I was
watching THE LOVES OF HERCULES again the other day. That's the sinew
& sandal flick in which Mr.Universe 1955 Mickey Hargitay portrays
Hercules. And his wife blonde bombshell Jayne Mansfield in dual roles
portrays two of his loves. Tina Gloriani plays another. It got me to
thinking. Mickey and Jayne might have made for an interesting Tarzan and
Jayne. Or at least a Tarzan-like hero and his mate. In fact in the
movie adaptation of the hit Broadway play WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK
HUNTER?,Mickey plays the Tarzan-like star of a television series. Wife
Jayne recreates the role she made famous on Broadway as the Marilyn
Monroe-like Rita Marlowe. It's not hard to imagine the duo starring in a
musical-comedy parody of Tarzan. Or a remake of BEYOND THE BLUE HORIZON
with Mickey as Jackra the Magnificent.
Jackra the
Magnificent always sounded
to me like the name of a pro wrestler.
And in
BEYOND THE BLUE HORIZON Richard Denning with his wavy blond hair and
leopard loincloth sure looked like a refugee from the squared
circle.Hmmm. That might have been a great storyline for the Mickey and Jayne "jungle man" movie.
A wrestling promoter vacationing in Africa discovers a Tarzan-type
'rassling gators and gorillas and brings him and his mate back to
civilization to make a fortune in the grunt & groan racket. That
makes me wonder why no Hollywood producer ever thought to cast a
professional wrestler as Tarzan. Swimmers, track & field stars ,
football players. And in the case of Frank Merrill a national gymnastics
champion. But no pro wrestlers. Unless you count Joe Robinson in TARZAN
ROI LA FORCE BRUTALE.
TARZAN ROI LA
FORCE BRUTALE (Tarzan The King of Brute Force) was an unauthorized
European Tarzan film. It was seized and released only after the
producers agreed to change the hero's name to " Thaur ". I have no idea
why they chose to name the character Tarzan to begin with. The character
in no way resembled Edgar Rice Burroughs' jungle hero. The flick itself
was more of a peplum picture. The star Joe Robinson might have made for
an interesting Tarzan though. Robinson was a third generation pro
wrestler, physical culturist and judo champion turned actor who played
in a number of peplum movies. My favorite movie that he appeared in
though was A KID FOR TWO FARTHINGS. In that film he plays opposite
Britain's Jayne Mansfield , Diana Dors. Or was Diana Britain's answer to
Marilyn Monroe. In any case Joe plays her boy friend, a bodybuilder
turned wrestler. And he was perfect in the role.
DAVE GOODE & VANCE CAPLEY
have a terrific comic book for fans of the atomic and silver ages of comics!
Action, adventure, wrestling, judo, and more await you in....
Mickey Hargitay and Jayne Mansfield were in fact partial inspirations for Brad King and Sugar Caine when I created THE GOLDEN ADONIS comic.You can find more of them in JUDO COMICS.
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