TARZAN AND SON by Dave Goode

TARZAN AND SON BY DAVE GOODE

Watching the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies a couple of years back it hit me that these flicks took place in an alternate universe. Not just because Tarzan  was an inarticulate savage as opposed to Burroughs' Lord of the Jungle that appears in the books. But in the first six films from MGM, Jane is a brunette Britisher and not a blonde American. And to top it off she's Jane Parker and not Jane Porter. Later in the RKO Tarzan movies Brenda Joyce takes over the role and is a closer match to the Jane of the books.

And then there was Tarzan and Jane's adopted son "Boy" played by Johnny Sheffield. A huge departure from Edgar Rice Burroughs' books. Sheffield would go on to portray Bomba, the Jungle Boy in a series of movies from Monogram Pictures. 

Looking at these low budget programmers they remind me a bit of Gold Key's Son of Tarzan comics from the 1960s. And it's easy to imagine Sheffield playing Tarzan's real son Jack Clayton a.k.a Korak, the Killer.

There is an interesting fan boy theory that involves the Tarzan that Ron Ely played on 1960s television. That big Ron was playing the "Boy" from the Weissmuller MGM and RKO movies grown to adulthood after having lived for years in civilization. An interesting idea. And we are after all talking about an alternate universe.

ZAN...THE FORGOTTEN TARZAN by Dave Goode

One of my favorite ersatz Tarzans was Zan, King of the Jungle (1969). The star of this European production known alternately as Tarzan En La Gruta Del Oro (TARZAN IN THE GOLDEN GROTTO) and KING OF THE JUNGLE the movie's star Steve Hawkes claimed the film company that produced the flick couldn't pay the licensing fee to the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate for the use of the Tarzan name. And so they simply cut the jungle hero's name in half. 

In any case the production was a fairly entertaining flick that was filmed in Africa, Florida, Italy  Spain, and Suriname. And it featured something that was rarely seen in a Tarzan movie since MGM's TARZAN THE APE MAN (1932). Tarzan in mortal combat with a gorilla.

The movie's star Steve Hawkes was born Stepjen "Steve" Sipek in Croatia and relocated to Canada in 1959. I've read interviews with Hawkes where he claimed to be a champion swimmer (Johnny Weissmuller was his boyhood hero) and the winner of the Mr.Canada bodybuilding title before becoming a professional wrestler. The latter was pure "kayfabe". There is no record of him winning the Mr. Canada championship. There have been any number of well - built pro wrestlers who billed themselves as Mr. America or Mr. Universe without having won those titles. Or even having competed in those contests.

There was a sequel to KING OF THE JUNGLE, TARZAN AND THE BROWN PRINCE (1972) that had a similar plot to the Jock Mahoney movie TARZAN'S THREE CHALLENGES (1963). Hawkes played the lead in this flick and his co- star from the first movie Kitty Swan returned as well. 

 

Swan had starred in a jungle movie of her own as GUNGALA, VIRGIN OF THE JUNGLE (1967). An accident on the set of TARZAN AND THE BROWN PRINCE left Hawkes and Swan both horribly burned when they were tied down for a scene and a fire got out of control. A lion on the set who was trained to free the actors from their bonds for the scene actually saved them.Hawkes would relocate to Loxahatchee, Florida where he opened an animal sanctuary. News services of course wrote him up as a real life Tarzan. But in 2012 he was arrested and his animals confiscated for "non regulatory compliance in regards to animal permits".

Who Is She? by Dave Goode

Fans of E.R. Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes and FANS OF " gladiator movies " probably can't help but notice that there are characters that are familiar to both. Beyond Tarzan and Maciste. I'm talking about the seductive queen/high priestess of some lost city or civilization. Modeled more or less after H.Rider Haggard's Ayesha a.k.a She Who Must Be Obeyed. You can find them in all manner of pulp fiction. Mostly in tales of barbarian heroes like Robert E. Howard's

Conan. 

Another place where you found them was in Tarzan comic book knock-offs. They were all based on Burroughs' La of Opar and Nemone of Cathne.

Lillian Worth played La in the silent film THE ADVENTURES OF TARZAN opposite Elmo Lincoln. The 1921 movie was based on Burroughs' story THE RETURN OF TARZAN. In the 1929 movie TARZAN THE TIGER La was portrayed by Mademoiselle Kithnou. In the 1946 movie TARZAN AND THE LEOPARD WOMAN starring Johnny Weissmuller cult movie star Acqunetta played a character named Lea,the leader of a leopard cult. But she could just as easily have been playing La.

WANDISA GUIDA

CHELO ALONSO

During the 1960s during the peplum movie craze any number of actresses from the sinew & sandal genre were more than capable of playing La or Nemone. Wandisa Guida , Helga Line , Gianna Maria Canalle all would have been great. Chelo Alonso,the undisputed queen of sinew & sandal flicks, would have made a great La. Perhaps opposite Gordon Scott as Tarzan. And then you had Nemone of Cathne from Burroughs' TARZAN AND THE CITY OF GOLD. This was the most Maciste-like of Tarzan adventures.

And I easily imagine Steve Reeves as Tarzan in a movie adaptation with his co-star from HERCULES UNCHAINED, Sylvia Lopez playing the mad queen Nemone.

MIKE HENRY

Former NFL linebacker Mike Henry portrayed Tarzan in three movies in the mid-60s. I think he should have starred in at least one more. An adaptation of TARZAN AND THE JEWELS OF OPAR with cult movie star Martine Beswicke as La , the high priestess/queen of the lost city of Opar.

Martine Beswicke

 

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