Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959)

Good Fun And Quite Violent Tarzan Drama - Tarzan's Greatest Adventure review by GI

Tarzan films have been churned out since the days of silent cinema and into the 70s and included the wonderful 1960s TV series starring Ron Ely. A shame that attempts to reintroduce this heroic screen character in recent times have failed possibly by trying to take the stories too seriously (2016s The Legend Of Tarzan was a mediocre affair). Producer Sy Weintraub resurrected the films in the late 50s with Gordon Scott as Tarzan in six wonderful adventure films of which this is probably the best. It certainly has an astounding cast including veteran actor Anthony Quayle and a pre 007 Sean Connery. Admittedly they may appear a little B movie cheap today in the use of stock animal footage, studio sets, back projection and some shoddy continuity but they are great fun and solid family entertainment - I certainly loved them as a young boy. This beautifully coloured film has some quite gruesome deaths including quicksand and nasty spiked traps and of course the stock fight with a rubber crocodile but who cares these were simple yet thoroughly exciting films. In this one four men led by the psychopathic Slade (Quayle) commit murder to steal boxes of explosives and head up river to a lost diamond mine. Tarzan begins to hunt them hindered by having to rescue a damsel in distress along the way. There's everything you want in a Tarzan film with none of the 'Me Tarzan, You Jane' nonsense. This is a quite gripping yarn made by a veteran director. Fantastic fun.