Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Edgar Soberon Torchia Third Tarzan film starring Lex Barker is still good, directed by Byron Haskin, who had made "I Walk Alone" and "Treasure Island" and who would go on to make the science-fiction classic "The War of the Worlds" and the adventure films "The Naked Jungle" and "Captain Sindbad". Labeled as the first Tarzan film made in Africa, the material mostly consists of establishment shots and good sequences of dances and tribe life, aptly directed by Philip Brandon and photographed by cinematographer Jack Whitehead. It matches only moderately well with the studio shooting, but still gives add some distinction to the product. As it happened before with Charlie Chan, Mr. Moto and Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan is affected by the United States foreign policy, so he is part of a Cold War intrigue. Thankfully it is not openly exposed, but suggested: the villain (George Macready) is called Radijek, he probably comes from Poland or any other country behind the Iron Curtain, and he is providing guns to the Africans, although not under the Soviet aegis: he is a ruthless, egotistical, murderous dealer, who wants to sell his weapons and collect . His first opponent is a retiring British commissioner (Alan Napier), who defends the colonialist regime of the Crown, and wants to leave the natives under control and evangelized by Protestant missionaries, a work that took him 30 years. But things get violent soon in this entry, quickly increasing the body count and including women abuse, as Queen Melmendi (Dorothy Dandridge) is subject to the whims of the feisty but mean ruler of another tribe, King Bulam (Frederick O'Neal). As usual Cheetah keeps stealing things and getting scared even by rubber snakes.

zardoz-13 Lex Barker's third outing as Tarzan in director Byron Haskin's "Tarzan's Peril" prepares us for the greater realism of the forthcoming Gordon Scott ape man movies. The villains here display greater evil not only to the heroes but also to our eponymous hero. Any movie that featured scar-faced George Macready as the lead villain promised to be darker and grittier and "Tarzan's Peril" qualifies as darker and grittier. Although there is no way that Tarzan could bite the vine, the Lord of the Apes is almost killed twice. First, his unconscious form is thrown over a waterfall, and second he is almost stabbed to death by treacherous King Bulam in the finale. This "Tarzan" movie has the distinction of being the first to shoot sequences in Africa. Now, some may point out that the original Johnny Weissmuller "Tarzan" contained scenes lensed in Africa, but those African scenes were originally shot for another feature "Trader Horn" (1931) with Harry Carey. The Samuel Newman & Francis Swann screenplay resembles a Cavalry versus the Indians oater because the villains are running rifles to rebellious tribesmen. Aside from the casting of Macready as the villain, "Tarzan's Peril" features African-American beauty Dorothy Dandridge who went on to star in "Carmen Jones" and "Porky and Bess" for director Otto Preminger. Fans of the "Batman" television show will recognize Alan Napier, who played Alfred the Butler, as a British game warden. When Yorongan King Bulam and his rifle-bearing tribesman overrun the peaceful Ashuba tribe, Tarzan swings to their rescue. Cheetah pulls an old Charlie Chaplin stunt when he swallows a musical instrument. This "Tarzan" opus is somehow above the level of previous Tarzan movies, but the Ape man still speak in fractured English. Mind you, Virginia Houston makes a comely Jane.

bkoganbing 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.

lemon_magic Oh, sure, this movie has flaws, but I liked it a lot.Lex Barker was a very handsome, muscular Tarzan, and he moved very well.However, the grunts and broken English phrases that worked so well with Weismuller's stoic, wooden presence seem quite odd and out of place coming from an actor with Barker's chiseled features and classic good looks. On the other hand, as my friend Dave Sindelar pointed out, it's a lot easier to believe that Barker's Tarzan is the son of an English Lord. In any case he was a pleasure to watch in action.There were some minor missteps: The chief of the "bad guy" tribe (who wanted to buy guns to conquer the peaceful Ashuba ruled by Dorothy Dandridge) looked utterly ridiculous in his head-dress, which circled his entire head and made it look as if he were peering out of a fur-lined toilet seat for the duration of the movie. The actor deserved a better costume design than this. Also there was also a completely weird and gratuitous and badly staged fight scene with what appeared to be some carnivorous jungle plants that had nothing to do with anything else in the movie. And the other miscue that stuck in my mind was the odd decision to inter-cut Tarzan's final fight at the end of the movie with the villainous gun runner Radijek with scenes of Cheeta swallowing a gold watch and burping. That effectively neutralized any suspense and excitement they may have been trying to generate.The big problem with "Tarzan's Peril" is that the movie lacked a sense of urgency or real forward momentum. Not a lot happens, to be honest. But the production values are good (the producers made pretty good use of the live footage shot in Africa) and the two big fight scenes are well done, and the actors do a pretty good job inhabiting their characters.If you have to watch a Tarzan movie for some reason, this would be a pretty good one to pick.