TARZAN’S SECRET TREASURE (1941)

The fifth entry in the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan series begins up in Tarzan's secret African escarpment as Tarzan, Jane, and Boy have a family swim with some baby elephants. Boy finds some gold nuggets in the river which leads to a discussion about wealth and civilization, and that night Boy takes a nugget and decides to find civilization. He meets a native boy named Tumbo whose village is currently beset by an epidemic of sickness. When Tumbo's mother dies of fever, the tribe plans to sacrifice Boy hoping to appease the gods and save the village, but an expedition of scientists looking for a lost tribe arrive and are able to save Boy, and when the natives attack the scientists, Tarzan swings in to save them all. Among the scientists: Elliot, the leader; O'Doul, the jolly hard-drinking Irish photographer; Vandermeer, the guide; and Medford, a sneaky, greedy sort of fellow. Tarzan takes them to his escarpment and Medford, who has seen Boy's gold and been told that there is a mountain of gold nearby, plans to grab himself a fortune. As tensions build, Tarzan tells the men to leave, but with O'Doul down with the fever, Elliot asks if they can stay until he's better. Tarzan relents, and when Elliot, who has sided with Tarzan about leaving the gold, also gets the sickness, Medford deliberately breaks the vial with his medicine. Elliot dies, Medford kidnaps Jane and Boy, and manages to strand Tarzan in a mountain chasm. However, Tumbo has secretly followed Tarzan and goes back to get the recovering O'Doul to save him. But now, everyone else is in the hands of the vicious Jaconi tribe. Can Tarzan save the worthy and allow rough justice to take the undeserving?

Though I am a fan of the Tarzan franchise and its offshoots, this is the last one of the Weissmuller films that I can work up any enthusiasm for. He made seven more, leaving the role behind in 1948, but after this one, he became too bored and out of shape to be an effectual Tarzan. Some, like DESERT MYSTERY and NEW YORK ADVENTURE, remained interesting for their unusual settings, but I would counsel new viewers to skip from here to 1949’s TARZAN’S MAGIC FOUNTAIN where the younger, hunkier Lex Barker dons the loincloth. Weissmuller is still a decent Tarzan, and Maureen O’Sullivan, despite her dislike for the role, puts on a brave face and is fine as Jane. The focus of the first fifteen minutes is on the antics and adventures of Boy, nicely played by 10-year-old Johnny Sheffield. The orphaned Tumbo, seemingly introduced as a playmate for Boy, is portrayed by 9-year-old Cordell Hickman. The last shot of the movie includes Tumbo as an adopted member of Tarzan's family (see above right), but he never shows up again in the series. Tom Conway is a bit too obviously villainous as Medford, but I liked Reginald Owen as Elliot and Philip Dorn as Vandermeer, and Barry Fitzgerald is fun as the (stereotyped) Irish drinker O'Doul who calls Weissmuller "Mr. Tarzan" and accuses him of being a temperance worker when he stops O'Doul from drinking. (Cheeta the monkey, who gets a drunk scene, has too much to do for my taste.) There is a fair amount of recycled jungle footage, but the climax, involving crocodile wrestling and an elephant stampede, is exciting. [TCM]