Tarzan Escapes (1936)

An expedition seeking to bring Jane back to civilization, and Tarzan into captivity, gets more than it's bargained for.

Directors:

Richard Thorpe, John Farrow (uncredited)

Writers:

Cyril Hume (screen play), Edgar Rice Burroughs (based upon the characters created by)

Stars:

Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O'Sullivan, John Buckler

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Johnny Weissmuller	...	Tarzan
Maureen O'Sullivan	...	Jane
John Buckler	...	Captain Fry
Benita Hume	...	Rita Parker
William Henry	...	Eric Parker
Herbert Mundin	...	Herbert Henry Rawlins
E.E. Clive	...	Masters
Darby Jones	...	Bomba
Cheetah	...	Cheetah-A Chimpanzee

Storyline

Jane's cousins Rita and Eric Parker arrive in Africa searching for her. Their uncle has died and has left her half a million pounds provided she agrees to return to civilization. A professional hunter, Captain Fry, quickly agrees to escort them to the escarpment where rumor has it there there lives a great white ape. He's intrigued when told that the great white ape is likely Tarzan and his plan is to capture him and put him on display. When they all find each other, Jane agrees to return to London if only to ensure that her cousins get their late uncle's wealth. Fry manipulates Tarzan into believing that Jane will never return only to trap him. When Jane and the others are taken prisoner by warring tribesmen, it's left to Tarzan to rescue them.

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Plot Keywords:

deception | 1930s | tarzan character | psychotronic film | character name in tagline | 

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Taglines:

Two years to make the greatest of the Tarzan pictures (print ad - Lubbock Morning Avalanche - Palace Theatre - Lubbock, Texas- December 11, 1936)

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Romance

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Certificate:

Passed

Did You Know?

Trivia

In greeting the "Haimonde" chief, Captain Fry responds to the chief's statement "Jambo" (hello) by saying "Jambo sama," The correct words are "Jambo sana" (hello very much). The more common response would be "Hujambo." (Hello - in the responsive sense).

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Goofs

When the second carrier sent to bring water is killed, he falls on his chest, with no lance in his body at all. Thereafter, when Capt. Fry and others find him on the ground, he is on his back, with a lance stabbed in his forehead.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Riverboat Captain: All right. Tie her up. Make her fast. Pull her in, boys.

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Alternate Versions

The alternate version had various working titles: Tarzan Returns, Tarzan and the Vampires, Tarzan, and finally, The Capture of Tarzan. The story about the preview audiences for The Capture of Tarzan may not be true - Rudy Behlmer (an authority on the Tarzan pics) feels that it may not have happened and I have not come across any primary evidence that it did in contemporary news stories/reviews - just a possibly apocryphal story in a secondary source from the 1960s, which is repeated by another author more recently.

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Connections

Followed by Tarzan's New York Adventure (1942)

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Soundtracks

My Tender One
(1933) (uncredited)
from Eskimo (1933)
Music by William Axt
Played during end credits

User Reviews

Tarzan Escapes/Tarzan Finds A Son!

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.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 November 1936 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Capture of Tarzan

Filming Locations:

Backlot, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,058,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White (Sepiatone)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1