Tarzan the Fearless (1933)

In the African Jungle, a group of Europeans come across the fabled white man who was raised by apes. Tarzan takes an immediate liking to the blond Mary Brooks and rescues her during a nasty... See full summary »

Director:

Robert F. Hill (as Robert Hill)

Writers:

Edgar Rice Burroughs (story), Basil Dickey (continuity)

Stars:

Buster Crabbe, Julie Bishop, Edward Woods

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Buster Crabbe	...	Tarzan
Julie Bishop	...	Mary Brooks (as Jaqueline Wells)
Edward Woods	...	Bob Hall (as Eddie Woods)
Philo McCullough	...	Jeff Herbert
E. Alyn Warren	...	Dr. Brooks
Mischa Auer	...	High Priest
Matthew Betz	...	Nick
Frank Lackteen	...	Abdul

Storyline

In the African Jungle, a group of Europeans come across the fabled white man who was raised by apes. Tarzan takes an immediate liking to the blond Mary Brooks and rescues her during a nasty storm. Not everyone in the party sees Tarzan as a friend and one of the safari guides, Jeff Herbert, has a written offer of £10,000 for anyone who can confirm that the ape man is dead. Mary's father disappears however, taken prisoner by those who guard the treasure of Zar. It's left to Tarzan to rescue him and the others who have been taken prisoner.

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Plot Keywords:

tarzan | jungle | rescue | treasure | guide | 

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Taglines:

Swings into hot action from the opening shot --- and thunders on its blazing way...from daring action to nerve-tingling thrill...from gripping suspense to startling climax!

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Genres:

Action | Adventure

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 August 1933 (USA)

Also Known As:

Tarzan the Invincible

Filming Locations:

Iverson Ranch - 1 Iverson Lane, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sol Lesser Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

200 min (12 episodes) 61 min (feature) 86 min (feature)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In addition to the 12-chapter serial, producer Sol Lesser edited the first four chapters into a 1933 feature film, with a trailer announcing future chapters at the theater weekly. However, some theaters did not show the trailer, causing confusion about the abrupt ending of the movie.

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Goofs

When Tarzan first takes Mary to his cave, her skirt is torn, then it's not torn, then it's torn again.

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Alternate Versions

The serial was edited down to an 89 minute TV movie in 1964.

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Connections

Follows Tarzan of the Apes (1918)

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Soundtracks

Call of Tarzan
(1933) (uncredited)
Music by Jerry Herst
Lyrics by Felton Kaufman and Bernie Grossman

User Reviews

Tarzan the Giggler

Tarzan the Fearless (1933)

** (out of 4)

Mary Brooks (Julie Bishop) travels into the jungle with some men to search for her missing father. Thankfully she runs into Tarzan (Buster Crabbe) who helps on her search as well as helps fight some of the bad people in her group. TARZAN THE FEARLESS is a pretty bad movie that features all sorts of campy moments but I think it remains watchable because it does have a certain charm thanks to its badness. Originally this was meant to be a 12-part serial but sadly that version is now missing. The producer basically took the first four chapters and turned them into this movie so that will explain why things sometimes don't make sense or that the story is jumping all around the place. Without the serial to see exactly what they did, it's hard to say if they improved anything but most of the time these serial chapters to features don't work. There are quite a few campy moments with this film and most of them are Tarzan himself. He has a really silly and annoying howl here that will certainly make you laugh. As with the first MGM film, Tarzan can't speak here so instead of talking to Mary he always breaks into this weird laugh that makes him seem rather slow. It's clear Crabbe was going for a different type of performance because he makes the Tarzan character more of a mentally challenged person than anything else. Bishop is certainly easy on the eyes as the love interest. Philo McCullough was actually good as the main villain and we get Edward Woods playing the good guy. The film is full of stock footage, fights with lions and of course the eye-rolling moment of yet another beauty getting into their bathing suit and going swimming when of course a croc shows up. TARZAN THE FEARLESS is a real mess of a movie but fans of bad cinema should get a few kicks out of it.

I will also say that Turner Classic Movies showed a 87-minute version, which I actually found much better than an earlier version running 71-minutes and included on one of those public domain packs. If you think the fuller version doesn't make much sense try watching that shorter one!