Tarzan’s Peril ** (1951, Lex Barker, Virginia Huston, George Macready) – Classic Movie Review 8042

Director Byron Haskin and Phil Brandon’s 1951 Tarzan’s Peril stars the 6’4″ blond, virile Lex Barker as the vine-swinging hero in this busy and amusing RKO jungle action adventure, whose biggest peril is the daft dialogue, though there is strong competition from George Macready’s oily gun-running villain Radijeck, a man-eating plant and Virginia Huston’s jewelry-laden Jane. The film is fortunate to have Macready as its classy villain, though he was used to classier films like Gilda or A Lady without Passport.

It is the fifteenth part of the Tarzan saga and Barker’s third in the series following Tarzan’s Magic Fountain (1949) and Tarzan and the Slave Girl (1950).

This time the Ape Man finds himself in the middle of two battling
native tribes, one of whom has been sold banned weapons by ruthless white men, escaped convicts.

Also in the cast are Douglas Fowley, Dorothy Dandridge, Alan Napier, Glenn Anders, Edward Ashley and Walter Kingsford.

Tarzan’s Peril is directed by Byron Haskin and Phil [Philip] Brandon (second unit director), runs 79 minutes, is made and released by RKO, is written by Samuel Newman (original screenplay), Francis Swann (original screenplay) and John Cousins (additional dialogue), is shot in black and white by Karl Struss and Jack Whitehead (cinematographer of African footage), is produced by Sol Lesser, is scored by Michel Michelet, and is designed by John Meehan.

Barker landed the role in 1949 as one of the more than 1,000 beefcake actors producer Sol Lesser interviewed to take over from Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan.

Tarzan’s Peril is followed with Barker in Tarzan’s Savage Fury (1952) and Tarzan and the She-Devil (1953).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8042

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