In a fairly decent entry from the Tarzan oeuvre, Johnny Weissmuller is the quintessential Tarzan. All others pale in comparison. His athleticism is legendary, but even so, I was surprised to read that he actually made the two hundred foot jump from the Brooklyn Bridge into the East River. Can a man really do that? The effects were pretty good for its day, however cheesy they look in this era of computer generated images. I suppose that audiences were not supposed to notice that the elephants doing the tricks were all Asian, and not African elephants. And I guess that the child-labor laws were a bit more relaxed in those days, what with "Boy" darting around underneath and atop said pachyderms. Maureen O'Sullivan was so pretty. I noticed that she carried a curvy, womanly body, a little soft around the middle, and with stout legs. This is not a put-down, I think it is lovely, but it struck me as to what a product of the times that this was. Nowadays, an actress would spend six months in the gym and be more muscular than Weissmuller before being filmed in that costume. Too bad in my opinion.
Review of Tarzan's New York Adventure
