MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Robert J. Maxwell It helps to be in the right mood to enjoy this rather typical nonsense about Tarzan (Lex Barker) foiling a plan by a villain with a Polish name (George MacReady) to arm one band of African natives with rifles and Tommy guns so they can conquer another tribe and sell them into slavery or concubinage or something. The name of MacReady's character is Radijek. It SOUNDS villainous, doesn't it? And in 1951, Slavic names served nicely as labels for the bad guys although, to be sure, Hollywood must have been experiencing some conflict over whether to give their heavies the names of Commies or Nazis. At the moment the moguls must be in turmoil, what with the Arabs.I don't really think the plot is worth going on about. MacReady sneers constantly and murders his partners in the scurrilous plan one by one in order to steal their share of the loot. Jane wears necklaces by Tiffany and a wrap-around sarong out of Christian Dior. Tarzan comes home from the jungle and Jane says, "Sit down and have some supper," just like Dagwood and Blondie or Ricky and Lucy. Their tree house has several rooms, one of them with a comfortable table and chairs, suitable for wedding receptions and bar mitzvah celebrations. I think I spotted a framed poster of a Marc Chagall on one of the bamboo walls. The bathroom probably has a framed poster too -- a yellow rose over the slogan "Tomorrow Is The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life." You can probably read it while on the throne.Of course, if you're NOT in a receptive mood, the movie sucks. There was some second-unit shooting in Africa. You can watch the stilt-legged water birds gobble down newly hatched baby crocodiles while a jaunty tune plays in the background. Dorothy Dandridge is in here somewhere, in a minor part, and we don't get to see nearly enough of her. Tarzan not real man. If Tarzan red blooded, then Tarzan shed domestic tranquility, fling Dandridge over shoulder, and swing through tree to someplace else. Company of Cheetah optional.

zardoz-13 Lex Barker's third outing as Tarzan in director Byron Haskin's "Tarzan's Peril" prepares us for the greater realism of the forthcoming Gordon Scott ape man movies. The villains here display greater evil not only to the heroes but also to our eponymous hero. Any movie that featured scar-faced George Macready as the lead villain promised to be darker and grittier and "Tarzan's Peril" qualifies as darker and grittier. Although there is no way that Tarzan could bite the vine, the Lord of the Apes is almost killed twice. First, his unconscious form is thrown over a waterfall, and second he is almost stabbed to death by treacherous King Bulam in the finale. This "Tarzan" movie has the distinction of being the first to shoot sequences in Africa. Now, some may point out that the original Johnny Weissmuller "Tarzan" contained scenes lensed in Africa, but those African scenes were originally shot for another feature "Trader Horn" (1931) with Harry Carey. The Samuel Newman & Francis Swann screenplay resembles a Cavalry versus the Indians oater because the villains are running rifles to rebellious tribesmen. Aside from the casting of Macready as the villain, "Tarzan's Peril" features African-American beauty Dorothy Dandridge who went on to star in "Carmen Jones" and "Porky and Bess" for director Otto Preminger. Fans of the "Batman" television show will recognize Alan Napier, who played Alfred the Butler, as a British game warden. When Yorongan King Bulam and his rifle-bearing tribesman overrun the peaceful Ashuba tribe, Tarzan swings to their rescue. Cheetah pulls an old Charlie Chaplin stunt when he swallows a musical instrument. This "Tarzan" opus is somehow above the level of previous Tarzan movies, but the Ape man still speak in fractured English. Mind you, Virginia Houston makes a comely Jane.

lemon_magic Oh, sure, this movie has flaws, but I liked it a lot.Lex Barker was a very handsome, muscular Tarzan, and he moved very well.However, the grunts and broken English phrases that worked so well with Weismuller's stoic, wooden presence seem quite odd and out of place coming from an actor with Barker's chiseled features and classic good looks. On the other hand, as my friend Dave Sindelar pointed out, it's a lot easier to believe that Barker's Tarzan is the son of an English Lord. In any case he was a pleasure to watch in action.There were some minor missteps: The chief of the "bad guy" tribe (who wanted to buy guns to conquer the peaceful Ashuba ruled by Dorothy Dandridge) looked utterly ridiculous in his head-dress, which circled his entire head and made it look as if he were peering out of a fur-lined toilet seat for the duration of the movie. The actor deserved a better costume design than this. Also there was also a completely weird and gratuitous and badly staged fight scene with what appeared to be some carnivorous jungle plants that had nothing to do with anything else in the movie. And the other miscue that stuck in my mind was the odd decision to inter-cut Tarzan's final fight at the end of the movie with the villainous gun runner Radijek with scenes of Cheeta swallowing a gold watch and burping. That effectively neutralized any suspense and excitement they may have been trying to generate.The big problem with "Tarzan's Peril" is that the movie lacked a sense of urgency or real forward momentum. Not a lot happens, to be honest. But the production values are good (the producers made pretty good use of the live footage shot in Africa) and the two big fight scenes are well done, and the actors do a pretty good job inhabiting their characters.If you have to watch a Tarzan movie for some reason, this would be a pretty good one to pick.

Ozirah54 If one is interested in the action/adventure component of Tarzan movies, Tarzan's Peril does have something to offer.While the plot may be simple, this first Tarzan movie ever filmed in Africa does have its moments, mostly revolving around one of the sub-villains, King Bulam, played by noted African-American actor Frederick O'Neal, founder of the American Negro Theater in New York which launched the careers of such notables as Sidney Poitier.Gun runners have broken out of jail and have come to King Bulam's village to trade guns for jewels. Bulam, who has tangled with Tarzan before, intends to use the guns to make war on the peaceful Ashuba people, led by Queen Melmendi (Dorothy Dandridge).Tarzan (Lex Barker) is unsuccessful in stopping Bulam and his Yurongan warriors and is even thrown over a waterfall and presumably drowned. King Bulam conquers the village and, after being rejected by Melmendi, he withdraws and his warriors get drunk. Tarzan returns and organizes an uprising after having freed the Ashuban men.When Bulam arrives to check on the situation, Tarzan gives his famous yell and the Yurongans are caught off guard. Bulam sees that Tarzan is very much alive and flees in confusion and fear.Tarzan catches up with the husky, proud, ambitious, and greedy African war chief and a knife fight, one against one, ensues. While a much trimmer stunt double is sometimes visible, this is still an exciting screen fight. Bulam manages to knock Tarzan's head against a tree trunk and then pulls out a rather hefty, oversize knife that we have seen dangling at his waist for much of the film. The knife is almost in Tarzan's neck when Tarzan grabs Bulam's wrist and causes Bulam to fling the knife away. It lands in some ferns, blade side up. Using his legs as scissors, Tarzan manages to spin Bulam away, and the chief rolls over several times.Here is the part I savor. Bulam rolls over onto the clump of ferns where his knife is projecting skyward. As his ample belly passes over the knife, it is shoved into his body. The wicked, adventurous, risk-taking war chief is stunned; he has been stabbed with his own knife! Bulam makes several attempts to rise and continue the fight and Tarzan even draws his own knife, not certain as to whether Bulam is really done for. But, as his head lolls for the last time, with the knife partially obscured by all the vegetation the king has rolled into, it is certain that Bulam has been vanquished.The next scene shows the warriors being herded into a corral and Tarzan is begged to stay for a celebration but he must go after the gun runners who are even now having a falling out of their own and, eventually, endangering Jane.