utgard14
The ninth movie in the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan series (and third since the series moved from MGM to RKO) is also the first to feature an actress besides Maureen O'Sullivan playing Jane. In the first two RKO films, Jane was off helping with the war effort in England. Now it's time for her to come home but, alas, O'Sullivan wouldn't return to the part so it was recast with Brenda Joyce. Maureen is certainly missed but Brenda does a decent job and would play Jane for the remainder of the Weissmuller films. As I said, Jane returns home to Africa but she doesn't come alone. She brings with her some archaeologists who are interested in the lost city of the Amazons, a tribe of women warriors. Tarzan knows where the city is but won't tell them. If you've seen even one Tarzan movie before this, you should know the outsiders won't leave it alone. They convince Boy to lead them to the Amazon city, where they are not greeted with open arms.I noticed Johnny Sheffield, the actor playing Boy, is in the middle of puberty by this point and his voice is noticeably deeper than the last film in the series. It's the sort of thing you probably only notice when you watch the series back to back. Sheffield's enjoyable, though Boy's a bit of a brat in this one. Cheeta, the series' regular scene stealer, is great as always. Henry Stephenson plays the kindly old lead archaeologist who has no clue how rotten his friends are. Barton MacLane makes a particularly slimy heavy. The Amazons are lovely young women in skimpy (for the time) outfits. Nothing wrong with that. Pretty Shirley O'Hara is the one given the most to do. Their leader is the awesome Maria Ouspenskaya. She's always a treat to watch. Nice sets and matte paintings. The Amazon stuff is lots of fun. As with all of the RKO Tarzan movies, this is a solid escapist adventure film. Nothing deep but good to watch on a lazy weekend.
wes-connors
Jungle king Johnny Weissmuller (as Tarzan) rescues sexy screaming Shirley O'Hara (as Athena) from some hungry felines. She turns out to be part of a group of similarly sexy White Amazon women in leopard skin one-piece suits. Apparently, the animals wanted their fur back. Soon after carrying Ms. O'Hara home to Amazon queen mother Maria Ouspenskaya, Mr. Weissmuller and cute son Johnny Sheffield (as Boy) welcome beautiful blonde Brenda Joyce (recast as Jane) into the wilds of Africa, after the her character spent two films nursing soldiers during World War II...Ms. Joyce notices how much young Sheffield has grown, is politely mum about Weissmuller's expanding waistline, and has a hug for "Cheeta" the chimp. As it turns out, Harry Stephenson (as Guy Henderson) and the archaeologists bringing Joyce back to the fold become interested in finding the recently visited (by Weissmuller) Amazon kingdom. Villainous Barton MacLane (as Ballister) gets greedy and Sheffield's life is threatened. "Tarzan and the Amazons" is fairly typical for the series, with lovely background scenery and Ms. Ouspenskaya's women being the main attractions.***** Tarzan and the Amazons (4/29/45) Kurt Neumann ~ Johnny Weissmuller, Johnny Sheffield, Brenda Joyce, Maria Ouspenskaya
dbborroughs
Jane is back! Tarzan and Boy head off to pick her up on the boat from England. Along they way they save an Amazon from some big cats. Injured in a fall, Tarzan takes her home and talks his way out of being forced to stay. The meeting with Jane is as expected and after some introductions of new friends Jane, Boy and Tarzan head home. Unfortunately there are ripples from an Amazon bracelet that Cheetah found and Jane's new friends end up with. It sets them on a trip to the Amazon city...or would have had Tarzan agreed to take them. Tarzan refuses because he knows its all about the gold. Boy doesn't realize whats at stake and helps them find the city...and great danger.Large scale Tarzan film looks in many ways more spectacular than the earlier and much larger budget MGM films. Its just cool that we have so many neat locations like the tree house, the river station and the Amazon city. It looks really cool and makes it feel like a solid adventure.There is a maturity to this film that is missing from many of the other films. What I like about the film is it deals with the effect of Jane's being away and her return after years, there is the maturing of Boy and his need to learn more than Tarzan can teach him and there is the hardening of Tarzan as he watches coldly as some of the bad guys die horribly. Its several levels above what was happening in the MGM films and much better for it.Worth searching out.
Thomas Diemer
One of the very few Amazon films where the women warriors were both attractive and able to some butt. Right on (icon of raised clenched fist. Every other amazon film I have seen had the women warriors just parade around in ancient Greek military costumes and behave cutsey-wootsey when the men show up - they need a man after all. These Amazons were beautiful and well build but also willing and able to shoot those arrows and cast those spears when the enemy men showed up - though they still needed Tarzan to get them out of the scrap at the end, but hey, it is a Tarzan movie.
AD
