bkoganbing
While watching Tarzan Finds A Son today it occurred to me that both this film and Tarzan's New York Adventure were about the same thing, custodial interference. The only difference is in the setting where the question is raised. In this film the issue is decided on Tarzan's home turf in the jungle. And as such he's got a definite home field advantage.The film begins with Morton Lowry, Laraine Day and pilot Gavin Muir going down in a light plane crash in the jungle. The chimpanzees find their infant son who survived and bring him to Tarzan where Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan raise the boy and name him such.Five years later guide Henry Wilcoxon lead the Lancings, Henry Stephenson, Ian Hunter, and Frieda Inescourt into the jungle looking for a trace of their relatives. That leads O'Sullivan into a conflict with Weissmuller.Much as she loves life with the Lord of the Jungle, O'Sullivan does see certain advantages to civilization that their 'son' now played by young Johnny Sheffield might have. Of course all the relatives motives aren't pure which leads to the inevitable conflict.In the jungle Tarzan who's on a first name basis with every animal can call on both apes and elephants for assistance. That he does in a nice slam bang climax where both simian and pachyderm power are brought to bear.Louis B. Mayer must have always thanked God that the shooting of Trader Horn in Africa left him with so much background jungle footage to use and not too many times over. The footage is well integrated into this story.Tarzan Finds A Son has aged well and remains watchable.
lugonian
TARZAN FINDS A SON (MGM, 1939), directed by Richard Thorpe, the fourth installment to the popular movie series based on the characters created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, marks a new beginning for Tarzan and Jane as they become parents and accepting the responsibility in raising a child. No, Jane did not have a blessed event in the traditional sense, nor did Tarzan start passing out bananas in place of cigars in the waiting room to other expectant African native fathers in the waiting room of a jungle cottage hospital, nor did Cheetah act as the midwife. Three years have passed since the last installment of TARZAN ESCAPES (1936), which provided enough time for the writers to come up with something original. While the plots and situations were starting to repeat themselves by this time, something new has been added, a son for Tarzan and Jane, with delivery not by way of stalk but by air delivery. Because no marriage ceremony was ever indicated since their union, the rulers of the production code couldn't permit Jane to become pregnant and bear forth a child of her own since Tarzan and Jane were obviously living together. So the writers have thought up a the solution to the problem: A young British couple (Morton Lowery and Laraine Day), aboard a private airplane with their infant baby, learn that they are in danger when the plain acquires engine trouble. After the pilot (Gavin Muir) makes a crash landing, everyone perishes except for the child. He is later picked up by chimpanzee's before Cheetah takes the infant, offers it to Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller), who in turn vine swings himself back to the tree house where he presents the child to Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan). At first Tarzan becomes jealous of Jane's full attention towards the child, but in time becomes fond of him also, and being the "father," names him Boy. Five years pass. The introduction of Boy (John Sheffield in his movie debut) is shown in full swing as he hangs on to the vine, doing everything Tarzan does. He even learns the ape call like Tarzan, and uses it whenever in distress, such as one instance as he is caught and being covered by a big web and nearly getting attacked by a flock of large-size spiders. But outside of that, all seems to go well for the jungle family until a searching party, (Ian Hunter, Frieda Inescort, Henry Wilcoxson and Henry Stephenson), enters the scene. Revealed as relatives of Boy's deceased parents, they learn the truth of the boy and try to persuade Jane into deciding to giving up the youngster so they can take him back to England where he belongs (especially since he happens to be the heir to several million dollars). While Tarzan has already made up his mind in keeping Boy with them, the scheming relatives, with the exception of Sir Thomas (Stephenson), now being held captive, have other plans.TARZAN FINDS A SON is a grand scale production and the only one in the series set in a time frame of more than the standard months or weeks, in this instance, five years, although the movie itself gives the impression of taking place solely in 1939 instead of from 1934 to the present, especially since Maureen O'Sullivan's 1940s hairstyle is evident throughout, but otherwise, makes little difference to the plot since it's the story and action the viewers come to see. As credited in the opening titles, underwater swimming scenes were filmed in Silver Springs, Florida. What a pity it wasn't done in Technicolor to take advantage of the fine location scenery. But with its usual dose of elephant stampedes, Cheetah's comedy relief and Tarzan's race to the rescue and a one man fight against hundreds of African natives, is enough adventure and excitement during its 81 minute time frame not to be a disappointment.TARZAN FINDS A SON, along with the other MGM entries, have become available on either the VHS or DVD format, and formerly shown on the American Movie Classics cable channel from 1997 to 2000. It later shifted over to Turner Classic Movies where its premiered June 4, 2004, Bob Dorian, former AMC host, once profiled this chapter as being the one in which Maureen O'Sullivan, who wanted out of the series, to have her Jane character killed off, but preview audiences objected and a new ending was substituted. It's also been mentioned that is was Weissmuller who personally selected little John Sheffield, out of hundreds of candidates, for the role of Boy. He must have made a great impression since he would reprise his role seven more times until he outgrew the part by 1947. Next chapter: TARZAN'S SECRET TREASURE (1941). (***1/2)
MARIO GAUCI
My second Tarzan double-feature slot and the cracks are beginning to show! That said, TARZAN ESCAPES (1936; ***) is much better than online reviews would have you believe: true, there is ample stock footage on display here but it also boasts a strong plot line and cast (featuring Benita Hume, future wife of Ronald Colman and later George Sanders, as well as MGM staple Herbert Mundin and James Whale favorite E.E. Clive, not to mention the villainous John Buckler who comes to a particularly sticky end in this one) to even things out. By now, Weissmuller and O' Sullivan have grown considerably in their respective parts but the influence of the Hays' Office (established while the film was in production, resulting in extensive re-shoots before it could be classified for exhibition!) is also very much in evidence: Tarzan and Jane's behavior (to say nothing of the latter's 'wardrobe') is rather chaste this time around, and even the violence is there mainly by virtue of recycled scenes from the two previous entries in the series!!TARZAN FINDS A SON! (1939; **1/2), though certainly briskly-paced and fairly enjoyable in itself, is where things really start to degenerate and a sense of deja'-vu hangs over the proceedings like a cloud; not that this factor is an isolated case in franchises of this period – consider, for instance, the noticeable leap in quality from the ornate SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939) to a strictly programmer-level THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN (1942)… To make matters worse (though, I guess, this can be pinned down to personal opinion), we have here the addition of another jungle 'initiate' in the figure of Boy who emulates Tarzan in his every move, down to that grating yodel! Besides, his getting into endless predictable scrapes throughout, forcing Tarzan's nick-of-time intervention and queuing in further stock footage from the earlier films (now looking pretty rough-hewn alongside the lavish budgets MGM could afford by the end of the decade!), does the picture no favors at all in the story department!! Logic, too, is casually thrown out the window: the film opens with a plane crash-landing (i.e. before reaching its intended destination), yet when a search party is set in motion (5 years after the fact, conveniently allowing Boy to grow up and become attached to the Tarzans!), its members (invariably harboring an agenda of their own) go directly to the supposedly forbidden/secret part of the jungle where the Lord Of The Apes has set up residence…sheesh!! Once again, the familiar cast-list adds to the fun, though it has to be said that Ian Hunter (usually playing the reliable type) makes for an unconvincing villain in this one.
