The vine swinging here is pretty good and the background music better than even some of the so called better Tarzan films involving higher expense. Within the budget constraints that this film was produced - and I don't believe Weissmuller was paid anywhere like handsomely- this is a Tarzan film with light-hearted humor with some very unexpected but entertaining swimming and diving scenes with a dash of adventure . I particularly find the fight with the octopus refreshingly good and rather picturesque and reminds one of Hogarth's drawings of Tarzan fighting an octopus in once famous comic series. The difficult under-water scenes are done very well particularly the scene in which Tarzan battles his many youthful enemies with great swimming skill and craft: he appears agile, strong and a champion in the water that he was. He does quite a bit of rigorous cliff climbing like a mountain lion looking very fit and lion-like and diving into the water here again he appears strong and agile.The grand finale in which he hurled the impostor "Balu" from a high cliff is quite impressive. When his adversaries invaded his "estate" he defended his house and home like a true jungle lord ,throwing some over his head and punching others away as if the were toys! I appreciate Weissmuller's self confidence in asking for a "raise" for the continuation of the Tarzan contract which was terminated with the lame excuse that he was out of shape. More than a dozen or so Jungle Jim adventure films in which Weismuller now "fully clothed" did a bit of vine swinging ,a lot of swimming,diving and fought lions,leopards and tigers showed that Weissmuller could get back into shape again and was fit and strong enough to carry on for a few more years as the one and only Tarzan if only he was given a fair chance.
Reviews
2 Reviews
Tarzan's Desert Mystery
(1943)
A Tarzan adventure in a desert with mysterious creatures and plants.
6 June 2006
Edger Rice Burrough's Tarzan was never meant to be muscular although as portrayed by Elmo Lincoln, Frank Merrill and Gordon Scott's Tarzan was indeed very much so. Young Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan was lithe, strong and athletic with a beautiful manly body. In Tarzan and the Desert Mystery, Johnny Weissmuller looked big , strong and the way he lifted the Arabs --accompanying the American girl magician Nancy Kelly who was providing a free performance in the middle of a desert-- and threw them by mistake despite protests from Kelly was very impressive and entertaining. The second scene that was equally entertaining was the scene in which Tarzan was attacked after being falsely accused of stealing the stallion. Here we find Tarzan throwing the opponents about like little toys and fighting like a majestic lion. I think only Weissmuller could give such a splendid performance. He looked every inch a Tarzan and I should think he was much better built than perhaps Lincoln and Scott. Scott had weight lifter's build and became an extremely believable Tarzan in later films and Lincoln so long as he was in the jungle proved to be a very popular Tarzan with the moviegoers. Nancy Kelly's performance was very humorous and at times very very perceptive. Johnny Sheffield's performance as boy was as to expected , excellent. Cheeta was a great fun to watch and interestingly besides the usual quota of animal extras viz lions, elephants, wild horses, monkeys a number of mysterious prehistoric creatures were included and also a gigantic spider. The stallion that Tarzan rode added an extra element of interest and a novel feature and instead of stampeding wild elephants we have horses stampeding in this movie. The story is quite what one could expect if one is familiar with Newspaper Tarzan Comic Strips as drawn by Hogarth, Manning, Celardo and Foster. These news paper comic strips gave Tarzan a personality and ultimately made it popular enough to be made into movies. The story is a good change but what one could expect for a good Tarzan yarn. Another feature one notices in this film is instead of the " repetitious" vine swinging one finds in in some of excellent MGM films the vine swinging is a refreshing change in this RKO film. I enjoyed it very much and it is an excellent fare for the whole family. I have seen it several times.
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