TARZAN THE FEARLESS. 1933

Buster Crabbe is Tarzan the Fearless (1933), an apparently retarded but very handsome Tarzan. Julie Bishop is Mary, damsel in distress with the hots for the retarded jungle hunk. Mary Brooks' father (E. Allyn Warren) while studying ancient tribes is captured by an Egyptianesque lost race who worship Zar, the God of the Emerald Fingers.

This variously 61-minute or 85-minute feature was made up from the first four chapters of a crude serial. The last 8 chapters are evidently lost though there's always some lingering hope later fragments will one day be rediscovered. The book adaptation for the original serial was a Whitman "Big Little Book" & the full 12-chapter script has been published in large trade paperback.

An 86-minute version was prepared in 1960 for television & it may have been derived from the UK release; this is the version I saw on video.

Tarzan spends most of his time trying to get Mary as his mate, kidnapping her to his secret cavern lair. Mary seems to enjoy herself there, presumedly to make love out of wedlock -- it must've driven the censors of the day crazy.

In his bumbling sweet way Tarzan might be credited with rescuing everyone a few times, saving good folks from the evil henchmen, saving Mary from white slavery among bedouines (though what these desert people are doing horseback in the jungle is anyone's guess), & from the High Priest of Zar (Mischa Auer). Carlotta Monti played the High Priestess of Zar.

If you take a lame matinee serial & chop it up for a feature film the result is not apt to be less lame. But I enjoyed it.

copyright © by Paghat the Ratgirl