ada
the leading man is my tpye
SpuffyWeb
Sadly Over-hyped
Rio Hayward
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Tobias Burrows
It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
John T. Ryan
THE MOST FAMOUS screen Tarzan was (the People's Choice), Johnny Weissmuller. The firsyt Tarzan picture we saw (on Channel 2's Early Show) was Lex Barker; though we're unable to recall which of his 5 films it was. But it was Gordon Scott of whom we had the greatest impression. Let us explain (read on).BEING BORN IN the Post World War II Baby Boom era, it was at about the age of 8 years old that we encountered our first Tarzan Dell comic book. The inside artwork was done by one artist named Jesse Marsh, but not the outside. The cover was a publicity still photo from one of the Tarzan movies, though we couldn't sat which it was most likely from this TARZAN'S HIDDEN JUNGLE and it featured a very handsome, muscular visual interpretation of the Ape-man by Gordon Scott. The movie still became reality in our young mind as we thought this to be "the real Tarzan", himself.AS FOR THE plot of this movie, it really wasn't much; serving as much to introduce Mr. Scott as anything else. Tarzan does find himself in the middle of some troubles that were being waged by a group of big game poachers against the local natives, as well as being hostile to a UN sanctioned veterinary team. ALTHOUGH THE VERY lovely Vera Miles provided the potential love interest as the veterinary nurse, Tarzan never puts any moves on her and remains faithful to the unseen Jane. THIS MARKED THE last collaboration between independent producer, Sol Lesser and RKO RADIO PICTURES ; although Sol would continue on with Scott as Tarzan for yet another 4 pictures using other distributors.ON A VERY personal note, we had the good fortune in meeting Gordon Scott at a film fan convention right here inour Windy City hometown of Chicago. He was most personable and willing to visit with us as long as we wanted.
pensman
I just caught this on TCM Saturday run of Tarzan films. No doubt I must have seen this during a Saturday matinee because I loved Tarzan books and movies when I was a kid but this is a rather slow moving Tarzan and in retrospect it seems the film was aimed at a more sophisticated audience and not just eight year olds. Real fans knew that Tarzan was the well educated Lord Greystoke who constantly yielded to his need to return to the jungle but this Tarzan is still monosyllabic The action here is minimal; not the Tarzan a kid wants to imitate in their backyard play.
bkoganbing
Tarzan's Hidden Jungle marked the debut of Gordon Scott as Edgar Rice Burroughs legendary ape man of the African jungle. It was also the last Tarzan film done at RKO studios which was slowly going out of business and would in the next two years. It was the reason they did not invest this film with too many production values. It was nice that they actually used black people to portray natives in the film as producers did not on too many occasions for Johnny Weissmuller and Lex Barker Tarzan movies.Gordon Scott was one of those Hollywood discovery stories you read about. A professional bodybuilder he was discovered pool side and brought to Hollywood and beat out a whole lot of other candidates for the Tarzan roles. He wasn't exactly Brando or Olivier with the dialog, but for someone who was making his screen debut with no other acting experience, Scott handled the dialog better than you would expect.And he married the leading lady Vera Miles while still shooting the film. Miles plays the assistant to UN doctor Peter Van Eyck who gets tricked by some unscrupulous hunters, Jack Elam and Charles Fredericks, to take them along on his humanitarian mission.Van Eyck's mission was to a native tribe who apparently were vegetarians because they did not believe in the killing of animals. As a result game flourished in their territory. As Tarzan is a friend of the animals as well, his mission was to stop the bad guys from harming his jungle friends.Tarzan's Hidden Jungle is not a bad debut for Gordon Scott in the new role. In fact Scott was my particular favorite among the actors who played Tarzan.
jim riecken (youroldpaljim)
Gordon Scott makes his debut here as the king of the jungle in this acceptable but routine Tarzan flick. TARZAN'S HIDDEN JUNGLE isn't as bad as some of this film detractors claim. As far as the RKO Tarzan flicks go, TARZAN'S HIDDEN JUNGLE is about average. What disappoints most Tarzan fans, is that one would think with RKO introducing a new actor in the role of Tarzan, they would have made this film a little something more. The film has a good supporting cast, but the production values are slightly below par. One would think the studio heads at RKO would have given this film a higher budget considering they were introducing a "new" Tarzan. I've heard that producer Sol Lesser tried to convince RKO to make this film in color, but the studio brass refused. Lesser, who owned the screen rights to Burroughs famous character, departed from RKO after twelve years of making Tarzan flicks for RKO, and moved on to make Tarzan flicks with Scott for other studios. I suspect it was RKO's refusal to allow him to shoot this film in color and the usual low budget that made Lesser part company with RKO. The next Tarzan flick (TARZAN AND THE LOST SAFARI) was in color and had a higher budget.Note: this film does have one scene thats a real gem. Tarzan rescues Vera Miles from quick sand and then tries to wash the mud off her. She tells Tarzan she needs a bath, so Tarzan agrees and tosses the startled Miss Miles in the drink.