TARZAN AND THE TRAPPERS (1960/1966)

We are told that in Africa, Tarzan "befriends the weak, helps the distressed, and enforces the jungle's primitive code of justice." Tarzan, Jane and Boy live a seemingly idyllic life up in the jungle treetops, with their pet chimp Cheeta whom we see save a napping Jane from a snake. Tarzan hears a local tribe sending drum messages to warn others about a trapper in the area. Schroeder, collecting animals for circuses, accidentally wounded a native, and now he has killed an elephant and captured its orphaned baby. Tarzan frees the baby, but when Schroeder comes across Boy and Cheeta, he grabs them, holding them hostage so Tarzan will let them escape. Tarzan, however, jumps on a giraffe, calls on the other elephants to stampede, and foils Schroeder's plans. Before long, another visitor to the jungle makes trouble. Sikes is looking for revenge against Tarzan for getting his brother jailed for seven years. His associate, Lapin, is looking for the treasures of the lost city of Zaibo. Tarzan confronts them and does battle with a big thug who looks like a Turkish wrestler. Sikes tells Tarzan he's going to hunt him down to either kill him or tame him, giving him a two hour head start. Tarzan says, "He who hunts in jungle is in turn hunted," and that's exactly what happens—instead of running off, Tarzan takes to the treetops and follows Sikes. They all wind up in the ruins of Zaibo where Tarzan, as promised, enforces justice.

The history of this Tarzan oddity is a bit messy. Three pilot episodes of a Tarzan TV show starring Gordon Scott were shot in 1958 (Scott, pictured, was playing Tarzan in the movies at the time) but no network was interested, so a short feature film was put together from the pilot footage and released overseas in 1960, and eventually aired on American television in 1966. That's why this film feels a bit disjointed; the first section (roughly 20 minutes) is the Schroeder story, a traditional white trapper tale, and the last section (50 minutes) follows Sikes and Lapin in a "Most Dangerous Game" story crossed with a Lost City narrative. Jane plays little part in the proceedings, and Boy (after complaining about having to read Treasure Island) vanishes at the half-hour mark. Though obviously done on a cheaper budget than the theatrical films, this is watchable, largely due to Gordon Scott. As an actor, he's not as interesting as Lex Barker (pre-Scott) or Jock Mahoney (post-Scott) but he has an impressive physique and is pretty good at vine swinging, though I suspect that some of that is done by a stunt double. Eve Brent (Jane) and Ricky Sorenson (Boy) are bland, as are the bad guys, though Sol Gorss, as Sikes, works up some decent villainy. There appears to be freshly shot African footage that is worked in well with the studio scenes. There is an odd shot of an animal (maybe a mongoose) killing a snake included for no apparent reason. IMDb calls this a 1960 TV movie, but they're wrong—it wasn't shown on TV until six years later. Some reviewers claim that Sikes is getting revenge for Schroeder, but they have different last names, and Sikes says that his brother has spent 7 years in jail, so it can't be the same person. [DVD]