Tarzan the Fearless ** (1933, Buster Crabbe, Julie Bishop, Edward Woods, Mischa Auer) – Classic Movie Review 8080

Director Robert F Hill’s 1933 Tarzan the Fearless gives Johnny Weissmuller’s swimming buddy Larry Buster Crabbe his only shot at playing Tarzan in this alternative Thirties version of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s story, made both as a 12-part film serial and as a 61-minute feature movie.

The feature film consisted of the first four chapters edited together without any ending to the story, intended to be followed on a weekly basis by the last eight chapters, but was often exhibited as a stand-alone movie. An 85-minute feature film of the entire serial was also edited by Mascot Pictures, but only available outside the US, appearing in the UK in 1933.

Crabbe’s Tarzan helps the blonde heroine Mary Brooks (Julie Bishop aka Jacqueline Wells) – not Jane! – to find her father Dr Brooks (E Alyn Warren), who has fallen down among the bad guys, particularly the high priest (Mischa Auer), while investigating old tribal customs.

Jane would be surprised that Mary gets to be Tarzan’s mate, and in real life Crabbe got the girl too: he married his student sweetheart Adah Virginia Held on 13 April 1933  just as the film opened. They remained married over 50 years, till Crabbe’s death on 23 April 1983, and had three children.

Tarzan the Fearless suffers from an inferior production, with much stock footage and many non-African animals. But an impressive Crabbe, wearing Tarzan’s most revealing loincloth, and speaking in best monosyllabic style, leaps athletically among the cardboard trees and synthetic monkeys. For example, Jack Leonard plays a Gorilla.

Tarzan the Fearless is directed by Robert F Hill, runs 200 minutes (12 episodes), 61 minutes (feature) or 85 minutes (feature), is made by Sol Lesser Productions, Sol Lesser Principal Picture, is released by Principal Distributing (US), Mascot Pictures and Wardour Films (UK), is written by Basil Dickey, George Plimpton, Ford Beebe and Walter Anthony, is shot in black and white by Harry Neumann and Joseph Brotherton, is produced by Sol Lesser and is scored by Sam K Wineland and Abe Meyer (music supervision).

Also in the cast are Edward [Eddie] Woods, Philo McCullough, Matthew Betz, Frank Lackteen, Symona Boniface, Darby Jones, Al Kikume and Carlotta Monti.

The complete serial version, along with the first-four-chapter feature, is considered to be a lost film. These were the episode titles: (1) The Dive of Death, (2) The Storm God Strikes, (3) Thundering Death, (4) The Pit of Peril, (5) Blood Money, (6) Voodoo Vengeance, (7) Caught by Cannibals, (8) The Creeping Terror, (9) Eyes of Evil, (10) The Death Plunge, (11) Harvest of Hate, and (12) Jungle Justice.

The first four chapters were edited into the surviving 85-minute 1933 feature film, as seen in the UK, with a trailer announcing the weekly future episodes to be shown at the cinema. The shorter 61-minute US feature version released by Principal Distributing is considered lost.

An attempted reconstruction of the serial using material in the feature version, recently found intermittent additional footage from the lost serial, stills, and descriptive inter-titles, became available on DVD in 2016 from the serial fan website Serial Squadron.

Sol Lesser dumped ‘Big Jim’ Pierce [James Pierce], who had previously played Tarzan for him, in favour of Crabbe, alleging he had gained weight and could not be convincing. Lesser had to get James Pierce to waive his rights to the part promised to him by his father-in-law, Edgar Rice Burroughs. 

Lesser’s contract included a clause that Tarzan must be played by Pierce, who married Joan Burroughs on 8 August 1928 when Edgar Rice Burroughs included the clause in the contract as a wedding present.

However, Lesser tricked Pierce into giving up the role by offering him $5,000 and a screen test at MGM, which Pierce naively accepted. The screen test turned out to be a reading of a Shakespearean soliloquy for which he was hardly suited, and Pierce never worked for MGM.

Clarence Linden Crabbe won a gold medal in the 400 meter swimming freestyle at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He was tested by MGM for Tarzan and rejected. But producer Sol Lesser saw Crabbe as the Tarzan-style Kaspa the Lion Man in King of the Jungle (1933) and wanted Crabbe for his independent Tarzan the Fearless.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8080

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