Son Of Tarzan

The Son of Tarzan tells of how Lord Greystone [sic] now married to Jane and settled into civilization in England is forbidden by his wife to tell his son about his savage jungle past. However just as Tarzan acquired from his father his qualities of nobility so his son has acquired from Tarzan those of savagery. Fate intervenes when the roguish enemy of Tarzan Ivan Paulovich [in the book he is Alexis Paulvitch] arrives in England having escaped from Africa with Akut, an ape friend of Tarzan and now known as Ajax, as a circus act. Tarzan's son disobeys his parents to see the ape, is kidnapped by Paulovich, escapes, and arrives in the African jungle with Akut.The film with script by Roy Somerville is for the most part faithful to Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel. One major difference is that Paulovich in the original story is an old man who meets his fate early on at the hands of Akut when trying to strangle Jack. In the film as a younger man he travels back to Africa and indulges in ivory poaching which enables him to return to England to bribe Lady Greystoke into paying ransom money for her son. This brings Jane and then Tarzan back to Africa, a link which is not clear in the original story. Also the film version has Morrison Baynes die in a gunfight defending Meriem whereas in the book he dies at the end of the story of tropical diseases.Edgar Rice Burroughs was said to have regretted marrying Tarzan off so early into civilization. In The Son of Tarzan he achieves a better ideal by by having his two leading characters Jack and Meriem born into civilization but both raised in the African jungle as innocent savages. A modern equivalent is John Boorman's 1985 account and film The Emerald Forest about an American boy who was kidnapped and raised by Amazonian indians.P Dempsey Tabler, a retired opera singer, as Tarzan, although fine in a suit, is pot bellied and looks inappropriate in jungle garb. Perhaps a case of the hen pecked ape man? This is more than compensated for by Gordon Griffiths as boy Jack and Kamuela Searle as the grown up now called Korak. Mae Giraci and Manilla Martan as child and adult are well matched in the role of Meriem. The introductory scenes are outstanding.It was for many years believed that Kamuela Searle died from injuries in the film. However his brother revealed in an interview with Vernell Coriell the then editor of The Burroughs Bulletin that Kamuela died a few years later of cancer. Nice to know that Tantor was not responsible.This film is one for connoisseurs as some scenes such as the sacrificial Dum Dum are not clarified. The quality is variable although good for its age but might benefit from digital technology. The limitations of filming result in action scenes appearing speeded up. At just over 4 hours the film may seem a bit long but it should be remembered that it was made as a serial where cinema audiences would probably have watched it over 15 weeks. The various recapitulations at the beginning of each episode which hold up the action would have been omitted in a feature film. A feature version titled Jungle Trail of the Son of Tarzan was made by Edgar Rice Burroughs but is now lost. We are lucky that this serial still survives as most silent films were destroyed. The new background music score by Marc Kaplan is dissonant and monotonous and I think that consideration should be given to a documentary type script reading particularly if the original script survives.Copies of the DVD are hit and miss. My first one played once and then refused to function. So copies need to be tried on arrival.

After all of these years Son of Tarzan still holds up as a very exciting serial. I'm not going to comment on the quality of the print because considering the film's age I found it very watchable. And I'm just happy to be able to add to my film collection a movie that I have read a lot about over the years. Kamuela C. Searle who plays Korak/Jack Clayton (the name Boy was first used in the MGM series) the son of Tarzan as an adult (Gordon Griffin who played Tarzan himself as a youth in the original Tarzan of the Apes film plays the young Jack Clayton)is the most impressive looking ape man (or son of the ape man)to appear on screen since the series began. And I don't think any another actor looked as impressive until Herman Brix played the ape man in the New Adventures of Tarzan. Sadly Perce Dempsey Tabler looked terrible as Tarzan. The man should never have taken off his shirt because as Lord Greystroke in London he is passable but as the bare chested jungle lord his belly is much too big. Its been years since I've read the novel that Son of ... is based on but as I remember the original work this serial seems to follow it pretty closely. An urban legend that has been long associated with this serial is that Searle was badly injured while filming one of the last chapters and later died from these injuries. Recently I've learned that while he was badly injured and had to been poorly replaced with a body double for the remaining filming he did recover and actually made more films. Sadly he did die young a few years but from cancer.

I was very impressed by this version. I have a copy on VHS that I purchased years ago from a mail order company out of New York. The picture quality was watch able but the musical "soundtrack" was a organ that got old very fast. The version I bought from amazon has a different start, when they introoduce P. Dempsey Tabler meeting Jane.. The picture quality is some what better and the piano soundtrack is an improvement over the organ. I'm a big Tarzan fan and have every Tarzan film in either VHS or DVD. I even have all the illegal Tarzan films that were made overseas that ERB inc. made them change Tarzan to Zaren, targ or whatever. Of course there are the missing silent films, The Romance of Tarzan, (Elmo's second film) ,The Revenge of Tarzan (Gene Pollar) and Tarzan the Mighty(Frank Merrill) which are considered lost for good. Last year I read that a copy of Tarzan the Mighty was found in Europe some where with the possibility of coming to the states.I'm still waiting for that. Anyway for this film is a welcome addition to my collection.

Take a trip back to the 1920's and watch this old silent serial. There are cliff hangers galore, and a lot of unintentional laughs. There is even a hint of nudity. The film is a little rough looking at times, but at least it allows us to see what thrilled folks nearly a hundred years ago. And keep in mind, of course, that Tarzan is still with us.

Kamuela Searle was my great-grand uncle so, of course, I wanted to see his movie. As a result' I was disappointed that there wasn't more of him to see in the movie. I laughed thru many scenes but I thought the overall storywas good but the picture quality and text editing wasn't that great.

As a fan of all the Tarzan movies and serials (silent and sound eras) it was great to add this to my collection. Nice packaging. I just wish the serial itself was in better condition picture quality-wise.

While the four hour long serial might be a poor quality print, here's an oportunity to see one heck of a good sequel to the first "Tarzan." The stories are thrilling and it's obvious that the actors all did their best when this 15 part serial was made. I tried to watch it one chapter at a time, but I couldn't wait to see how the whole thing turns out in the end.

Alles bestens. Danke.

schon schmuddelig einfach aber irgendwie nett wenn man auf Stummfilme und alte Filme steht ich mag sie einfach und sie sind gut