Tarzán en la Gruta del Oro

Zan, King of the Jungle
Zan, Re della Giungla / King of the Jungle / Tarzan in the Golden Grotto

Spain/Italy/Puerto Rico 1969
produced by
Manuel Cano, Lou Tillman (executive) for Pan Latina Films, Tritone Cinematografica, New Era Production
directed by Manuel Cano
starring Steve Hawkes, Kitty Swan, Krista Nell (as Doris Cristanel), Ugo Sasso, Jesús Puente, Fernando Sancho, Raf Baldassarre, Antonio Casas, Carlos Badia, Joan Koplan
story by Santiago Moncada, Joaquin Romero Hernández, screenplay by Umberto Lenzi, music by Marcello Giombini

Tarzan, Tarzan (Steve Hawkes)

review by
Mike Haberfelner

A duo of baddies want to get their hands on the gold of the amazons, and thus they incite a neighbouring native tribe to kidnap amazon princess Marula. But to no avail, because a) Marula doesn't know where the grotto that houses the gold is, and b) Tarzan (Steve Hawkes) enters the scene and saves her, defeating the whole native tribe single-handedly. But the baddies send a native with a gun after him to shoot him dead - and the native succeeds, too - apart from the fact that Tarzan's life is saved in the nick of time by unsuccessful prospector Red. Out of gratitude, Tarzan gets some gold out of the amazons' grotto so Red can return to civilisation a rich man. Unfortunately, the baddies soon learn about Red's gold, try to get the location of the grotto out of him, and when that doesn't work, they kill him, attack the amazon village and take Marula prisoner. She's now in the know of the wherabouts of the grotto and spills the beans. Of course, Tarzan rescues her again though.

In the meantime, Red's daughter Mary (Krista Nell) has arrived in Africa to track down her dad. Bill, an alcoholic guide, agrees to take her to Red's place, but they only find him dead. It soon turns out that for a time, Bill was in cahoots with the baddies, but they have tricked him out of a great bundle of money and now he wants his revenge. Mary is appalled to hear that, but her instinct tells her to stay with Bill nevertheless.

Meanwhile, the two baddies, now loaded with gold, have fallen out first with the native tribe, then with each other, and ultimately, Julius, the smarter of the two, kills his accomplice. Then his paths cross with Bill and Mary, and he decides to force them to carry the gold at gunpoint to eventually abandon them and go downstreams by canoe on his own. But Tarzan ultimately challenges him to a fight and kills him. Then he leaves some of the gold to Bill and Mary so they, who have long become a couple, can go back to civilisation two rich honeymooners.

A definitely less than great unauthorized Spanish Tarzan movie, this one suffers not so much from its budget (actually it looks pretty slick) but from its scirpt that seems to constantly veer off into every direction and fails to focus on any of its narrative threads. Add to this rather pale characters and many a wooden performance from the cast, and you've got ... well, not a total trainwreck, but a film that's definitely lackingm where it shouldn't.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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