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| TARZAN'S NEW YORK
ADVENTURE (director: Richard
Thorpe; screenwriter: based on the characters by Edgar
Rice Burroughs/story by Myles Connolly/Myles
Connolly/William R. Lipman/Gordon Kahn;
cinematographer: Sidney Wagner; editor: Gene Ruggiero;
music: David Snell; cast: Johnny Weissmuller
(Tarzan), Maureen O'Sullivan (Jane Parker), Johnny
Sheffield (Boy), Virginia Grey (Connie Beach), Charles
Bickford (Buck Rand), Paul Kelly (Jimmie Shields,
Pilot), Chill Wills (Manchester Montford), Cy Kendall
(Col. Ralph Sergeant), Russell Hicks (Judge Abbotson),
Howard Hickman (Blake Norton, Tarzan's Lawyer), Mantan
Moreland (Sam, the Nightclub Janitor); Runtime:
72; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Fred Stephani; MGM; 1942) "A hoot and a blast." Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz This
was the last Tarzan to star Maureen O'Sullivan
as Jane, and also the
Tarzan series’ last film at the classy MGM.
RKO now owned the rights to the series, and they
operated on a lower budget and thereby the series
tailed off considerably even though Weissmuller was
still their Tarzan. Tarzan's New York Adventure is a
hoot and a blast. It's a culture clash Tarzan
pic that has the loin cloth wearing Ape Man out of his
elements stalking the urban jungle of the Big Apple to
rescue his adopted son from exploiter kidnappers.
Richard Thorpe ("The Prisoner of Zenda"/"Knights of
the Round Table"/"Jailhouse Rock") pushes the
right buttons to make a Tarzan film feel at home in
the big city. Myles Connolly wrote the story
that has him as co-writer with William R.
Lipman and Gordon Kahn. The
evil big game hunter Buck Rand (Charles
Bickford) hunts lions in Tarzan's neck of the
jungle, in The Mutia Escarpment, and becomes
taken with Boy (Johnny Sheffield),
Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) and
Jane's (Maureen O'Sullivan) adopted
son, the way he gets animals to follow his commands.
Buck dreams of making a fortune out of exploiting the
kid's ability at circus shows, so he kidnaps him and
brings him back to Manhattan when the kid thinks
Tarzan was killed in a brush fire started by Mr. Evil.
Tarzan escapes his brush with death, and when
realizing Boy has been snatched the anguished
Tarzan and Jane take their playful
pet chimp Cheeta with them, as they fly to NYC to
rescue their son; that is, after Tarzan buys a custom
made suit. Through a helpful club singer (Virginia
Grey) friend of Buck's, Tarzan finds out that
Buck had his shady Long Island circus owner pal, Col.
Ralph Sergeant (Cy Kendall), post a
$5,000 fee to purchase an immigration bond to bring
the kid legally into the country and that would enable
the villains to be eligible to adopt Boy. Tarzan
follows Jane's advice to let the law work for them,
but when that fails in the court custody case for Boy
Tarzan follows his jungle instincts and escapes from
being locked-up for disorderly conduct in court and
flees from NYC's finest by jumping off the Brooklyn
Bridge to rescue in time Boy from the Long Island
circus owner before they leave the country with the
kid. Comical
scenes had the domesticated by jungle standards Tarzan
trying to adjust to NYC cabs, hotel showers and the
telephone. REVIEWED ON 8/9/2012 GRADE: B Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ |