Tarzan’s Desert Mystery *** (1943, Johnny Weissmuller, Nancy Kelly, Johnny Sheffield) – Classic Movie Review 8064

Director William Thiele’s 1943 adventure Tarzan’s Desert Mystery brings back Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan, who swaps the jungle for the fringes of the Sahara Desert, where he encounters a fine stallion, a beautiful American chorus girl called Connie Bryce (Nancy Kelly), Nazi agents, Arab sheikhs, prehistoric monsters, giant spiders, and a man-eating plant.

Thiele directs with verve, lifting the dinosaur scenes from the 1940 One Million BC. Tarzan movies don’t get more foolishly enjoyable than this.

Johnny Sheffield returns as Boy, and the cast also includes Otto Kruger as Paul Hendrix, Joseph [Joe] Sawyer as Karl Straeder, Lloyd Corrigan as Sheik Abdul El Khim, Robert Lowery as Prince Selim, Frank Puglia as the magistrate, Philip Van Zandt as Kushmet, Bobby Barber as the turban vendor (uncredited), John Berkes as Charlie (uncredited), John Dehner as Prince Ameer (uncredited), Frank Faylen as Achmed (uncredited), George J Lewis as Ali Baba Hassan (uncredited), Nestor Paiva as the prison guard (uncredited), and Syd Saylor as the bewildered camel herdsman (uncredited).

The screenplay is by Edward T Lowe Jr, from a story by Carroll Young, based on characters created by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

As with its predecessor Tarzan Triumphs (1943), there is no Jane, who is away for the war effort, nursing British troops in England. But she sets off the plot anyway in a letter that asks for Tarzan’s help to obtaining a jungle plant for a malaria serum.

When Jane returned in the next Tarzan film Tarzan and the Amazons (1945), she was played by Brenda Joyce, not Weissmuller’s previous regular co-star Maureen O’Sullivan.

Tarzan’s Desert Mystery is directed by William Thiele, runs 70 minutes, is made by Sol Lesser Productions and Principal Artists Productions, is released by RKO Radio Pictures, is written by Edward T Lowe Jr, from a story by Carroll Young, is shot in black and white by Harry J Wild and Russell Harlan, is produced by Sol Lesser, and is scored by Paul Sawtell.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8064

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