gridoon2018 Gordon Scott's raw masculine power as Tarzan is always awe-inspiring; this time he seems to have practiced his vine-swinging too, because - when he finally does it - he is not doubled. And he is aided by a strong supporting cast - especially an already charismatic pre-Bond Sean Connery. This is a gritty, violent (for the era), well-paced and well-shot adventure-thriller, although the stock footage of real animals is still glaringly obvious. If there is something remarkable about this story, it's that Tarzan doesn't really have to do much; his mere presence causes the bad guys to disintegrate by themselves. **1/2 out of 4.

zardoz-13 "Towering Inferno" director John Guillermin's franchise adventure "Tarzan's Greatest Adventure" lives up to its title. Truly, this ranks not only as one of the top five "Tarzan" movies of all time, but it also qualifies as Gordon Scott's best ape man opus. Indeed, anybody who grew up on Johnny Weismuller "Tarzan" movies may be surprised at the savage, gritty nature of this somber-minded thriller. You get to see Tarzan looking vulnerable in one scene after a blast from explosion. Later, Guillermin stages a memorably haunting scene. Tarzan is pursuing four treacherous troublemakers up river. They are plying the river in a motorized boat, while the Lord of the Jungle follows them along the banks. At one point, two slimy unshaven thugs who have little use for each other clash over a necklace. O'Bannion (Sean Connery) steals the necklace with a locket that belongs to Dino (Al Murlock) and taunts him. The two men scramble into the jungle. The first thug rags the second. As the second thug runs after the first, a jungle cat leaps out of nowhere and mauls his face. Screaming in agony, the second thug goes staggering without thought into what turns out to quicksand. He dies with a forearm jutting out of the quicksand. The first thug is incredulous. Nobody the first thug or their boss can reach him, he has sunk in the mire. The only indication that he died in the bog is his right forearm sticking up out of the quicksand. The incredulous first thug flings the necklace and it lands on a tree limb inches above the thug's grasping fingers. This unforgettable shot rivals a similar shot in John Boorman's "Deliverance." The second most haunting shot occurs when a woman plunges to her death in a trap set for Tarzan. Guillerman sets up his camera so that all we see is her bloody hand surrounded by dozens of sharpened bamboo stakes. It doesn't take much imagination to figure out that what isn't shown is the women's body impaled on a multitude of such stakes.The action unfolds with three of the four villains masquerading as dark-skinned natives. They strike a village and steal some wooden crates of TNT and paddle off down the river. They kill a man but before he dies, he lets somebody on the radio know who is responsible to the theft and his death. Tarzan (Gordon Scott) learns that his old nemesis Slade (Anthony Quale of "Anne of the Thousand Days") is responsible. Tarzan knows Slade because they tracked down separately a rogue elephant. Slade killed the rogue elephant before Tarzan could. Nevertheless, two men who accompanied Slade died because they got in his way. Tarzan follows Slade and his henchmen, a drunken Irish troublemaker O'Bannion (Sean Connery of "Dr. No"), ex-convict who murdered his own father, Dino (Al Mulock), an obese, spectacled gem expert, Kruger (Niall MacGinnis of "The Mackintosh Man"), and Slade's girlfriend Toni (Scilla Gabel of "Son of Cleopatra") as they head for a diamond mine.Before Tarzan embarks on his quest to catch Slade, he encounters a questionable woman. Angie (Sara Shane of "Magnificent Obsession") is a single woman who does what she wants. Indeed, there is a hint that she is a high-priced call girl. She likes what she sees in Tarzan and follows him up the river, but she does it from the sky in a plane. There is a bit of "Tarzan and the Lost Safari" in this "Tarzan" film. Angie develops engine trouble, crashes her single-engine, propeller-driven craft in the river. A crocodile swims after her until Tarzan intervenes. Angie learns that life in the jungle is no picnic and the constant marching through the jungle takes a toll on her glamorous looks. Meantime, the villains emerge as a thoroughly loathsome group. They wind up trying to kill each other. O'Bannion drives Dino crazy when he steals his necklace locket. British actor Anthony Quale is a rugged, unscrupulous, but cautious adversary who takes no chances. In other words, Tarzan does a little more sweating in this adventure than you'd expect. Tarzan traps Slade and company on the river by felling a tree behind them so they cannot go anywhere. He drives them into the cabin of their boat with arrows. Slade breaks out the dynamite and they hurl sticks of TNT at the ape man. One of the blasts knocks Tarzan out of the tree. Angie winds up helping an inert Tarzan. Slade becomes so obsessed with killing Tarzan that he fashions a noose and dreams about getting Tarzan's head in it. When Slade isn't fantasizing about strangling Tarzan with the noose, he digs a pit and lines it with bamboo stakes. Later, when Angie tries to steal some medicine from Slade's boat, Toni gets the drop on her and captures her. Kruger releases Angie and Toni flees to warn Slade. A lion pursues Toni but Slade shoots it. However, Toni stumbles into a trap laid for Tarzan and dies a horrible death.The finale with Slade and Tarzan atop the waterfall fighting to the death is gripping stuff. Earlier, Guillermin establish the blood feud between Tarzan and Slade. After Kruger and Slade enter an abandoned copper mine where Slade found diamonds, Slade doesn't dream about the fortune in ice that they can excavate from the mind. Instead, he drools over the prospect of killing Tarzan. Tarzan manages to recuperate from his injuries with Angie's help and tells her that he doesn't need any help to kill Slade. Momentarily, Tarzan and Angie flirt, but Tarzan wants to kill Slade more than share a bed with Angie. Yes, this is a "Tarzan" movie! A better title might have been "Tarzan's Savage Fury."

mhrabovsky6912 Most Tarzan fans will recall the lousy, poorly acted black and white films of Johnny Weismuller and Lex Barker....there were lots of grunts, elephants, nasty villains and wild out of control natives. Saw one, pretty much saw them all kind of thing. Then after producer Sol Lesser sold the Tarzan rights to producer Sy Weintraub the series got serious. In 1955 a bulging muscleman named Gordon Scott took over the role of Tarzan. His first Tarzan was a dud called "Tarzan's Hidden Jungle", another 1940s, early 50s style Tarzan with the typical bad guys, elephants and natives getting restless. Weintraub had a vision of a much more intelligent Tarzan. A man who could think, reason, and not grunt or say 2-3 word sentences for a whole film. Scott after four average to poor Tarzan films got a top notch script with excellent actors/villains for TGA. Story concerns Tarzan tracking down 5 mean, nasty villains who had murdered several people stealing dynamite needed to blow up a diamond mine they intended to plunder. Scott is very likable and very well adjusted to the role of an intelligent Tarzan. He thinks, makes smart comments and is all business as he decides to wipe out the bad guys. Thrown in for some good mixture are two very beautiful ladies, one a villain, a gorgeous Italian lady named Scilla Gabel and an aviatrix lost on a trip from England named Angie, played by noted British model Sara Shane. Shane soon crashes her plane as she tries to dive bomb Tarzan with some fancy plane maneuvers. Scott rescues her and tries hard throughout the whole film not to show his feelings of affection for her. A torchy kissing scene with Tarzan and Shane is taken out of the final cut. Along the way Scott wipes out each villain one by one until his final showdown with the villain leader, Anthony Quayle. A superb final minutes of the film show Tarzan periously dueling Quayle on the edge of a mountain top with a nasty 100 ft. drop. Quayle gives Tarzan all he can handle and the fighting scenes at the finish are very well photographed and acted out.....Scott is exhausted as he dumps Quayle over the edge and gives out the famous Tarzan yell in triumph. This Tarzan tale is far and away the best with a very tight knit script and no wasted minutes....you will be kept on the edge of your seat throughout the film as Tarzan closes in on his enemies while serenading Shane. At the end Shane departs and Tarzan returns to his realm. Scott is handsome and muscular to the extreme in this film. Followed up by the equally good "Tarzan the Magnificent" with Scott. Don't miss either film if you are a Tarzan fan. Scott to me by far the best Tarzan ever and the most muscular.

Robert-159 I haven't seen this movie for a while, but it's the Tarzan film that I remember with the most affection. "TGA" was the first Tarzan movie to be produced by Sy Weintraub (who took over the franchise from Sol Lesser), and the new producer wanted to take the character in a new direction. He succeeded admirably. After "Tarzan and His Mate" (with its notorious nude scene) in 1934, the series had been geared mostly towards younger viewers.Weintraub wisely sought to reclaim a more mature audience. "TGA" is the first Tarzan film since the 1930s to have the apeman speak in complete sentences, and Gordon Scott relaxes into the role more than he had in his earlier, less articulate efforts. It's a credit to Scott's acting that he was able to make the transition so well from the "ooga-ooga" Tarzan to "TGA's" more thoughtful, more cunning interpretation of the character. The film even hints at a sexual relationship between Tarzan and Angie (Sara Shane), who is more feisty and more fun to watch than any Jane. (In fact, a kissing scene between Tarzan and Angie was left on the cutting-room floor).But most important of all "TGA" still stands up as both an adventure movie and a character study. While not quite as polished as a prestigious A-picture, the story and the action scenes still grip the viewer. The psychological deterioration and in-fighting between the bad guys is very believable. Anthony Quayle brings as much seriousness and credibility to the role of the ringleader as he brings to his Shakespeare work, and even though his time on the screen is relatively brief, a young Sean Connery still shows early glimmers of the brilliant charisma that would make him one of the world's most enduring stars. "TGA" makes good use of its cast, and the movie strikes an exciting equilibrium between its dialogue scenes and its action scenes. You can imagine this film working as an adventure drama even if Tarzan weren't in it. And perhaps to signal the series' more adult-oriented emphasis, Tarzan's yodeling ape call is voiced only once: at the very end of the film. There's only one thing regrettable about this movie: it got so many of its adventure elements right that the rest of the films in Weintraub's Tarzan series had a hard time living up to it.Striking a good balance between action and drama--and boasting a very watchable cast--"Tarzan's Greatest