User Reviews

By the time "Tarzan and the Huntress" was produced by Sol Lesser with Kurt Neumann, one of my favorite Hollywood talents, the jungle man series was fifteen years old. By saddling the jungle man from the outset with Jane, the MGM executives committed the same error Edgar Rice Burroughs had made in his original creation. There being few excuses to take Tarzan far enough from home to find movie-length adventures, it became necessary to bring those making his actions necessary to him. These included Nazis, strange tribes, but most often unscrupulous hunters of one variety or another. In this unusually-well-directed and attractive entry to the series, the chief of invaders is a far-from-evil but uncaring female, played by gorgeous Patricia Morison. It is this aspect of the film that was copied so often later on; until then, virtually every illicit jungle hunter hand been male, and the only females in the jungle had been lost white goddesses. Fashionable Tanya Rollins is therefore a very important figure in film history. Her hired guide, Barton MacLane, is the real villain of this piece. As a champion of the wild heritage against a flawed pseudo-Christian civilization, Tarzan refuses to let anyone trap animals on his side of the river (never identified). On the other side of the river, the expedition's leaders have struck a bargain with a prince, son of the king (Charles Trowbridge). The bargain is broken, when MacLane has the prince killed, in order to deal with his more amenable brother. Instead of taking two of every animal, the expedition can then take unlimited animals to captivity for remunerative sale. When Tarzan learns that Cheetah has been captured and smells out what is going on, he decides to intervene, at great risk because the bad guys have rifles. This is champion swimmer Johnny Weissmuller's eleventh turn as the King of the Jungle; he is still stolid and sometimes impressive, especially when he has Brenda Joyce as a blonde Jane or raven-haired Morison to play off. And Johnny Sheffield as Tarzan's adopted son, Boy, has become by then an attractive and grown-up young man, on the verge of his own series as the sourceless but likable "Bomba" the Jungle Boy. Others appearing in the cast include John Warburton as Carl Morley, Wallace Scott as Smithers, and Mickey Simpson as Monak. And Cheetah the chimpanzee is given a very large role in the film, almost as an agent of Nature allegorically playing the nemesis to Ms. Rollins' nefarious hopes. The fact that Morison never wanted her men to kill Tarzan, or anyone else, excuses her complicity in what they do to gain unearned wealth; there are exciting scenes as Tarzan bedevils, is nearly killed by and then finally overcomes the true villains. But the highlight of the film, as anyone not suffering myopic of the value-system, should be able to know is the loveliness and performance by Patricia Morison. She has several scenes in a ten;t and when she undresses as a silhouetted figure lighted by a lamp within, or when she argues with Tarzan, or when she visits his home and is bedeviled by Cheetah who steals her lipstick and other implements, she steals the film completely. Like brilliant and vivacious Greer Garson before her, she seems to be beloved by U.S. moviegoers only if they are educated to ignore her British accent; compared for instance to brassy and passable actress Susan Hayward who came along at the same time, she is a gem, classically trained and brilliant either at acting or underplaying, as here. This is a often-imitated film, a milestone of adventure-level fun and adroit characterization; it is very popular with fans, thanks to brilliant director Kurt Neumann, who also co-produced. The authors get lots of fun out of an only-passable story line in every scene; Bbt to this film we owe "Tarzan the Magnificent", "Tarzan and the Lost Safari", "Jivaro" and a number of other films that finally saw a female in a jungle as something other than a danger or a distraction. The music by talented Paul Sawtell and the luminous cinematography by Archie Stout are rich assets here, by my lights. Art direction by McClure Capps and the costumes, especially Ms. Morison's by Harold Clandenning, add to the film's values. The script by Jerry Gruskin and Rowland Leigh is serviceable and some of the dialogue I find to be above-average. Wallace Scott and Ted Hecht were also featured; look for a well-done elephant stampede and Ms. Morison; they are for me the highlights of a seminal and enjoyable exotic-locale adventure.

TARZAN AND THE HUNTRESS suffers from a low budget and a ho-hum plot, although it is far less silly than the previous feature, TARZAN AND THE LEOPARD WOMAN; entrepreneur Tanya Rawlins (Patricia Morison), and her milquetoast lover (John Warburton), mount an expedition to capture animals to restock war-depleted zoos, a not unworthy goal...except they are primarily interested in making big money, which means depleting an area of a large part of it's wild animal population! The local 'lost city' ruler, King Farrod (Charles Trowbridge), showing remarkable farsightedness for the 1940s, limits them to one male and female of each species, which, although showing wise animal management, would not serve the money-hungry Rawlins, at all. Fortunately, she has a ruthless expedition 'boss' (Barton MacLane, making his second 'villainous' appearance in a Tarzan feature), and Farrod has a greedy nephew (Ted Hecht), so a scheme is hatched, to kill Farrod and his heir (Maurice Tauzin), and pay the new King a healthy kickback, in exchange for 'unlimited' hunting (an oft-used scheme of 'bad guys', which would continue to be popular, as recently as George Clooney's SYRIANA).

Of course, this being a Tarzan movie, our aging hero is friends with Farrod, and when the ruler is murdered, and the young prince disappears, Tarzan gets involved, which is BAD NEWS for Rawlins and her crew! The film utilizes more 'stock' animal footage than any of the other RKO/Weissmuller features, and unfortunately, it doesn't 'match up' well with the other footage, making the studio scenes look even cheesier; adding to this is a general listlessness in most of the performances, which hurts the overall movie. Even Cheeta seems bored!

The most interesting aspect of the film is Johnny Sheffield, who looks startlingly 'adult' in this, his last appearance as 'Boy'. That fact is not lost on screenwriters Jerry Gruskin and Rowland Leigh, who have Tarzan remark, on several occasions, how Boy is becoming "a man". After this feature, Boy would be off to "school in England" (and Sheffield would move on to his own series, as "Bomba, the Jungle Boy").

Weissmuller appears tired and a bit out-of-shape, although Brenda Joyce, as Jane, is as fetching as ever! The Tarzan series was obviously "winding down"; the next feature, the surreal TARZAN AND THE MERMAIDS, would mark the end of Weissmuller's reign as "King of the Jungle"...

Johnny Weissmuller's next-to-last Tarzan is a good adventure and the last outing for Johnny Sheffield as Boy.Young Johnny had grown too big for the part and would soon start playing BOMBA the JUNGLE BOY.Johnny Weissmuller still looks toned and strong but is not in the great condition he showed in the previous year's LEOPARD WOMAN.Brenda Joyce as Jane looks gorgeous as ever and sports a sexy two-piece outfit in some scenes.She was a beautiful girl and was quite underrated as Jane. HUNTRESS doesn't have the intensity and erotica that LEOPARD WOMAN has,but it's still a fun adventure with Johnny keeping busy saving his animal friends from greedy hunters.Patricia Morison as the HUNTRESS ia a lovely antagonist,but nowhere the evil,sexual villainess that Acquanetta was in LEOPARD WOMAN.(Tough act to follow).All in all a nice wrap-up to the Tarzan-Jane-Boy Trio.The next film ,TARZAN and the MERMAIDS was a rather dull and lackluster finale to Johnny's Tarzan career.

Already in agreement with the other comments about the place of this film in the tradition of Tarzan movies, I would like to concentrate on one sub-plot, the animosity between Tarzan (played by Johnny Weissmuller) and Monak (played by ex-prize fighter Mickey Simpson), loyal servant to the scheming, evil Ozira (yes, my namesake; I am a major Tarzan fan).

Ozira stands to receive generous bounties for helping a safari catch African animals to re-stock the zoos after the Second World War. Since his uncle, King Farad, won't cooperate, Ozira stages the shooting of Farad (by Monak) to look like an accident and Farad's teenage son Suli is also believed killed, pushed into a pool of crocodiles, again by Monak.

As Monak leads the gun bearers and safari hands to help the hunters get their animals, he has a number of brushes with Tarzan. Tarzan liberates captured animals, knocks out several of Monak's guards and, when other bearers are sent back to the city for help, one safari hand is killed by a lion. Monak seethes to get revenge and tangle with Tarzan.

In one scene, after Tarzan and Boy steal the guns and rifles, Cheetah the Chimp tries to steal the compact of the female hunter (the Huntress of the movie, Tanya, Patricia Morrison's character). Monak hurls his knife, almost getting Cheetah. We are also treated to a closeup of Monak, a big man, proud, powerful, commanding, a large, smooth chest, fine belly, wide, deep jungle navel. Certainly, he would never miss with a knife again.

The guns retrieved, the safari continues to collect animals and Tarzan and Boy find Prince Suli very much alive. The city of Toronga must know the truth about this and Ozira's treachery unmasked.

As Tarzan attempts to lead Suli to safety, Monak, rifle in hand, bandoleer across his powerful, commanding chest, knife stuck in his sarong-like wraparound, spies him and, along with two gun bearers, bandoleers crisscrossing their majestic chests also, Monak goes after them, pausing to take a few unsuccessful shots. Tarzan takes to the trees and the three separate to get at him and to finish off Suli.

Weissmuller sharpens a vine to use as a spear and hurls it into the bare belly of one of the gun bearers who topples to the jungle ground. Tarzan then flings his knife into the back of a second gun bearer, who falls onto the ground, the bullets framing his brave chest, his life lost for Monak and Ozira.

Monak has climbed a tree to direct the battle. Tarzan is in that same tree and so is Suli. Monak, smiling with confidence, slyly pulls his knife out and it flies through the air but inexplicably misses Suli. Monak then sees Tarzan approach and the battle is on. Monak pulls off his bandoleer and tries to hit Tarzan with it. The two actors are now side by side and it is clear what a formidable man Simpson was. Then thirty-four, he was at least fifteen to twenty years younger than Weissmuller, depending upon the uncertain birth date of the former Olympic swimmer. Monak almost takes Tarzan, but Tarzan jumps down to a lower branch. Monak tries to push Tarzan off the tree with his foot. Tarzan catches hold of Monak's foot and twists it. Monak grimaces in pain as he realizes the tide of battle has turned. Losing his balance, he falls, attempts to grab onto a branch but, not able to hold on, tumbles down many feet, past a smiling Suli, and rolls over onto his back as he hits the jungle ground. His arms spreadeagled, his broad, expansive, brave, adventurous, daring, bold, jungle leader chest is splayed on the jungle floor.

Monak has given his life for Ozira. (Ozira and some of the hunters will soon die in one of the most exciting elephant stampedes ever brought to the screen). Monak's death is the turning point of the story for now, following the stampede, Prince Suli will be restored to his people. Ozira will die by being driven over a cliff in the ensuing confusion of the elephant stampede and hitting his head on a rock. Ozira will never know that only a short distance away, the fine body of his "most trusted servant" lies still, having risked everything to serve his greedy, malevolent master.

Penultimate Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan film and the last to feature Johnny Sheffield, who played Boy in eight Tarzan films before getting his own series as Bomba, the Jungle Boy. Patricia Morison heads an expedition to Tarzan's neck of the woods to nab some animals for zoos back in the States. Helping her is vicious big game hunter Barton MacLane. By now, if you've seen even a few Tarzan movies, you should know where this is going. The bad guys take the animals but Tarzan steals them back and, with help from Boy and his animal friends, runs the villains out of Africa. There's also a subplot about political intrigue with local royalty.

Johnny Weissmuller is good but he's basically going through the motions at this point. There's nothing in this he hasn't done before. Johnny Sheffield, who's almost as big as Weissmuller at this point, does well in his final outing as Boy. There's a thread running throughout the movie about Boy learning responsibility ("Boy man now. Do man's work."). Brenda Joyce has little to do as Jane but her few scenes are nice. Lovely Patricia Morison is interesting as the title character (who is not really a huntress). She's written sympathetically most of the way through but it ultimately amounts to nothing as she never switches sides like you are expecting. A major misstep is that the film doesn't give us a catfight between Morison and Brenda Joyce. There aren't a lot of action scenes in this one. Tarzan has a brief fight scene with another man but no tussles with crocs or anything. The climactic animal stampede is exciting, though. The drama is solid and the cute family stuff between Tarzan, Jane, Boy, and Cheeta is always fun to watch. A highlight of the movie for me is the scene where Cheeta flies a bamboo airplane Boy made.

Not among the best of the Tarzan films but still worthwhile. Fans will like it, I think. A couple of final notes: in one scene, Tarzan is freeing the various animals that were captured by the hunters and he is shown releasing two bear cubs from their cages. Why are there bears in an African jungle? In another scene, Morison's character tells the King that "In our civilization, we believe in keeping an open mind." To which the King replies "In your civilization, open mind means that one must agree with what you yourself say." Brother, tell me that isn't as true now as it was 70 years ago!

After the hugely enjoyable Tarzan and the Leopard Woman, the Weissmuller Tarzan series slides back into mediocrity with a rather stale tale of unscrupulous trappers—led by 'huntress' Tanya Rawlins (Patricia Morison)—collecting specimens to restock the world's zoos, much to Tarzan's disgust, of course. A woefully underdeveloped sub-plot about the assassination of a jungle king by his power hungry nephew adds little to the film's overall entertainment value.

As usual, Cheetah is on hand to provide the laughs, annoying the other jungle critters and taking Boy's model aeroplane for a short flight, Jane (Brenda Joyce) gives the film some sex appeal (surprisingly, the titular 'huntress' provides little in the way of titillation), Boy (Johnny Sheffield) learns an important lesson about life (trading lion cubs for a torch is wrong!), the family indulges in a spot of synchronised swimming, and Tarzan saves the day (and the captured animals) in the final reel with that old chestnut, the stampeding herd of elephants; but whilst all of this makes for adequate 'rainy Sunday afternoon' family viewing, it offers avid Tarzan fans nothing much to get excited about.

5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

Tarzan And The Huntress finds Johnny Weissmuller battling yet another trapper coming on to his jungle turf to take some animals back for the zoos of the world. Especially for those countries whose zoos were depleted after the late war.

The twist is that the villain is Patricia Morison, an accomplished an independent feminist in her own right whose many talents also include flying a plane. Tarzan would never allow Jane that kind of freedom. The film is a curiously anti-feminine one.

She directs the operation to capture the animals as she is also a female Clyde Beatty, but the heavy villainy is left to John Warburton and Barton MacLane. They also get involved in tribal politics in the area where chief Charles Trowbridge is killed and his son thought to be also killed by a nephew looking for big payoff from the trappers.

Patricia Morison would shortly get the role of her life, but on the stage. She never rose above playing slinky temptresses on the screen in B films and some of them pretty dreadful. However in two years she created the role of Lilli Vanessi in Kiss Me Kate. Who could have suspected what a great soprano she was from the parts she played in films?

Tarzan And The Huntress is one of the better Weissmuller Tarzans that RKO did. And as usual Cheta was the wild card and I mean really wild.

I used to go in the Sunday matinee when was a boy, thrilled me all those great adventures allowed by Weissmuller, Gordon Scott, Lex Barker, Jock Mahoney and Mike Henry, the time goes by, and today a have almost all Tarzan's movies from many countries, this one Weissmuller already older to the role, a bit fat and without a perfect shape to do that, Jane 13 years younger has a blatant disparity of age, the Boy getting older so fast, a mature teenager, all those elements that Tarzan was already dated, even so the picture still has a charm, a bit humor displayed by Cheetah, a fine jungle sets, a average plot, this stylish production still breathing on hard conditions, still enjoyable from a nostalgic times that never returned!!

Resume:

First watch: 1978 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 7

Edgar Rice Burrough's TARZAN AND THE HUNTRESS (RKO Radio, 1947), directed by Kurt Neumann, being Johnny Weissmuller's 11th portrayal as the king of the jungle, and fifth under Sol Lesser's unit distributed by RKO, can be summed up by this time in saying, "If you've seen one Tarzan movie, you've seen them all," however the series continues.

The plot revolves around a zoological expedition headed by Tanya Rollins (Patricia Morison) and her guide, John Weire (Barton MacLane) who make arrangements with Prince Ozira (Ted Hecht), nephew of King Farrod (Charles Trowbridge) to capture wild animals for the zoos. After arranging for the death of the king, leaving Prince Suli (Maurice Tauzen) in charge command of the throne, Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller), having learned of the capture of his animal friends, including Cheta, starts to oppose the expedition and intervene.

Brenda Joyce in her third go round as the blonde Jane, and Johnny Sheffield in his eighth time playing Boy, each continue their recurring roles in the usual manner. This was to be the teen-aged Sheffield's farewell performance as Boy, now being more physically muscular and nearly as tall as Weissmuller's Tarzan, giving full indication that while the writers kept him on as long as possible, he has outgrown his part. Hence, in one scene where Boy wanting to make amends for the wrong he has done, is complimented by his jungle warlord father by telling him, "Boy man now." Indeed he's now a man. Being omitted in the next and all future installments, other jungle boys would be introduced as a replacement to Sheffield's Boy, but never seen on a regular basis. Sheffield was the only young actor whose character was consistent. He would return to the jungle in the character of "Bomba, the Jungle Boy" a new film series as produced by Monogram Pictures (1949-1955). Bomba could very well be Boy returning to Africa after a few years attending school in England, thus, starting life anew and following the tradition of jungle living amongst the animals and facing every day danger like Tarzan. As with the Tarzan/Weissmuller adventures, the writers of the "Bomba" series failed to introduce the jungle boy's origin as to where he came from, who were his people and how did he end up in the jungle. He was already roaming the jungle holding his sphere awaiting for something to happen. Anyway, that's entirely irrelevant to the story department and movie making at that time. Now back to TARZAN AND THE HUNTRESS.

Others appearing in the cast include John Warburton as Carl Morley; Wallace Scott as Smithers; and Mickey Simpson as Monak. And of course there's Cheta, the chimp, hogging many of the scenes, and trying to help out her animal friends from captivity. It's not Tarzan, Jane nor Boy who get to appear in the final fadeout, but Cheta being parachuted from the airplane with the "The End" inter-title superimposed over her puss having the time of her life.

TARZAN AND THE HUNTRESS returns Barton MacLane to the series, once more playing the villain, having already appeared two years earlier in TARZAN AND THE AMAZONS (1945), by whose presence in these two movies could stir up confusion. It would be impossible for MacLane to reprise his original role since his character has met his demise by falling victim to sinking in quicksand. An interesting switch from previous episodes is having a safari leader portrayed by a woman, the role awarded to Patricia Morison, who makes a fine villainous in the most sultry manner. Unlike the previous efforts made for RKO, "Huntress" gets plenty of use of animal extras along with an climatic elephant stampede.

TARZAN AND THE HUNTRESS, clocked at 77 minutes, is acceptable fun but a far cry from being the best in the series. It was one of the many movies from the "Tarzan" package to be presented on the America Movie Classics cable channel (1997-2000) before shifting over to Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: June 18, 2011). As much as to where this annual series was heading, the Tarzan adventures continued to hold their own as one of the most popular film series ever produced, enjoyed by many, especially youngsters in the Saturday afternoon matinée crowd cheering on the jungle hero as he battles against the bad guys entering his domain once again. Next installment, TARZAN AND THE MERMAIDS (1948) (*1/2).

A group of trappers seek to invade Tarzan's jungle and capture all the animals they want for their zoo, but Tarzan and the King object. When the King allows for only two of each type of animal to be taken, he is murdered and his nephew becomes the new leader, so the trappers are free to do as they please. It's then up to Tarzan to stand his ground. In this installment, the rapidly growing Johnny Sheffield plays Boy for the last time. We continue to see other recognizable Universal actors in each film, and this time it's Patricia Morison (CALLING DR. DEATH, DRESSED TO KILL) as the head zoologist.

**1/2 out of ****

Johnny Weissmuller made a name for himself as Tarzan at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio. However, and I am not sure why, Weissmuller and 'Boy' (Johnny Sheffield) jumped from this prestige studio to the less than stellar RKO--where the budgets shrank considerably as did the quality. The scripts got a lot more weird and the films became chock full of poorly integrated stock footage and animals that often weren't even African. Additionally, 'Jane' (Maureen O'Sullivan) remained at MGM and a new leading lady needed to be found. After having the character be 'off on vacation in England' or 'helping with the war effort' in a couple films, RKO decided to re-cast this character with Brenda Joyce--who bore little similarity to O'Sullivan.

This installment finds a party of greedy trappers trying to exploit the jungle to the fullest. However, the wise leader of a very white looking group of natives in the middle of Africa will only allow them to take a male/female pair of each species--and they are just too greedy for this. So, their foreman (Barton MacLane) arranges for the King to be 'accidentally' killed and the new King is more than willing to let them take what they want! What can Tarzan do--especially when these evil trappers come into his territory next?!

This is a surprisingly lame entry--even for RKO. The most obvious problem is that there are absolutely no black people in the film--yet it's set in Africa!!! Instead, tan-skinned SOMEWHAT Polynesian-looking guys abound!! What?!?! Next, the number of stock clips is larger than normal--and the film looks pretty cheesy as a result. Even more cheesy is the completely unnecessary and dopey scene of the chimp, Cheeta, flying from a home-made glider (complete with obvious wires pulling it across the sound stage). Fortunately, Cheeta is very entertaining in this movie otherwise--and perhaps has the best performance of anyone in the film! This, however, is not enough to elevate this above the score of 5--and this is possibly being a bit over-generous.

By the way, when you see the airplane look carefully--it changes type throughout the film and are obviously at least two different planes.

In the aftermath of war, zoos around the world need new animals to replenish the losses. Animal trainer Tanya Rawlins and her friend Carl Marley follow big game hunter guide Paul Weir to trap the animals. King Farrod is only allowing a quota of two animals for each species. Prince Ozira disagrees with the King and works with the outsiders to cheat the system. In addition, it's an opportunity for assassination. Prince Suli chases after the killers and is assumed dead. In the end, it's Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) to the rescue.

This is the last time for Johnny Sheffield to be the Boy. He's getting too old and would go on to be Bomba. It's the next to last time for Johnny Weissmuller to be Tarzan. His next move is Jungle Jim. This feels like an era is ending. As far as Tarzan movies, this is pretty good.

Those unfamiliar with 1940s American slang will miss the clever undertone of the title. Back then, a "huntress" was what women called other women who tried to steal their men. Perhaps to feed a certain misimpression of what the movie was about, a poster of the time shows Patricia Morison's character looking on enviously as Tarzan and Jane enjoy a tender moment. A famous publicity still showed the beautiful Morison clutching her coiled whip. Of course, the promise of hanky-panky and jungle homewrecking was totally false. Morison plays a real huntress, who's after animals. And to tell the truth, except for the visuals, this is one of the duller Tarzan films, short on suspense and exciting action. Morison may look naughty, but she's not a very menacing villain.

The Tarzan saga continues.This time Tarzan is upset after a group of people want to take animals from the jungle and fill the shortage they have of zoo animals in America.Luckily Tarzan speaks the language of the animals so he can get help from the elephants if he needs.Kurt Neumann's Tarzan and the Huntress (1947) is a very good addition to the Tarzan franchise.Johnny Weissmuller, who to many is the one and only Tarzan really is one of the kind.Brenda Joyce, who is still living at the age of 96, makes her third of five performances as Jane.What a fine Jane she makes! Johnny Sheffield as the adopted son of Tarzan marks his eight and final appearance as Boy.Patricia Morison, now 93, is awfully lovely with her dark long hair.The great Barton MacLane plays Paul Weir.Also fine performances are given by John Warburton (Carl Marley), Charles Trowbridge (King Farrod) and Maurice Tauzin (Prince Suli).You can't count Cheeta the chimpanzee out.The final picture with Cheeta coming down an airplane with a parachute is unforgettable.This movie entertained me thoroughly.Tarzan and the Huntress gives you the right amount of action, adventure and some romance.

In 1942, America's biggest film studio MGM scrapped its legendary Tarzan series, with the option being snapped up by the smaller RKO. There, Johnny Weissmuller was to strap on the surprisingly-revealing Hays Code-approved loincloth a further six times. The first couple saw him scrapping with Nazis, with the second - Tarzan's Desert Mystery (1943) - being as good a piece of nonsensical fluff as you're ever likely to find. I was a bit down on films three and four, as they're tired and largely gloomy affairs, but the penultimate entry - Huntress - is a partial return to form. Its major strength is an understanding of the series' in-built mythology and a welcome sense of fun. Like Superman Returns, then, only not as good. As with the first two MGM entries - the patchy Tarzan, The Ape Man and the superb Tarzan and His Mate - Tarzan's jungle paradise is invaded by hunters, a more sensible plot line than we've come to expect from these Sol Lesser yarns. The villainous gang includes former Warner heavy Barton MacLane and the eponymous huntress - Patricia Morison. Though the film is a touch confused about the morality of stealing animals from the jungle (presumably that was how the bulk of its supporting players came to Hollywood), Tarz does ultimately get pretty narked about the whole thing, leading to a series of lively showdowns. He's accompanied once more by Brenda Joyce and Johnny Sheffield, whose Boy is now a man, with a deep, booming voice. Where the film really scores is in its embracing of the Tarzan legend as our hero lets rip not once, but twice, with his famous yell. The first - so unexpected after four films without it - is a euphoric moment that seems to strip away 15 years of typecasting and weight gain from its wonderful star - if only for a few seconds. For all the film's deficiencies, like a messy, jumbled narrative and comedy scenes shoehorned in at apparently indiscriminate junctures, those two scenes are jolts of pure joy.

The "Huntress" is a very standard, but enjoyable low-budget Tarzan adventure via way of R-K-O producer Sol Lessor It is also a "hoot." Sheffield plays "Boy." Except to call him "Boy" in all his teenage masculine glory can be disconcerting or a howl. Weismeuller was easily in his 50s when this was made "Huntress" and in scenes with Sheffield, the now muscular and agile (as only a teenager can be) makes Weismueller look like Gramps.

After this, Sheffield began the "Bomba" series, where about the only attraction was John's handsome looks, good natured aura, maturing bod and barely covering his private parts loin cloth. All first obvious in this programmer.

See it for some innocent fun, a too-old Weismueller and Sheffield. Can anyone figure out what was worn under those loin-cloths. It has driven women and gay men fans of this never duplicated, incredibly successful, escapist series to wonder for 70-years.

Tarzan and the Huntress (1947)

** (out of 4)

Eleventh film in the original Tarzan series once again features Johnny Weissmuller in the role of the Ape Man. This time out a group of people (led by Patricia Morison) come to Africa where they want to take the wildlife back and fill up various zoos across the world. The lost city ruler agrees to let them take two of each kind of animal but this isn't good enough so they kill him. Soon the group are trying to take as many animals as possible so it's up to Tarzan and Boy (Johnny Sheffield) to stop them. This film certainly isn't as silly as the previous effort but there's no question that the series was running out of steam due to its budget that looks to have been cut yet again and the fact that the story itself just isn't that interesting. The 72-minute running time almost seems triple because there's just not any form of entertainment be it adventure, comedy or drama. As with several of the previous films, this one here wants to get the majority of its comic relief from Cheetah who is constantly stealing things or just causing trouble. The problem is that his antics were cute for a while but the more you see them the more annoying they become. It also doesn't help that the screenplay contains one boring sequence after another and you can tell the budget cuts because of how fake the jungle looks. Another problem is that there's just way too much stock footage being used and it seems like RKO couldn't afford anything good looking as most of the footage just appears cheap and out of focus. Weissmuller, it's fair to say, looks completely bored in the role as Tarzan and you can't help but think he wishes he was somewhere else. Brenda Joyce is back as Jane but the screenplay doesn't offer her much to do. Morison isn't too bad in her part but again the screenplay isn't giving her much to work with. I mentioned in my TARZAN AND THE LEOPARD WOMAN review that I was shocked to see how much Sheffield had grown between it and the previous film and that continues here. It's also rather obvious that he's going through puberty due to how badly his voice sounds in terms of how deep it is and often times you can hear it breaking. As with the rest of the characters, Boy isn't given much to do and the end result is a poor way for the actor to leave the series. TARZAN AND THE HUNTRESS is pure "C" entertainment that is way too boring to be worth watching.