jane and Boy seeming like a jungle version of the Cleavers or the Nelsons. The films aren't bad, but let's face it, compared to the MGM films, they're second-rate.

On the first of the three discs are Tarzan Triumphs and Tarzan's Desert Mystery. In Tarzan Triumphs, Tarzan reluctantly gets involved in WWII when Nazis take over a hidden city. (There are lots of hidden cities in this set, and though all these movies take place in Africa, there is an amazingly small number of Africans.) Due to a flaw on my DVD, I couldn't view Tarzan's Desert Mystery, but my understanding is it's a second WWII flick.

When Jane returns in Tarzan and the Amazons (on disc two), she doesn't do too much. Instead, it's up to Tarzan to save a lost kingdom of Amazonian women from greedy treasure hunters who learn of them from Boy. Tarzan and the Leopard Woman is somewhat unique in that the villains are not motivated by greed or power as much as they just want to get rid of British colonizers.

The final disc has Tarzan and the Huntress, the last movie with Tarzan, Jane and Boy; by this point, Boy is almost an adult himself and by the next movie, he'll be off in England for school. The huntress in this story is the head of an expedition to capture animals for zoos. While she is relatively decent, her companions are more ruthless. Tarzan and the Mermaids is a forgettable finale, with Tarzan helping expose a false god in a beach community.

With no extras to speak of, this set has to succeed on the merits of the films themselves, and while they are mostly fun and inoffensive, they are also strictly average fare, so I have to give this set three stars. With plenty of antics by Cheetah and relatively tame levels of violence, this set probably would appeal more to kids than adults. August 10, 2008

The "real" though not authentic Tarzan

For folks my age (I'm 68), the only "real" Tarzan is Weismuller. Of course, he bears no resemblance to the Burrough's character. But he's the one I saw as a youngster. All these movies are essentially alike, but they are great nostalgia and I continue to enjoy them. Most people who buy this know what they are getting; those who don't may be disappointed. January 1, 2008

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