Tarzan and the Lost Safari

UK 1957
produced by
John Croydon, Sol Lesser, N. Peter Rathvon (executive) for Solar Film/MGM
directed by H.Bruce Humberstone
starring Gordon Scott, Robert Beatty, Yolande Donlan, Betta St. John, Wilfrid Hyde-White, George Coulouris, Peter Arne, Orlando Martins
screenplay by Montgomery Pittman, Lillie Hayward, based on characters created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, music by Clifton Parker

Tarzan, Tarzan (Gordon Scott), Sol Lesser's Tarzan, Solar Film's Tarzan, Tarzan at MGM

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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Tarzan (Gordon Scott) saves a quintet of tourists (Betta St.John, Yolanda Donlan, Peter Arne, Wilfrid Hyde-White, George Coulouris) from a planewreck, and soon enough he has won the heart of especially one of them, Diana (Betta St.John), despite the fact that she's still married to Dick (Peter Arne), the pilot of the crashed plane. Then though Diana is dragged off by Opar warriors, and only just saved by Hawkins (Robert Beatty) - an adventurer in league with the Opars as he promises them white folks for human sacrifices in exchange for safe passage for their country. And Hawkins has apparently fallen in love on the spot with Diana.

Hawkins takes Diana back to the others and promises to take them to safety right through Opar country, but Tarzan grows suspicious of Hawkins - who actually wants to hand Diana's companions over to the Opars - right away and decides to stay with the group as well.

After a perilous journey through the jungle, our motley crew runs into an Opar ambush that only Tarzan manages to escape, and now Hawkins shows his true colours, handing over the others to the Opars and only reserving Diana for himself.

Tarzan however hasn't forgotten his friends, he gives his chimp Cheetah a lighter to set fire to the Opar village (the lighter has been a running gag earlier in the film) and sends a message via drums to the Opars that Hawkins has betrayed them and has burned down their village - which turns the tables on Hawkins. In the chaos that ensues, Tarzan manages to free his friends who were literally about to be sacrificed while 'Hawkins gets his just desserts.

The first Tarzan movie made away from RKO in about 15 years (not counting of course unofficial Tarzan films like the Turkish Tarzan in Istanbul) - and actually the best Tarzan in a long time: The script might not be terribly inventive but it tells a compelling story, it's very much to the point and lacks the kitsch factor of earlier films, extensive location shooting in Africa gives the film an air of authencity rarely found in earlier films (and certainly not in RKO's studio jungle), and Gordon Scott finds into his role as Tarzan much better than in his previuos tilm, Tarzan's Hidden Jungle. Plus, it's the first Tarzan film shot in colour.

Certainly not the greatest Tarzan film though, but a very nice jungle adventure indeed.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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