Tarzan Finds a Son [VHS]

Comment:
This was another interesting, fast-moving Tarzan film with plenty of action and even a little more humor than normal.

The action scenes are hokey (shots of wild animals on a screen in back of the live actors) and even the background scenery is obviously painted but, hey, it's an old film. You just put up with, and vast amount of "darlings" uttered by "Jane" (Maureen O'Sullivan). However, the rest of the film is very entertaining, very good and even very clever at times.

The story is about Tarzan and Jane acquired "boy" (Johnny Sheffield) when the latter was five years old.

Overall: entertaining and one of the better Johnny Weissmuller-Tarzan entries.

Comment: Because of the rules governing film-making, and since Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) and Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan) weren't legally married, Tarzan had to find a son; he couldn't have one of his own. Thus begins this film. A father, mother, and their baby son are flying to Cape Town when the air becomes choppy and the plane crashes. The baby is the only one to survive. He finds his way to Tarzan who adopts him as his own. As he grows up, Tarzan teaches him how to survive in the jungle. The family becomes very close until five years later when a safari expedition comes looking for the wreckage and to confirm that there were no survivors. When they find that "Boy" (John Sheffield) is alive, they hope to bring him back to claim his inheritance. Tarzan is against it, but Jane believes it might be best for him.

This film never really picks up speed. The relationship between parents and son is never really developed enough to draw emotion when he is threatened to be taken away. Also, the effort put into the film is mediocre. The quality of photography had increased since the making of the first two Tarzan films, but this film utilizes some of that stock footage. It is glaringly obvious. Also, many of the scenes were done with doubles and with rear projection. Even a simple scene like the underwater swimming scene is obviously filmed in a tank inside the studio with rear projection. One of the bright spots of the first Tarzan movie was that most of the footage was authentic and displayed how gorgeous the jungles of Africa could be. The lack of similar quality in this film makes it less notable and exciting to watch.

Comment: "Him no choke" was the famous line from this movie when Jane asked Tarzan to hold the bottle up as so young Boy would not choke. This movie was another of the GREAT Weissmuller collection! The Best part is when the natives get Boy's greedy ,slimey second cousin and get him ready to shrink him down to about 2 feet high, first using him as some sacrifice (what ever they did to him and several of the tribal boys looked pretty bad even though you couldn't see what was going down as they began to chant over their victims)Boy those natives they were pretty rough! I own all of the MGM series and this is my favorite next to "Tarzan and His Mate"next to"Tarzan Escapes"and I could go on ! This is truly a Classic and I still don't see how "Gone with the Wind" was able to win the Acadamy Award in 1939 over this picture - talk about a scam - this movie should have won hands down ! Do yourself a favor and buy yourself a piece of real Hollywood History as this movie is the TOTALPACKAGE ! note:another great line in the movie is "That used to be a full grown man" "ENJOY"

Comment: It was not until I actually started working my way chronologically through the Tarzan novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs that I discovered Tarzan and Jane did not find their son in a wrecked airplane. The novel "The Son of Tarzan" was actually made into a fairly faithful silent film in 1920, but Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan is not going to father Korak the Killer in this 1939 effort. This begs the question "Why?" Is it because women would faint at the idea of Maureen Sullivan's Jane giving birth in the jungle, no doubt with Cheetah as the mid-wife? Or would it be because pregnancy results from sex and the Hays Office would have a conniption over the implied jungle love? Then again, it might just be that the theme of the purity of the jungle versus the sins of civilization play up better with this film's storyline.

The plot is pretty simplistic. A plane crashes in the jungle and a baby is the only survivor. Cheetah brings the infant to Tarzan and Jane. Of course, Jane insists they will raise it as their own and acquiesces to the idea of calling the baby boy "Boy" (we can only wonder what would happen if the couple were to come across a second male child in terms of names). Boy (Johnny Shefield) is happy in his jungle home when suddenly a saffair made up of his parents' relatives arrives up the scene to begin a custody dispute, jungle style, which means involving a LOT of elephants.

The bottom line is that "Tarzan Finds a Son!" is the second best of the Weismuller Tarzan films, behind 1934's "Tarzan and His Mate," bringing out a paternal streak in the Lord of the Jungle that becomes him. The chemistry between the trio (okay, the quartet when you include Cheetah), makes this film work despite the limited vocabulary Weismuller's Tarzan has to work with in this series. Not to mention Boy has a pretty good variation of the Tarzan yell going for him. Of course, if you see this one be sure to check out "Tarzan's New York Adventure," where Boy is kidnapped by an evil circus promoter and taken to New York City where Tarzan and Jane follow to rescue him.

Comment: I only saw this installment in the terrific MGM Tarzan series for the first time recently and must admit I was impressed. I feel this story further developed the storyline of Tarzan and Jane living the good life in the jungle.

This installment certainly added extra dimension to both of their characters with Tarzan displaying paternal emotions for the character of Boy and Jane being revealed as not always making the right choice and having a disagreement with Tarzan that causes a rupture, however temporary, in their relationship.

By the time this installment was released in 1939 (it was the fourth in the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films) technology had developed considerly from the first film (Tarzan the Ape Man) in the early 30's which today seems abit primitive. In this film , apart from a few very fake vine swings , the special effects are wonderfully handled and show a real refinement.The underwater sequences are superbly handled and where actually filmed by the actors themselves. The film really has everthing from wild animals to rampaging tribes of natives, plane crashes etc. Everthing to make this film an exciting adventure story and one of the very best in the MGM Tarzan series

The stories main feature is of course the introduction of Johnny Sheffield as Boy, a character that remained in the rest of the Tarzan features. I wont relate the plot line of Boy's introduction into the story as other reviewers have already covered that but to say that Johhny Weissmuller personally picked young Sheffield for the role and their on screen chemistry is wonderful. I feel Boy's introduction adds a logical development to the Tarzan character and from now on the king of the jungle had a family in the true sense of the word.

No Tarzan film would be complete without its quota of villians and "Tarzan finds a Son" has a very exceptional list of fine character actors as supporting performers. The great Henry Stephenson appears fresh from his great performance in the previous years MGM classic "Marie Antoniette" as Boy's long lost great Uncle looking for the possible survivors of the earlier plane crash. Another great performer is Cecil B. DeMille regular Henry Wilcoxon who plays one of the white explorers. Both add a real prestige element to this film.

I think "Tarzan finds a Son" is a terrific piece of entertainment and one of the best in the MGM series. At this point the series was still alive and fresh and the expert direction by Richard Thorpe really keeps the action moving along. Enjoy!