The New Adventures of Tarzan
Encyclopedia
The New Adventures of Tarzan is a 1935
American
film serial in 12 chapters. It is a more authentic version of the character than most other adaptations, with Tarzan as a cultured and well educated gentleman as in the original Edgar Rice Burroughs
novels. It was filmed during the same period as the Johnny Weissmuller
/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Tarzan films. Episodes 2-12 were edited into the film Tarzan and the Green Goddess.
The serial was partly filmed in Guatemala
, and Tarzan
was played by Herman Brix (known post-war as Bruce Bennett
). The final screenplay
was credited to Charles F. Royal, and from Episode 6 onward, also Basil Dickey
. It was produced by Ashton Dearholt
, Bennett Cohen
and George Stout
under the corporate name of “Burroughs-Tarzan Enterprises, Inc.” (which also distributed
) and was directed by Edward Kull and Wilbur F. McGaugh.
n idol known as The Green Goddess: Tarzan's friend D'Arnot has crash landed in the region and is in the hands of a lost tribe of jungle natives. Major Martling is leading an expedition to find the fabled artefact for a powerful explosives formula hidden within it. Ula Vale's fiancé died in an earlier expedition to rescue the artefact for its archaeological benefit and so she starts one of her own in his honour. Raglan has been sent by Hiram Powers, Ula's lawyer, to steal the valuable idol for himself - in addition to containing the explosives formula, it also holds a fortune in jewels.Tarzan, Ula and Major Martling find the idol and rescue D'Arnot from the natives that worship it in the 70-minute-long first episode. However, Raglan escapes with the Green Goddess and heads through the jungle for the coast. Tarzan and the others pursue him across the jungle, encountering many perils, including recapture by the natives to whom the idol belonged. The adventures end out at sea where, during a hurricane, they are able to permanently secure the idol while Raglan is killed by another of Powers' agents because of his failures. The murderer perishes when the ship sinks. Returning to Greystoke Manor in England with Tarzan, Ula consigns the explosives formula to fire in the final episode, where she and Tarzan also recount several adventures from the first part of the serial to an assembled party of friends and colleagues.
, arranged an introduction to Edgar Rice Burroughs, using his wife's friendship with Burroughs' daughter. Dearholt had held several jobs within the film industry during the 1920s, and had even produced, directed and starred in a brief series of western films. As of 1929, he was familiar with Burroughs' work and wanted to get the rights to one of Burroughs' several singleton novels and film it in conjunction with RKO-Pathé. Burroughs, long dissatisfied with Hollywood's treatment of his Tarzan character, refused but took a liking to Dearholt personally and they became friends.
MGM's contract with Burroughs was for just two pictures and this had run out with Tarzan and His Mate
. In the Summer of 1934, Dearholt and two business associates, George W, Stout, Bennett S. Cohen approached Burroughs to make an independent film company, Burroughs-Tarzan Enterprises, through which to promote Burroughs' works. Burroughs agreed as he would be allowed to select the actor playing Tarzan and receive a much larger amount of money than in his previous contracts (MGM had made several million with their two Tarzan films despite only paying Burroughs about $75,000). Burroughs quickly outlined a new story, Tarzan and the Green Goddess, based on which Charles Royal and Edwin Blum
then wrote the screenplay, renaming it Tarzan in Guatemala in the process. Guatemala
had been selected based on a suggestion by Dearholt. He had visited the country in 1933 as a trouble-shooter for RKO-Radio Pictures. He felt that he knew enough about the country, had the contacts there including within the government, and could make the film far more economically than in Hollywood. The company had no studio and so decided to film on location instead. Therefore, in late 1934, Dearholt "led an expedition" of 29 cast and crew, with several tons of freight, aboard the liner Seattle to begin filming in highland ruins in Guatemala. The expedition almost never got started, however, as Dearholt's personal credit would not support the loan he estimated as needed to make the picture. Burroughs had to reluctantly involve himself as co-signatory and the loan was approved the day before the party was due to sail.
It then took 18 hours to travel the 100 miles to Chichicastenango
, on a plateau
6,447 ft above sea level. The production then moved on to Lake Atitlan, Tikal
, and to Guatemala City
. Guatemala had no motion picture industry of its own, so everywhere they went, the company had to carry tons of equipment brought with them from the States, including an enormous sound truck which was not designed for the winding, dirt mountain highways which made up most of the country's transit infrastructure. Tropical diseases abounded and apparently every cast member was stricken at least once and laid up, unable to work, for weeks. The local wildlife was also a problem. According to an interview with Herman Brix in the Christian Science Monitor (1999), "there was only a single sharpshooter up in the trees to keep the croc away from me." The local climate became another problem when the production was affected by tropical storms and some film was damaged by the humid environment of the very real jungle. The sound quality of the finished film was so poor that an apology was actually included in the credits.
The loan obtained in California was used up before the picture was finished, and the expedition evidently had to waste additional time hiding from local creditors and the police in the jungles before returning to California, where the picture was finished. Nevertheless, the film was finished in four months, with the title changed again to The New Adventures of Tarzan.
, left with their two children, and eventually filed for divorce shortly before the expedition's departure. Whilst filming, Edgar Rice Burroughs divorced his wife Emma Hubert and married Florence Gilbert, 30-years his junior, on 4 April 1935, after which they escaped to Hawaii
for their honeymoon
. He would write in his personal diary that he had fallen in love with Florence when she accompanied Dearholt to his first meeting with Burroughs in 1929. Burroughs decided that he needed immediate money and that Burroughs-Tarzan Enterprises was not going to make it for him after all. He re-optioned MGM's contract for a third Weissmuller film and approved the sale of three of Sol Lesser's remaining four options to MGM, who agreed to make a large "authorisation payment" to Burroughs. (Sol Lesser had acquired options for five Tarzan productions from a defunct company, the first of which he used to make Tarzan the Fearless
in direct competition with MGM's films.) MGM paid Lesser $500,000 for his options and paid Burroughs $25–50,000 per film.
The serial was preparing for release at this time and MGM campaigned to undermine their rival. They threatened that theaters showing the serial would not be allowed to show the third MGM film when it was released. Almost every big theater chose to wait for the MGM film and did not show the New Adventures of Tarzan serial. Burroughs-Tarzan Enterprises tried to make its serial more attractive by releasing it in several different formats. The first was as a 75-minute (seven-reel) feature film, the second was as a shorter feature film followed by seven individual serial chapters, and the third option was as a complete twelve-chapter serial. This plan was not successful. New Adventures of Tarzan was the last Tarzan serial ever produced.
This serial features an alternate version of the famous Tarzan yell
. This version is variously described as a rising pitch "Man-gan-i" or "Tar-man-gan-i" sound. The "Tar-man-gan-i" version originally comes from the 1932
Tarzan radio serial
starring James Pierce
. In the ape language
used in the Burroughs' Tarzan novels, "Tarmangani" means "Great White Ape". MGM's Johnny Weismuller films, featuring the now standard yell, had been in production for some time when this serial was created, starting with Tarzan the Ape Man (1932
).The original version of the plot involved munitions runners and government agents, focussing more on the super-explosive formula hidden in the idol. This was re-written during production but some elements remain, such as the otherwise nonsensical final chapter name "Operator No. 17" (Ula Vale was originally written as a government agent using "Operator No. 17" as her codename but this entire plot line was dropped from the final script).
, for example, said that "limpid direction makes it fall way short of even the limited possibilities of an independent production." The Motion Picture Herald
, however, described is as "spectacular and authentic." The film was more of a success outside the United States
, possibly due to MGM's lack of control in those markets. According to Gabe Essoe, "on the strength of the one picture alone, Brix became twentieth in popularity in France and Britain." Despite its problems, the film was successful enough that a second feature film, Tarzan and the Green Goddess, was released in 1938. It was based on footage from the last ten chapters of the serial, with some minor additions, and follows much the same plot. William C. Cline believes The New Adventures of Tarzan to be the best of the Tarzan serials.
Source:
1935 in film
-Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .*Seven year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.*The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment started in order to educate the Bantu peoples.-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:...
American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film serial in 12 chapters. It is a more authentic version of the character than most other adaptations, with Tarzan as a cultured and well educated gentleman as in the original Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...
novels. It was filmed during the same period as the Johnny Weissmuller
Johnny Weissmuller
Johnny Weissmuller was an Austro-Hungarian-born American swimmer and actor best known for playing Tarzan in movies. Weissmuller was one of the world's best swimmers in the 1920s, winning five Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal. He won fifty-two US National Championships and set sixty-seven...
/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
Tarzan films. Episodes 2-12 were edited into the film Tarzan and the Green Goddess.
The serial was partly filmed in Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, and Tarzan
Tarzan
Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
was played by Herman Brix (known post-war as Bruce Bennett
Bruce Bennett
Bruce Bennett was an American actor and Olympic silver medalist shot putter. During the 1930s, he went by his real name, Herman Brix .-Early life and Olympics:...
). The final screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
was credited to Charles F. Royal, and from Episode 6 onward, also Basil Dickey
Basil Dickey
Basil Dickey was an American screenwriter. He wrote for 147 films between 1916 and 1990. He was born in Illinois and died in Long Beach, California...
. It was produced by Ashton Dearholt
Ashton Dearholt
Ashton Dearholt was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in 75 films between 1915 and 1938.He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and died in Los Angeles, California.-Selected filmography:...
, Bennett Cohen
Bennett Cohen
Bennett Cohen was an American screenwriter and director. He wrote for 187 films between 1915 and 1953. He also directed 17 films between 1925 and 1934...
and George Stout
George Stout
George Frederick Stout was a leading English philosopher and psychologist.Born in South Shields, he studied and later taught philosophy and psychology at Cambridge University....
under the corporate name of “Burroughs-Tarzan Enterprises, Inc.” (which also distributed
Film distributor
A film distributor is a company or individual responsible for releasing films to the public either theatrically or for home viewing...
) and was directed by Edward Kull and Wilbur F. McGaugh.
Plot
Several plot elements bring the characters together in search (and pursuit) of the GuatemalaGuatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
n idol known as The Green Goddess: Tarzan's friend D'Arnot has crash landed in the region and is in the hands of a lost tribe of jungle natives. Major Martling is leading an expedition to find the fabled artefact for a powerful explosives formula hidden within it. Ula Vale's fiancé died in an earlier expedition to rescue the artefact for its archaeological benefit and so she starts one of her own in his honour. Raglan has been sent by Hiram Powers, Ula's lawyer, to steal the valuable idol for himself - in addition to containing the explosives formula, it also holds a fortune in jewels.Tarzan, Ula and Major Martling find the idol and rescue D'Arnot from the natives that worship it in the 70-minute-long first episode. However, Raglan escapes with the Green Goddess and heads through the jungle for the coast. Tarzan and the others pursue him across the jungle, encountering many perils, including recapture by the natives to whom the idol belonged. The adventures end out at sea where, during a hurricane, they are able to permanently secure the idol while Raglan is killed by another of Powers' agents because of his failures. The murderer perishes when the ship sinks. Returning to Greystoke Manor in England with Tarzan, Ula consigns the explosives formula to fire in the final episode, where she and Tarzan also recount several adventures from the first part of the serial to an assembled party of friends and colleagues.
Cast
- Herman Brix as TarzanTarzanTarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
, or Lord Greystoke, who travels from Africa to Guatemala to rescue his friend, French Lt. d'Arnot, who bailed out of his plane just before it crashed, following a lightning strike, into the uncharted jungles of Guatemala and he is believed to be held by a tribe of lost natives, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.Douglas Elton Fairbanks, Jr. KBE was an American actor and a highly decorated naval officer of World War II.-Early life:...
had suggested Herman Brix to MGM to play Tarzan. However, Brix broke his shoulder filming Touchdown for Paramount and, because his recovery period was uncertain, MGM cast Johnny Weismuller in Tarzan the Ape Man instead. Sources disagree about Burroughs’ involvement with Brix's casting. Some stated that Brix was hand picked for this serial by Burroughs while others state that it was Dearholt who cast Brix and he only briefly met Burroughs afterwards for a handshake and some photographs. Brix was never paid for his work on this film. - Ula Holt as Ula Vale, on her own expedition to find the Green Goddess in memory of her fiancé, who died in d'Arnot's crashed plane flying to Guatemala to find the Goddess. This was not Holt's only known film role. She was discovered by, and soon married, the director. In the original version, the character was to be revealed as government agent Operator 17, but this was changed during production.
- Ashton DearholtAshton DearholtAshton Dearholt was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in 75 films between 1915 and 1938.He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and died in Los Angeles, California.-Selected filmography:...
as P.B. Raglan, a mercenaryMercenaryA mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
villainVillainA villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...
sent to steal the valuable Green Goddess. Note that Dearholt is also the producer of this serial. According to the pressbook, he had to take the role at the last minute after the original actor, Don Castello, became ill. In reality, "Don Costello" was merely a pseudonym chosen by Dearholt, who had previously starred himself in several silent films of his own making, and planned all along to do so here. - Frank Baker as Major Francis Martling, archaeologist leader of another expedition to find the Green Goddess, with whom Tarzan and Ula Vale join forces.
- Lewis SargentLewis SargentLewis Sargent was an American film actor. He appeared in 80 films between 1917 and 1949.He was born and died in Los Angeles, California.-Selected filmography:* Huckleberry Finn * Oliver Twist...
as George, bumbling comic relief; part of Major Martling's expedition. - JiggsJiggs (chimpanzee)Jiggs was a male chimpanzee and animal actor who originated the character of Cheeta in the 1930s Hollywood Tarzan movies. He was owned and trained by Tony and Jacqueline Gentry.-Career:...
as NkimaNkimaNkima is a fictional monkey character in Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan novels, and in adaptations of the saga to other media, particularly comics.-Character:...
, Tarzan's chimpanzeeChimpanzeeChimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...
. Nkima, rather than CheetaCheetaCheeta is a chimpanzee character appearing in numerous Hollywood Tarzan movies of the 1930s–1960s as well as the 1966–1968 television series, as the ape sidekick of the title character, Tarzan...
, is the name of Tarzan's animal companion in Burroughs' books, though in the books he is a monkey rather than a chimp. Jiggs earned $2,000 for this role. - Dale Walsh as Alice Martling, The Major's daughter who accompanies him on his expedition.
- Harry Ernest as Gordon Hamilton, Alice's fiancé and also part of Martling's expedition. The original draft story called for Gordon and Alice to become separated from the expedition and hunted and arrested by Guatemalan authorities as gun runners. However this entangling subplot was dropped, and Gordon and Alice both return to America in the third episode, along with d'Arnot, and are not seen again excepting some incidental shots in the final episode.
- Merrill McCormickMerrill McCormickMerrill McCormick was an American film actor. He appeared in over 250 films between 1916 and 1953.He was born in Denver, Colorado and died in San Gabriel, California from a heart attack.-Selected filmography:...
as Bouchart, in the first chapter, who comes to Africa to alert Tarzan to d'Arnot's disappearance; and as "Pedro", a Guatemalan associate of Ula Vale.
Burroughs-Tarzan Enterprises
In 1929, a would-be movie entrepreneur, Ashton DearholtAshton Dearholt
Ashton Dearholt was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in 75 films between 1915 and 1938.He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and died in Los Angeles, California.-Selected filmography:...
, arranged an introduction to Edgar Rice Burroughs, using his wife's friendship with Burroughs' daughter. Dearholt had held several jobs within the film industry during the 1920s, and had even produced, directed and starred in a brief series of western films. As of 1929, he was familiar with Burroughs' work and wanted to get the rights to one of Burroughs' several singleton novels and film it in conjunction with RKO-Pathé. Burroughs, long dissatisfied with Hollywood's treatment of his Tarzan character, refused but took a liking to Dearholt personally and they became friends.
MGM's contract with Burroughs was for just two pictures and this had run out with Tarzan and His Mate
Tarzan and His Mate
Tarzan and His Mate is a Tarzan film based on the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It was the second in the Tarzan film series to star Johnny Weissmuller....
. In the Summer of 1934, Dearholt and two business associates, George W, Stout, Bennett S. Cohen approached Burroughs to make an independent film company, Burroughs-Tarzan Enterprises, through which to promote Burroughs' works. Burroughs agreed as he would be allowed to select the actor playing Tarzan and receive a much larger amount of money than in his previous contracts (MGM had made several million with their two Tarzan films despite only paying Burroughs about $75,000). Burroughs quickly outlined a new story, Tarzan and the Green Goddess, based on which Charles Royal and Edwin Blum
Edwin Blum
Edwin Harvey Blum was an American screenwriter. He was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey and died in Santa Monica, California. Films screenwritten by Blum include Stalag 17 , and The New Adventures of Tarzan.-External links:...
then wrote the screenplay, renaming it Tarzan in Guatemala in the process. Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
had been selected based on a suggestion by Dearholt. He had visited the country in 1933 as a trouble-shooter for RKO-Radio Pictures. He felt that he knew enough about the country, had the contacts there including within the government, and could make the film far more economically than in Hollywood. The company had no studio and so decided to film on location instead. Therefore, in late 1934, Dearholt "led an expedition" of 29 cast and crew, with several tons of freight, aboard the liner Seattle to begin filming in highland ruins in Guatemala. The expedition almost never got started, however, as Dearholt's personal credit would not support the loan he estimated as needed to make the picture. Burroughs had to reluctantly involve himself as co-signatory and the loan was approved the day before the party was due to sail.
Ashton Dearholt Expedition
Far from being the low-cost, exotically-located, adventurous film-making experience Dearholt anticipated, this decision caused unusual production problems. When the cast and crew arrived in Guatemala there was no harbour so they had to be shuttled ashore by boats across three miles of sea during a storm. Once there, they were held up by customs and security officers of President Ubico, whose assistance Dearholt had counted on and even had him written into the serial's final episode as a character (whether he intended to ask the Presidente to play himself is not known). Once ashore, the party was housed in a hotel with no in-room plumbing, having to use outhouses "stacked" alongside each story of the structure.It then took 18 hours to travel the 100 miles to Chichicastenango
Chichicastenango
Chichicastenango, also known as Santo Tomás Chichicastenango, is a town in the El Quiché department of Guatemala, known for its traditional K'iche' Maya culture. The Spanish conquistadors gave the town its name from the Nahuatl name used by their soldiers from Tlaxcala: Tzitzicaztenanco, or City...
, on a plateau
Plateau
In geology and earth science, a plateau , also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain. A highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau...
6,447 ft above sea level. The production then moved on to Lake Atitlan, Tikal
Tikal
Tikal is one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centres of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It is located in the archaeological region of the Petén Basin in what is now northern Guatemala...
, and to Guatemala City
Guatemala City
Guatemala City , is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Guatemala and Central America...
. Guatemala had no motion picture industry of its own, so everywhere they went, the company had to carry tons of equipment brought with them from the States, including an enormous sound truck which was not designed for the winding, dirt mountain highways which made up most of the country's transit infrastructure. Tropical diseases abounded and apparently every cast member was stricken at least once and laid up, unable to work, for weeks. The local wildlife was also a problem. According to an interview with Herman Brix in the Christian Science Monitor (1999), "there was only a single sharpshooter up in the trees to keep the croc away from me." The local climate became another problem when the production was affected by tropical storms and some film was damaged by the humid environment of the very real jungle. The sound quality of the finished film was so poor that an apology was actually included in the credits.
The loan obtained in California was used up before the picture was finished, and the expedition evidently had to waste additional time hiding from local creditors and the police in the jungles before returning to California, where the picture was finished. Nevertheless, the film was finished in four months, with the title changed again to The New Adventures of Tarzan.
Problems and the rivalry with MGM
Whilst in Guatemala in 1933 troubleshooting for RKO, Ashton Dearholt met and fell in love with the young swimmer who would become the serial's lead actress, Ula Holt. He brought her back to Los Angeles with him and installed her in the Dearholt household. Dearholt's wife, Florence GilbertFlorence Gilbert
Florence Gilbert was an American film actress of the silent 1920s. She supported actors William Fairbanks and Jack Hoxie....
, left with their two children, and eventually filed for divorce shortly before the expedition's departure. Whilst filming, Edgar Rice Burroughs divorced his wife Emma Hubert and married Florence Gilbert, 30-years his junior, on 4 April 1935, after which they escaped to Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
for their honeymoon
Honeymoon
-History:One early reference to a honeymoon is in Deuteronomy 24:5 “When a man is newly wed, he need not go out on a military expedition, nor shall any public duty be imposed on him...
. He would write in his personal diary that he had fallen in love with Florence when she accompanied Dearholt to his first meeting with Burroughs in 1929. Burroughs decided that he needed immediate money and that Burroughs-Tarzan Enterprises was not going to make it for him after all. He re-optioned MGM's contract for a third Weissmuller film and approved the sale of three of Sol Lesser's remaining four options to MGM, who agreed to make a large "authorisation payment" to Burroughs. (Sol Lesser had acquired options for five Tarzan productions from a defunct company, the first of which he used to make Tarzan the Fearless
Tarzan the Fearless
Tarzan the Fearless is a 12 chapter film serial starring Buster Crabbe in his only appearance as Tarzan. It was also released as a 71-minute feature film which comprised the first four chapters of the serial version. Co-starring was actress Jacqueline Wells, who later changed her name to Julie...
in direct competition with MGM's films.) MGM paid Lesser $500,000 for his options and paid Burroughs $25–50,000 per film.
The serial was preparing for release at this time and MGM campaigned to undermine their rival. They threatened that theaters showing the serial would not be allowed to show the third MGM film when it was released. Almost every big theater chose to wait for the MGM film and did not show the New Adventures of Tarzan serial. Burroughs-Tarzan Enterprises tried to make its serial more attractive by releasing it in several different formats. The first was as a 75-minute (seven-reel) feature film, the second was as a shorter feature film followed by seven individual serial chapters, and the third option was as a complete twelve-chapter serial. This plan was not successful. New Adventures of Tarzan was the last Tarzan serial ever produced.
Content
Tarzan yell
The Tarzan yell is the distinctive, ululating yell of the character Tarzan, as portrayed by actor Johnny Weissmuller in the films based on the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, starting with Tarzan the Ape Man...
. This version is variously described as a rising pitch "Man-gan-i" or "Tar-man-gan-i" sound. The "Tar-man-gan-i" version originally comes from the 1932
1932 in radio
The year 1932 saw a number of significant happenings in radio broadcasting history.-Events:*January 8 - Pittsburgh radio activist and catholic priest, Father Cox, and his army of unemployed men return home after a protest march on Depression era Washington, D.C.*March 1 – Both NBC and CBS go to...
Tarzan radio serial
Serial (radio and television)
Serials are series of television programs and radio programs that rely on a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode by episode fashion. Serials typically follow main story arcs that span entire television seasons or even the full run of the series, which distinguishes them from...
starring James Pierce
James Pierce
James Hubert Pierce , of Shelbyville, Indiana, was the fourth actor to portray Tarzan on film.-Early life/College/Early film career:...
. In the ape language
Mangani
Mangani is the name of a fictional species of great apes in the Tarzan novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and of the invented language used by these apes. In the invented language, Mangani is the apes' word for their own kind, although the term is also applied to humans...
used in the Burroughs' Tarzan novels, "Tarmangani" means "Great White Ape". MGM's Johnny Weismuller films, featuring the now standard yell, had been in production for some time when this serial was created, starting with Tarzan the Ape Man (1932
1932 in film
-Events:*Cary Grant's film career begins*Katharine Hepburn's film career begins*Shirley Temple's film career begins*Disney released Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon in three-strip Technicolor film.*Santa, first sound film made in Mexico released....
).The original version of the plot involved munitions runners and government agents, focussing more on the super-explosive formula hidden in the idol. This was re-written during production but some elements remain, such as the otherwise nonsensical final chapter name "Operator No. 17" (Ula Vale was originally written as a government agent using "Operator No. 17" as her codename but this entire plot line was dropped from the final script).
Stunts & Effects
Brix performed his own stunts in the serial, including swinging from real jungle vines, but this presented further problems. Despite testing a vine for safety beforehand with a 200 lb weight, when Brix tried himself, with a run up, he over shot the pool of water he was meant to land in. "I still have the scars from that fall," he told the Monitor. The scene where Brix bursts the ropes binding him is real.Critical reception
Reviews in the United States were poor and there were suspicions that this was due to MGM's influence over the trade media. VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
, for example, said that "limpid direction makes it fall way short of even the limited possibilities of an independent production." The Motion Picture Herald
Motion Picture Herald
The Motion Picture Herald was an American film industry trade paper published from 1931 to December 1972. It was replaced by the QP Herald, which only lasted until May 1973.In 1915, Martin Quigley founded the Exhibitors Herald...
, however, described is as "spectacular and authentic." The film was more of a success outside the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, possibly due to MGM's lack of control in those markets. According to Gabe Essoe, "on the strength of the one picture alone, Brix became twentieth in popularity in France and Britain." Despite its problems, the film was successful enough that a second feature film, Tarzan and the Green Goddess, was released in 1938. It was based on footage from the last ten chapters of the serial, with some minor additions, and follows much the same plot. William C. Cline believes The New Adventures of Tarzan to be the best of the Tarzan serials.
Chapter titles
- The New Adventures of Tarzan
- Crossed Trails
- The Devil's Noose
- River Perils
- Unseen Hands
- Fatal Fangs
- Flaming Waters
- Angry Gods
- Doom's Brink
- Secret Signals
- Death's Fireworks
- Operator No. 17 -- Re-Cap Chapter
Source:
See also
- List of film serials
- List of film serials by studio
- List of films in the public domain