Tarzan’s New York Adventure (1942) – Review

This would be the sixth and last instalment of the MGM Tarzan movies starring Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan, and though Weissmuller would continue with the role over at RKO Jane herself would vanish for a bit, as Maureen O’Sullivan though an MGM contract player was sick of playing of the part. Tarzan’s New York Adventure is also the shortest of the series, running at a brief 71 minutes, though the biggest difference isn’t the length but in its increased comic tone.

When Tarzan and Jane got themselves a kid in Tarzan finds a Son I worried that the film would become more kid-friendly but my worries were allayed for in Tarzan’s Secret Treasure there was even more death and danger than in some of the previous films, but sadly with Tarzan’s New York Adventure, my concerns became justified, as more than half its running time was spent on goofy comedy bits and not the fun adventure elements we had come to know and love.

Witness Tarzan taking a shower.

The premise of taking Tarzan out of one jungle, and into a modern one. is certainly rife with possibilities, but instead of doing anything original, we get the typical “fish out of water” comedy shtick. Worse is the normally comic relief bits, the ones usually left to the drunken antics of the chimpanzee Cheeta, are now being shared with Tarzan as we get him being confused by such modern items as the telephone, radios, and indoor plumbing. I’ve poked fun at Johnny Weissmuller’s mentally handicapped ape man in the past, him veering between naive and rock stupid at times, but here the screenwriters hit new lows. Maureen O’Sullivan manages to impart some heart and dignity to the proceedings, but alas even her great talent cannot compete with Cheeta let loose in a hotel suite.

Yeah, that’s pure comedy gold. *sigh*

The plot the screenwriters use to get Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) to New York City was as contrived as it was silly. An iron bird, that’s an airplane to you civilized readers, lands on the Escarpment, and Tarzan rushes off to tell these intruders to basically, “Get off my lawn!” This airborne safari consists of Buck Rand (Charles Bickford), a big game hunter, Manchester Montford (Chill Wills), a world-famous animal trainer, and their pilot Jimmie Shields (Paul Kelly). They’ve come to Africa to get animals for a circus back in the States, but Tarzan doesn’t care why they are here only that they leave. Jimmie Shields explains that it will be dark soon, and thus unsafe for them to fly over unfamiliar terrain, so Tarzan gives them a deadline of “When shadow comes between two sticks, men go!” and then he swings back into the jungle.

Africa has always had a tricky immigration policy.

There was a nice bit where Jane (Maureen O’Sullivan) explained to Boy (Johnny Sheffield) why Tarzan is very anti-visitors, “When strangers come from outside, they always cause trouble. They’re always seeking something.” This is a very sensible and accurate statement, but once again Boy’s curiosity about the civilized world, and especially airplanes, gets the ball rolling for the “drama” to unfold. Against Tarzan’s wishes Boy sneaks out to get a look at this airplane, so that maybe he could build one of his own someday, but when Buck Rand meets the jungle boy and sees how great he is with trained animals, a kidnapping is decided.

“Hey kid, I’ve got some candy inside my plane. Would you like some?”

Jimmie puts a kibosh on these plans, kidnapping children not being in his contract, and he sends the kid back home, but unfortunately, the dangers of the jungle prevail in keeping the kidnapping premise on the table by having a lion attacking Montford, which forces Boy to delay his trip home and save these guys.  Then the Jaconi tribe attack the expedition because of course they do.

Note: A bit of continuity issue here, as this tribe originally killed anyone who trespassed on the Mutia Escarpment, including themselves – if they so much as set a foot on this sacred ground it earns instant death – but now they just seem to have become unruly neighbours to the Tarzan family.

Upon hearing the sounds of battle between the safari and the Jaconi, Tarzan and Jane swing into action, and then some sneaky savage cuts their vine, plummeting them to the ground, where Jaconi then decides to set fire to the jungle brush around the unconscious pair instead of, I don’t know, stabbing them with a spear or two. With Boy’s parents assumed dead they rush the kid back to their plane, and they take off for fortune and glory. Of course, Tarzan and Jane are not dead, Cheeta is able to revive them before they are burnt to a crisp, and the chimp quickly informs them that the hunters have taken Boy, so they immediately set off to get him back.

By swinging across Africa.

When our heroes eventually make it to America they try to track down Jimmie Shields, and though they don’t find him at his hotel they do learn from his nightclub singing girlfriend, Connie Beach (Virginia Grey), that the Colonel Ralph Sergeant (Cy Kendall), who runs the local circus, had put up the $5,000 bond for the immigration authorities, and he has Boy. Meanwhile, at the circus, Buck Rand and Col. Sergeant get an offer of $100,000 for the Jungle Boy and his act from a foreign circus.

“So we’re moving up from kidnapping to human trafficking?”

Tarzan wants to break Sergeant in half, and wipe the fairgrounds with his villainous roustabouts, but Jane intercedes with the horrible advice of, “We better trust the law.” So we now get Tarzan in court. That the courtroom drama here is not of quite up to the standards of such films as Kramer vs Kramer, or even Miracle on 34th Street, but even by silly pulp movies, it’s a tad moronic. The evil lawyer (Charles Lane) working for the circus presents the case that the jungle is too dangerous a place to raise a child, while Tarzan’s lawyer floats the idea that the nobility and beauty of the jungle is an excellent schoolyard for growing boys. The case briefly seems to be going their way until Jane lets slip the fact that Boy isn’t actually their son, but just some kid they found.

“We found him, and then made sure all his relatives were dead. So by jungle law he is ours.”

When the nasty lawyer starts calling Jane a liar Tarzan goes berserk and tosses the dude into the jury box, and this results in Judge (Russell Hicks) adjourning the hearing until the next day.  Tarzan is detained by the court until the judge can rule on the matter and while waiting Sergeant and Rand takes this lucky break to the circus to grab Boy, with the idea of flying the kid out of New York and getting their money before the law can muck things up.  But one must ask such questions as, why in the hell is Boy still being held captive at the circus? What kind of custody hearing leaves the child in the hands of a group of roustabouts? It’s by this time that Jane has realized that maybe trusting in the law wasn’t the way to go, “You were right Tarzan, as you always are, and I was wrong. I know that man’s laws are not for you. You are free as an eagle. I should have told you to follow your own law. To find Boy in your own way.” This was not one of Jane’s finer moments.

This then leads to the movie’s showcase sequence with Tarzan bounding around New York City skyline, crashing through the courthouse window, and escaping into the concrete jungle.

Tarzan was swinging through the New York skyline years before Spider-Man donned his web-shooters.

Climbing buildings, swinging across chasms hundreds of feet up, and eventually diving off the Brooklyn Bridge, allows Tarzan to elude the police and reach the circus, but then he fails almost immediately to save Boy, as he is quickly caught in a trapeze net and locked in a cage. Unfortunately for the villains, who try and spirit Boy away in their car, this circus has a shit ton of elephants, and that is not a good thing when Tarzan is around.

“Elephants, why does it always have to be elephants.”

Tarzan leaps onto the fleeing car, knocks Sergeant and Rand unconscious, and pulls Boy out of the vehicle just before it crashes. Jane, Jimmie and Connie show up in a car and advise Tarzan, “This place isn’t too healthy. Come on, get in.” Now I assumed this would lead to Jimmie smuggling our heroes out of the country in his plane, but no, they end up facing the Judge again. Tarzan is sentenced to 60 days for contempt of court and resisting arrest, but because he had a really good reason for escaping custody his sentence is suspended. Yeah, that’s how the law works, not to mention the fact that Tarzan is very guilty of the murder of Sergeant and Rand, as we never saw them crawl out of the car after it was totalled by the elephants.

“I’d also like to declare myself Santa Claus.”

I know many enjoy this film for the fluffy adventure movie aspect, as it was intended to be, but for me, the making of Tarzan into an even bigger buffoon just irks me too much. Many consider Johnny Weissmuller to be the quintessential movie Tarzan, yet it’s really Maureen O’Sullivan whose beauty, grace and heart that is stamped all over this series, which is what makes this series of films work for me.  It’s her chemistry with Weissmuller that really sells the part, and it’s what makes her the quintessential Jane. Weissmuller would go on to play Tarzan six more times, to varying degrees of success but this was the last time we’d see Maureen O’Sullivan’s Jane.

You can find all my Tarzan movie reviews here: Tarzan at the Movies