Lawbolisted Powerful

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

bkoganbing Tarzan And The Huntress finds Johnny Weissmuller battling yet another trapper coming on to his jungle turf to take some animals back for the zoos of the world. Especially for those countries whose zoos were depleted after the late war.The twist is that the villain is Patricia Morison, an accomplished an independent feminist in her own right whose many talents also include flying a plane. Tarzan would never allow Jane that kind of freedom. The film is a curiously anti-feminine one.She directs the operation to capture the animals as she is also a female Clyde Beatty, but the heavy villainy is left to John Warburton and Barton MacLane. They also get involved in tribal politics in the area where chief Charles Trowbridge is killed and his son thought to be also killed by a nephew looking for big payoff from the trappers.Patricia Morison would shortly get the role of her life, but on the stage. She never rose above playing slinky temptresses on the screen in B films and some of them pretty dreadful. However in two years she created the role of Lilli Vanessi in Kiss Me Kate. Who could have suspected what a great soprano she was from the parts she played in films?Tarzan And The Huntress is one of the better Weissmuller Tarzans that RKO did. And as usual Cheta was the wild card and I mean really wild.

Michael_Elliott Tarzan and the Huntress (1947) ** (out of 4) Eleventh film in the original Tarzan series once again features Johnny Weissmuller in the role of the Ape Man. This time out a group of people (led by Patricia Morison) come to Africa where they want to take the wildlife back and fill up various zoos across the world. The lost city ruler agrees to let them take two of each kind of animal but this isn't good enough so they kill him. Soon the group are trying to take as many animals as possible so it's up to Tarzan and Boy (Johnny Sheffield) to stop them. This film certainly isn't as silly as the previous effort but there's no question that the series was running out of steam due to its budget that looks to have been cut yet again and the fact that the story itself just isn't that interesting. The 72-minute running time almost seems triple because there's just not any form of entertainment be it adventure, comedy or drama. As with several of the previous films, this one here wants to get the majority of its comic relief from Cheetah who is constantly stealing things or just causing trouble. The problem is that his antics were cute for a while but the more you see them the more annoying they become. It also doesn't help that the screenplay contains one boring sequence after another and you can tell the budget cuts because of how fake the jungle looks. Another problem is that there's just way too much stock footage being used and it seems like RKO couldn't afford anything good looking as most of the footage just appears cheap and out of focus. Weissmuller, it's fair to say, looks completely bored in the role as Tarzan and you can't help but think he wishes he was somewhere else. Brenda Joyce is back as Jane but the screenplay doesn't offer her much to do. Morison isn't too bad in her part but again the screenplay isn't giving her much to work with. I mentioned in my TARZAN AND THE LEOPARD WOMAN review that I was shocked to see how much Sheffield had grown between it and the previous film and that continues here. It's also rather obvious that he's going through puberty due to how badly his voice sounds in terms of how deep it is and often times you can hear it breaking. As with the rest of the characters, Boy isn't given much to do and the end result is a poor way for the actor to leave the series. TARZAN AND THE HUNTRESS is pure "C" entertainment that is way too boring to be worth watching.

Richard Burin In 1942, America's biggest film studio MGM scrapped its legendary Tarzan series, with the option being snapped up by the smaller RKO. There, Johnny Weissmuller was to strap on the surprisingly-revealing Hays Code-approved loincloth a further six times. The first couple saw him scrapping with Nazis, with the second - Tarzan's Desert Mystery (1943) - being as good a piece of nonsensical fluff as you're ever likely to find. I was a bit down on films three and four, as they're tired and largely gloomy affairs, but the penultimate entry - Huntress - is a partial return to form. Its major strength is an understanding of the series' in-built mythology and a welcome sense of fun. Like Superman Returns, then, only not as good. As with the first two MGM entries - the patchy Tarzan, The Ape Man and the superb Tarzan and His Mate - Tarzan's jungle paradise is invaded by hunters, a more sensible plot line than we've come to expect from these Sol Lesser yarns. The villainous gang includes former Warner heavy Barton MacLane and the eponymous huntress - Patricia Morison. Though the film is a touch confused about the morality of stealing animals from the jungle (presumably that was how the bulk of its supporting players came to Hollywood), Tarz does ultimately get pretty narked about the whole thing, leading to a series of lively showdowns. He's accompanied once more by Brenda Joyce and Johnny Sheffield, whose Boy is now a man, with a deep, booming voice. Where the film really scores is in its embracing of the Tarzan legend as our hero lets rip not once, but twice, with his famous yell. The first - so unexpected after four films without it - is a euphoric moment that seems to strip away 15 years of typecasting and weight gain from its wonderful star - if only for a few seconds. For all the film's deficiencies, like a messy, jumbled narrative and comedy scenes shoehorned in at apparently indiscriminate junctures, those two scenes are jolts of pure joy.

BA_Harrison After the hugely enjoyable Tarzan and the Leopard Woman, the Weissmuller Tarzan series slides back into mediocrity with a rather stale tale of unscrupulous trappers—led by 'huntress' Tanya Rawlins (Patricia Morison)—collecting specimens to restock the world's zoos, much to Tarzan's disgust, of course. A woefully underdeveloped sub-plot about the assassination of a jungle king by his power hungry nephew adds little to the film's overall entertainment value.As usual, Cheetah is on hand to provide the laughs, annoying the other jungle critters and taking Boy's model aeroplane for a short flight, Jane (Brenda Joyce) gives the film some sex appeal (surprisingly, the titular 'huntress' provides little in the way of titillation), Boy (Johnny Sheffield) learns an important lesson about life (trading lion cubs for a torch is wrong!), the family indulges in a spot of synchronised swimming, and Tarzan saves the day (and the captured animals) in the final reel with that old chestnut, the stampeding herd of elephants; but whilst all of this makes for adequate 'rainy Sunday afternoon' family viewing, it offers avid Tarzan fans nothing much to get excited about.5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.