Tarzan and His Mate **** (1934, Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O’Sullivan, Neil Hamilton) – Classic Movie Review 2237

Directors Cedric Gibbons and Jack Conway’s welcome 1934 sequel to the 1932 hit Tarzan, the Ape Man again stars a long-haired, muscular Johnny Weissmuller, this time in his second appearance as Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Ape Man.

One again there is a classy MGM production, plenty of animals and action, and an intelligent plot in which Tarzan grapples with an elephant poacher while a provocatively scantily-clad Jane (Maureen O’Sullivan) is home-making in the jungle. Jane’s former lover Harry Holt (Neil Hamilton, from the first film) turns up on an expedition and tries to persuade Mr T to take him and his womanising friend, the ivory poacher Harry Holt (Paul Cavanagh), to an elephants’ graveyard to plunder ivory.

The lyrical tone and mood plus the visual beauty of Tarzan, the Ape Man are accessed and effectively re-created, but added this time is more story-telling dynamism and thrills in a film for grown-ups. The adventure is imaginatively and meticulously directed by Gibbons (head of MGM’s art department, indulging a personal enthusiasm) and the experienced director Conway, who replaced him after some weeks. Effective trick photography (photographic effects by Irving G Ries) cunningly blends actual jungle footage with studio sets.

It is often generally cited as the best Tarzan film of them all, though it has competition in Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984), and Tarzan and His Mate still entertains mightily after all these years. If these are the best Tarzan films, the two remakes of Tarzan, the Ape Man are strong candidates for the worst.

Moral groups objected to the scanty costumes and one particular sequence in which Tarzan tugs on Jane’s garment as they dive in the water and her breast is partly exposed. ‘It started such a furore with thousands of women objecting to my costume,’ said O’Sullivan. The moral minority prevailed and this scene was later cut.

On DVD, it’s restored, uncut and in glorious black and white.

http://derekwinnert.com/greystoke-the-legend-of-tarzan-lord-of-the-apes-1984-christopher-lambert-ralph-richardson-classic-movie-review-1451/

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2237

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com/