Gordon Scott's last film as the Edgar Rice Burroughs legendary jungle hero is Tarzan The Magnificent. Scott was my favorite Tarzan and I really wish he had continued in the part for a few more years.
This film finds Tarzan escorting a prisoner Jock Mahoney to the civil authorities to stand trial for crimes innumerable to mention. But Mahoney is the oldest of a group of family outlaws and patriarch John Carradine wants his pride and joy back at all costs.
When Carradine and the boys blow up the boat that Tarzan was taking Mahoney back on, Tarzan finds he has to escort all the passengers and crew through the jungle where Carradine and the clan are almost as at home as he is. The boat captain is Earl Cameron and the passengers are Charles Tingwell, Alexandra Stewart, Betta St. John, and Lionel Jeffries.
St. John and Jeffries are married and she's got a roving eye which Mahoney takes full advantage of to cause trouble. As if Tarzan hasn't enough to deal with.
The influence of John Ford is plain in this Tarzan film. It plays a whole lot like a western and the outlaw Banton family could be country cousins to either the Cleggs from Wagonmaster or the Clantons from My Darling Clementine.
Tarzan The Magnificent is one of the most adult themed of the Tarzan movies and being shot in East Africa it also does not contain all the jungle clichés from Hollywood films of the Thirties, Forties, and early Fifties. Although Tarzan's Greatest Adventure is my favorite Tarzan film this one comes close.
And who would be the next Tarzan, but Jock Mahoney playing the villain here. Scott and Mahoney have a protracted fight at the climax which rivals The Spoilers. Although Mahoney did the role credit, Scott should have done more Tarzan films.
This film finds Tarzan escorting a prisoner Jock Mahoney to the civil authorities to stand trial for crimes innumerable to mention. But Mahoney is the oldest of a group of family outlaws and patriarch John Carradine wants his pride and joy back at all costs.
When Carradine and the boys blow up the boat that Tarzan was taking Mahoney back on, Tarzan finds he has to escort all the passengers and crew through the jungle where Carradine and the clan are almost as at home as he is. The boat captain is Earl Cameron and the passengers are Charles Tingwell, Alexandra Stewart, Betta St. John, and Lionel Jeffries.
St. John and Jeffries are married and she's got a roving eye which Mahoney takes full advantage of to cause trouble. As if Tarzan hasn't enough to deal with.
The influence of John Ford is plain in this Tarzan film. It plays a whole lot like a western and the outlaw Banton family could be country cousins to either the Cleggs from Wagonmaster or the Clantons from My Darling Clementine.
Tarzan The Magnificent is one of the most adult themed of the Tarzan movies and being shot in East Africa it also does not contain all the jungle clichés from Hollywood films of the Thirties, Forties, and early Fifties. Although Tarzan's Greatest Adventure is my favorite Tarzan film this one comes close.
And who would be the next Tarzan, but Jock Mahoney playing the villain here. Scott and Mahoney have a protracted fight at the climax which rivals The Spoilers. Although Mahoney did the role credit, Scott should have done more Tarzan films.