Tarzan and His Mate

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John G Never seeing a Tarzan movie before, this one is regarded the best. For something produced in 1934, it's remarkable. Maureen O'Sullivan provides sensual freshness to the affair with Tarzan, despite the unreality of his prowess in controlling all of the jungle inhabitants. Remarkable special effects, especially the graceful underwater nude ballet (in TCM's current 104 min. version ). Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/28/24 Full Review Zinjx W To make a long story short, clearly the best Tarzan movie ever made!. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/21/24 Full Review jordan m I was downright shocked at how much I disliked this movie. I think I enjoyed the first Weissmuller movie a fair amount more than the average viewer, finding the lion-fighting scenes intriguingly unsafe and everything. I went into this expecting more screentime for Tarzan & a general improvement since this is the one in the Library of Congress, but it wasn't - it seems all the hubbub was regarding the naked dancing scene. Tarzan's character arc falls flat here as he's made very little advancement in language in the year that Jane spent with him, he's just as rough with her as he was in the last movie and, most damning of all, there was an absolutely excessive amount of rear projection and matte paintings used in nearly every lion scene, completely ruining the suspension of disbelief as it was far, far less realistic than the first one seemed. Even the monkey work was inferior, and they went through less trouble to hide the trapeze bar he uses while at the same time not inventing any realistic way of Jane traveling with him. I think people who overtly praise this movie can't possibly have seen the 1932 one. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member The main storyline is the strongest part of Tarzan and His Mate. It tells of two men who seek to enter the jungle seeking an elephant graveyard. One of them went on the first expedition where Tarzan was discovered and Jane was left behind with him, so he plans to use Tarzan’s help in order to locate the valuable ivory. They did a good job of catching us up on what happened in the previous film, so even if you had never heard the legend of Tarzan, you could still follow this film. It’s a straightforward plot, but it works fine, even if there are some moments where people behave illogically just to keep the story moving forward. I could predict most of what happened in the film, but there were a few small twists and turns that surprised me, and I was glad they didn’t spend too much time pursuing a subplot I expected where Jane doubts her decision to live with Tarzan. That felt like the direction they were headed, and I didn’t want to go there with the whole jealousy plotline and all that drama. One thing that surprised me the most was the brutality of the film. It’s not graphic violence, but there is a lot of death in the movie. And I try not to think if they mistreated the animals in the film, but it is questionable how they got them to do certain things without hurting them. I had a lot of problems with Tarzan and His Mate, though. Specifically, I couldn’t stand either of the titular characters in the film. Johnny Weissmuller plays Tarzan as a man that is incapable of more than monosyllabic speech, and he shows no emotion on his face. I suppose it makes sense for a man raise by apes, but then it calls into question how Jane could grow such affection for him. His brow is furrowed in basically every scene so he just looks like a blank canvas through most of the movie. And if I had to hear the canned recording of that Tarzan yell one more time, I was going to scream myself. On the flip side, Maureen O’Sullivan plays Jane as a wonderfully charming woman, and I want to love her. However, she spends the majority of the movie just being the damsel in distress again and again. It’s infuriating how many long scenes are devoted to her getting into trouble, and then calling for Tarzan to come save her. She seemed like such a capable woman, so it was a shame that she acted like she couldn’t do anything for herself. Perhaps I am bringing too much of a modern sensibility to a film from the 1930s, but it was hard to ignore. I still was invested in the main story, when it took center stage, but I guess the style of some older films just doesn’t work for me. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 08/21/19 Full Review Audience Member The best romance movie ever made! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/26/23 Full Review Audience Member While much of the plot has some holes, this is possibly the best of the Tarzan series. While the FX attempts have mixed results (good animal animatronics, laughable elephants ears, identical jungle calls, predators that only attack), they were mostly cutting edge at the time. A pleasure to see a young Neil Hamilton again, as well as a naked Jane (doubled in the underwater swim). Actually both Tarzan & Jane were doubled in the jungletop trapeze scenes as well. In all we get to see both the jungle King and his happy Queen at ease in their roles, which is how they'll be remembered - always. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Tarzan and His Mate

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