NFR Project: 'Tarzan and His Mate' (1934)

 

NFR Project: ‘Tarzan and His Mate’

Dir: Cedric Gibbons, Jack Conway, James C. McKay

Scr: James Kevin McGuinesss

Pho: Clyde De Vinna, Charles G. Clarke

Ed: Tom Held

Premiere: April 16, 1934

104 min.

It is a mystery to me why this particular Tarzan film was chosen, if not for its infamous nude scenes. (There were three different sequences of Jane swimming filmed: one attired, one topless, and one completely bare. What version you got depended on where you lived, how strict our local censorship laws were.)

It is not exceptional in terms of plot, basically repeating the story of the very first Johnny Weissmuller-starring Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), save for giving us a new batch of white hunters seeking the riches of ivory contained in the secret Elephant Graveyard, high atop the mysterious Mutia Escarpment in Africa. They encounter stock footage of jungle animals on their way. They make their way to Tarzan’s neighborhood. They beg Jane to go back with them to civilization, but she is too contented with her jungle home to do so.

Tarzan finds out about their ivory-poaching scheme, and firmly opposes them. So they, of course, shoot an elephant so that, dying, they can follow it to the burial ground where all dying elephants go. Then they shoot Tarzan. They achieve their goal, but are soon beset by natives who want to capture, torture, and kill them. Lions attack. Elephants attack. Evil is vanquished, and Tarzan and Jane return to their peaceful jungle home.

Throughout, Tarzan fights and defeats various jungle beasts (stunt doubles), mostly showing off for Jane by preventing her from being eaten. Weissmuller’ complete lack of acting skills pays off well for him as the semi-coherent Lord of the Jungle. He speaks in monosyllables, but with that body he can get away with it.

Maureen O’Sullivan (Mia Farrow’s mother) is fine as the feisty Jane; early sound era regulars Neil Hamilton and Paul Cavanaugh co-star as the ivory poachers. There is nothing extraordinary about the effort save the nudity (also stunt doubles), which you can find if you look diligently enough online. It is quite tame for the tastes of today, but back then it could get a filmed banned. The looming impact of the Production Code would eliminate controversial sequences such as this for decades.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: The Thin Man.