Tarzan's Peril (1951)

Lex Barker is back as a Johnny Weissmuller's replacement as the new Tarzan and has a better than expected outing in this long running (and by this point rather played out) franchise. Tarzan finds himself as peacemaker between warring tribes (complete with racist stereotypes of African people, as was common for most of the Tarzan films), who've been stirred up by gunrunners. The supporting cast includes Virginia Huston, George Macready, Alan Napier, and of most interest is the casting of singer, dancer, actress Dorothy Dandridge as Melmendi, Queen of the Ashuba, although her talents are painfully wasted on this juvenile material. Still, as juvenile as the material is, I did enjoy the man-eating plants and other jungle nonsense. Overall, it's nothing classic, but decent enough if you're a fan of Tarzan films.

It helps to be in the right mood to enjoy this rather typical nonsense about Tarzan (Lex Barker) foiling a plan by a villain with a Polish name (George MacReady) to arm one band of African natives with rifles and Tommy guns so they can conquer another tribe and sell them into slavery or concubinage or something. The name of MacReady's character is Radijek. It SOUNDS villainous, doesn't it? And in 1951, Slavic names served nicely as labels for the bad guys although, to be sure, Hollywood must have been experiencing some conflict over whether to give their heavies the names of Commies or Nazis. At the moment the moguls must be in turmoil, what with the Arabs.I don't really think the plot is worth going on about. MacReady sneers constantly and murders his partners in the scurrilous plan one by one in order to steal their share of the loot. Jane wears necklaces by Tiffany and a wrap-around sarong out of Christian Dior. Tarzan comes home from the jungle and Jane says, "Sit down and have some supper," just like Dagwood and Blondie or Ricky and Lucy. Their tree house has several rooms, one of them with a comfortable table and chairs, suitable for wedding receptions and bar mitzvah celebrations. I think I spotted a framed poster of a Marc Chagall on one of the bamboo walls. The bathroom probably has a framed poster too -- a yellow rose over the slogan "Tomorrow Is The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life." You can probably read it while on the throne.Of course, if you're NOT in a receptive mood, the movie sucks. There was some second-unit shooting in Africa. You can watch the stilt-legged water birds gobble down newly hatched baby crocodiles while a jaunty tune plays in the background. Dorothy Dandridge is in here somewhere, in a minor part, and we don't get to see nearly enough of her. Tarzan not real man. If Tarzan red blooded, then Tarzan shed domestic tranquility, fling Dandridge over shoulder, and swing through tree to someplace else. Company of Cheetah optional.

Tarzan's Peril (1951)** (out of 4) Third film in RKO's Lex Barker-Tarzan series has the ape man trying to stop a bunch of gunrunners who are selling weapons to a tribe planning to use them by attacking other tribes. With the jungle at such an unrest, it's up to Tarzan to try and rescue one of the main tribe's leaders (Dorothy Dandridge). Quite a few reviews called this the best of the Barker Tarzan movies and while it's certainly an improvement over the last entry I'd say it still falls a little short of the first one. There's quite a bit of stuff to enjoy here but sadly we're once again treated with a familiar story that just becomes more and more cliché as it goes along. I will admit that I thought the film started off with an interesting idea as Tarzan doesn't appear for the first fifteen-minutes. Instead of the ape man getting all the screen time the film tries to shine the spotlight on the bad guys who are obviously more interesting the more you can hate them. For the most part I thought the villains were quite evil enough but the screenplay never really made them very fun, which was a letdown. The supporting tribes are finally being played by black actors, which is a plus but sadly the screenplay doesn't given them too much to do. Once Tarzan, Jane (Virginia Huston) and Cheetah enter the picture it's pretty much all action from this point. Once again Barker is good in the role and I think it's fair to say that he finally gotten comfortable in it. Huston makes for an interesting Jane as she's certainly got the sex appeal but her chemistry with Barker isn't the greatest. George MacReady, Douglas Fowley and Glenn Anders all do a nice job in their villain roles. Dandridge is the one who easily steals the film though. Her beauty, charm and charisma jump right off the screen but sadly she isn't given too much to do. She certainly makes the most of the part and she makes it more memorable than any other actress would have but at the same time it's pretty sad to see her having to do a film like this. People always want to put THE BIRTH OF A NATION down but that was 1915 and here this film is 1951 and Hollywood still wasn't doing anything for one of the brightest black stars. The other highlight in the film happens when Tarzan must battle a man-eating plant. The scene actually manages a few nice, tense sequences. The lowlight of the film has to be a hilarious scene where Cheetah is about to be attacked by a huge snake but thankfully Tarzan comes to the rescue. What's so funny is the fake snake that they use and just wait until you get a look at its funny face!

RKO no doubt felt the acclaim that King Solomon's Mines and The African Queen received from the movie-going public and decided to splurge for some real African location shooting for Tarzan's Peril. As we learn here from IMDb, Tarzan's Peril was also supposed to be in color, but that footage was scrapped. But it was nice for once to see actual Africans and black American actors playing speaking roles. From the last of the Weissmuller films through the first two Barker Tarzans, the jungle hero was constantly discovering these lost white tribes in Africa and it was getting ridiculous.Sad to say though the story was borrowed from any number of westerns and transferred to Africa. White men George MacReady, Douglas Fowley, and Glenn Anders are selling guns to the natives. The tribe under Queen Dorothy Dandridge refuses, but the tribe under King Frederick O'Neal doesn't and the latter subjugates the former until Tarzan straightens things out.MacReady even in far worse pictures than Tarzan's Peril brings his own brand of serpentine villainy for us to savor. His character and Lex Barker have some history so a chance to even things up with Tarzan is too good to pass up. MacReady though is bad news for both Fowley and Anders as well.Seeing Dorothy Dandridge is also a treat, she is one regal beauty as the queen of her tribe. Dandridge was two years away from her Oscar nominated Carmen Jones, the high point of her sad career.Tarzan's Perils was definitely better than the first two Lex Barker Tarzans, but a pedestrian western plot bogs this film down.