1966 - TARZAN AND THE VALLEY OF GOLD, another entertaining Tarzan film.

Probably time to take a break from the ape man after this Tarzan film.  Once again the producer Sy Weintraub shoots a film on location, in this case Mexico.  Weintraub made some major tweeks to the Tarzan character this time.  It's been pointed out that Tarzan is now acting more like James Bond then the jungle ape man created by Edgar Rice Burroughs.  There is also a really annoying 1960's jazz score to have to put up with.

 

Weintraub also had a new actor playing Tarzan, former NFL football player Mike Henry who is needless to say is in very good shape and in these Tarzan movies these actors don't wear a whole lot of clothes.  With the exception of character actor David Opatoshu playing the chief bad guy like he was Auric Goldfinger and model/actress Nancy Kovack, the rest of the cast and the film crew were Mexicans.

The film is an entertaining action adventure. Tarzan travels to Mexico to save a young Mexican boy from an evil bad guy. The bad guy wants the boy to lead him to his jungle city which is loaded with gold.  Fortunately Tarzan is on the case and the film has lots of action.  The final part of the film was photographed at the magnificent Teotihuacan pyramids, nothing beats on location filming.

Mike Henry as Tarzan isn't much of an actor but then again he doesn't have to be.  Viewers watching this film and especially adolescent boys are here for the action highlights not Shakespearean soliloquies.  This Tarzan movie has Tarzan with his animal friends, a chimp named Dinky and a lion named Major helping out.  Apparently Mike Henry and Dinky didn't get along to well, Dinky ended up biting Henry which resulted in him getting stitches.  Henry ended up suing the producers for creating an unsafe work environment.

The film was written by Clair Huffaker who was frequently associated with John Wayne movies and other western films.  The running time is 90 entertaining minutes.

1963 -TARZAN'S THREE CHALLENGES, entertaining adventure film

 The producer Sy Weintraub obtained the film rights to the Tarzan character from the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate and had a radical idea he would actually make Tarzan films in the jungle instead of some film studio back lot.  Working on a tight budget Weintraub hired talented film crews and shot quickly on location.  Tarzan's Three Challenges was filmed in Thailand and is a nonstop action adventure story.

After saving a herd of elephants in Tarzan Goes To India, the ape man is pressed into service helping the new ruler of an Asian kingdom travel to his coronation while fighting off a local strongman trying to stop the rightful ruler of the kingdom.  Jock Mahoney is back as Tarzan and his opponent was Woody Strode a former NFL football player and member of the John Ford stock company.  Strode is to put it mildly in very good shape in this film and was an excellent opponent for Mahoney.

 

The film is called Tarzan's Three Challenges but it should have probably been called Tarzan's many challenges as it's just one damn thing after another for Tarzan.  An attempted assassination, a forest fire, a test of strength as two water buffalos try to pull him apart and finally a sword fight with Strode on an elevated net which has big jars of boiling oil ready to deep fry the fighter unable to stay balanced on the net.

 

It's well known that Jock Mahoney got dysentery while filming in Thailand and lost 40 pounds which gave him a very lean look during the big sword fight scene.  However the show must go on so they apparently loaded him full of drugs stuck him in front of the camera and kept on shooting.  The result of all of this is an entertaining action film with some amazing stunts and stunning scenery.

The film was written by Robert Day and Bernie Giler, the running time is a lean 92 minutes. 

1965 - SHE , a remake of a remake of a remake of a remake of a remake of a remake

This is amazingly the seventh version of the H Rider Haggard novel.  In this version "She who must be obeyed, " is an immortal (2000 year old) queen ruling over a lost civilization in "darkest Africa."  She, named Ayesha has been patiently waiting for her reincarnated lover to return so she can take up where she left off with him.  Basically, he cheated on her a couple of thousand years ago with another woman so Ayesha stabbed him and is now waiting for his reincarnated self to return to her.

   Into this mess comes Peter Cushing playing a professor with a background in Middle Eastern legends and his friend Leo Vincey, played by pretty boy John Richardson, who surprise, surprise just happens to be the spitting image of Ayesha's dead lover.

Since this is a Hammer film, besides Cushing you can count on Christopher Lee and Andre Morell showing up.  Stunning blonde Swiss actor Ursula Andress wearing a ridiculous head piece,  plays Ayesha and a Mexican actress Rosenda Monteros is one of the handmaidens of Ayesha who falls in love with Leo Vincey, insuring  all hell will break loose again.

 

MGM financed this production so the film looks a little grander than usual for a Hammer film.  I would call this film kind of comfort food, No great shakes of a film but entertaining in it's own silly way.

 

The film was written by David T. Chantler and runs 106 minutes.  The box office was good which of course prompted a sequel called The Vengeance of She, which featured Richardson and another good looking blonde, Olinka Bérová played the now reincarnated Ayesha.

1987 - THE QUICK AND THE DEAD, an early HBO film

The Quick and the Dead is an early HBO film and by early I mean that no women were required to walk around topless which is the current HBO policy regarding their films.

For a western which was mostly a dead genre at this point this film isn't that bad.  It has a good cast, Tom Conti, Sam Elliott, Matt Clark and Kate Capshaw (Mrs Spielberg).  The action is decent, the story is interesting and the film is short and doesn't push it's luck with a lot of padded out exposition and violence.

Probably the main standout of the film is the photography by Dick Bush who usually worked with wild man director Ken Russell.  The film was shot in Arizona in some scenic locations. 

Nothing special here but the acting is decent and this is a pleasant reminder of the virtues of a good western.


90 minutes.