Tarzan's New York Adventure (1942)

Well, we finally get to see Tarzan go into the city. It's great because from the title "Tarzan Escapes" you'd think that would be the movie where he does it, but no. We do get to see Tarzan go into New York City to save his son. Well, the son he adopted technically. The most impressive thing here is probably how a lot happens in this fairly short film. It's not a short film. It's a feature length film that happens to be short. Wow, that's weird. Anyway, I'm glad we didn't go to the formula of the natives being the villains. We actually get better variety here. I like how these movies keep expanding on each other.I'll probably never get to see them all, but we have a coherent story here. I admit I was kind of bored when it actually got to the courtroom scene. Yes, there's one of those in a Tarzan movie. Luckily, it's fairly short and we get back to more exciting scenes as Tarzan literally climbs up a bridge. He gets locked in a cage again, but immediately gets out again. It's great to see all these elephants and everything too. I'm glad they're doing different things with the movies. It's funny to see Tarzan get adjusted to life and actually wear a suit. I love how his sons seems to have intelligence between him and Jane. ***

In a fairly decent entry from the Tarzan oeuvre, Johnny Weissmuller is the quintessential Tarzan. All others pale in comparison. His athleticism is legendary, but even so, I was surprised to read that he actually made the two hundred foot jump from the Brooklyn Bridge into the East River. Can a man really do that? The effects were pretty good for its day, however cheesy they look in this era of computer generated images. I suppose that audiences were not supposed to notice that the elephants doing the tricks were all Asian, and not African elephants. And I guess that the child-labor laws were a bit more relaxed in those days, what with "Boy" darting around underneath and atop said pachyderms. Maureen O'Sullivan was so pretty. I noticed that she carried a curvy, womanly body, a little soft around the middle, and with stout legs. This is not a put-down, I think it is lovely, but it struck me as to what a product of the times that this was. Nowadays, an actress would spend six months in the gym and be more muscular than Weissmuller before being filmed in that costume. Too bad in my opinion.

Tarzan's New York Adventure finds Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan invading civilization's capital of New York in search of Johnny Sheffield who was snatched by some unscrupulous white men. Charles Bickford, Chill Wills, and pilot Paul Kelly invade Tarzan's domain in search of wild animals to trap. But when a curious Johnny Sheffield wants to see their airplane, Bickford captures him thinking he'll be a great attraction at Cy Kendall's circus.Kelly has a conscience and he and girl friend Virginia Grey try to help Mr.&Mrs. Tarzan get their kid back. Justice stalls a bit at Judge Russell Hicks's courtroom especially after Bickford and Kendall's attorney Charles Lane gives O'Sullivan a rough cross examination. Weissmuller has to use some of his tried and true methods to get his kid back.This film takes a lot of belief suspension, but it is fast moving and enjoyable. In real life while I don't think any Family Court Judge would entertain Bickford's claim on the kid, I doubt if they would award custody to Weissmuller and O'Sullivan. I see foster care the future of Boy.

As MGM knew Maureen O'Sullivan was departing the 'Tarzan' series, and budget and talent constraints were forcing the long-running series out of the studio (RKO would soon be Tarzan's new home), they decided to end things with a bang, clothing Johnny Weissmuller in a double-breasted suit, and setting him loose in New York's concrete jungle. The gamble worked, magnificently!The premise is simple; Boy, thinking Tarzan and Jane are dead, after falling into a raging fire during a tribal attack, is whisked away by an evil circus big game hunter (Charles Bickford) in a chartered plane. (How so many planes land safely in the middle of the jungle in these films is never explained...)Rescued by Cheetah, Tarzan and Jane hike across Africa, dress in more modern attire (a VERY funny scene!), and fly across the Atlantic to try and retrieve their son.The fun begins when the pair reach New York. Tarzan's bemused reaction to a black taxi driver, his takes on radio, indoor plumbing, and nightclubs, are priceless (and were recreated years later in Paul Hogan's wonderful 'Crocodile Dundee'). There are a few slightly offensive racial stereotypes displayed, but considering the period of the film, these are really quite tame.A few nagging questions about the series are addressed in this film...'What happens if Boy gets sick?' and 'How is he being educated?', although the biggest question is never addressed...How does a boy with a British 'mother' and an Ape Man 'father' end up with an American accent?When the courts fail to return Boy (the jungle couple can't prove legal custody), Tarzan takes matters into his own hands, breaking out of the courthouse, and performing an extraordinary series of rooftop swings, leaps and acrobatics to get to the New Jersey home of the circus, climaxing with a breathtaking 100-foot dive off the Brooklyn Bridge. The sequence is still fabulous, over 50 years after the film was released!The film concludes with the almost stereotyped rescue scene, as elephants rescue Tarzan and Boy, yet again! Evil is vanquished, the family is reunited by the court, and the judge is going to catch some really BIG fish when he comes to visit!If you're looking for gritty realism, you won't be popping a Tarzan flick into the VCR, anyway, but if you want thrills, laughs, and wonderful escapism, look no further!