It happens: stuntmen die performing stunts they've meticulously prepared for (BEN-HUR); actors fall victim to inept direction (TWILIGHT ZONE- THE MOVIE); animals lash out at their human co-stars and are murdered (TARZAN AND THE GREAT RIVER). Granted, Mike Henry had every reason to be upset: chiseled good looks can come in handy when you're auditioning for a role as a leading man; extensive plastic surgery to replace chunks of missing tissue, on the other hand, can complicate matters. Had Jane Goodall (who probably knew more than she ever let on about the feeding habits of chimpanzees) been a bit more forthcoming, maybe the incident that resulted in the "destruction" of Senor Dinky on the set of TARZAN AND THE GREAT RIVER could've been avoided. Now that we've seen documentaries like THE DARK SIDE OF CHIMPS (which show the cute, cuddly little things mugging, murdering and masticating smaller monkeys), we know that shoving your face too close to a chimp's could have disastrous consequences. The "monkey fever" that Henry is said to have experienced sounds suspiciously like AIDS (which, as we now know, can come from eating "tainted monkey meat"). All of which makes one long for the good ol' days, when Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter (and Jane Goodall) had us all convinced that all apes were vegetarians...
Review of Tarzan and the Great River
