Tarzan Finds a Son! (1939)

Tarzan finds a boy from a crashed plane and raises him with Jane in the jungle. A search party comes looking for the plane.

Director:

Richard Thorpe

Writers:

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

Stars:

Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O'Sullivan, Johnny Sheffield

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Johnny Weissmuller	...	Tarzan
Maureen O'Sullivan	...	Jane
Johnny Sheffield	...	Boy (as John Sheffield)
Ian Hunter	...	August Lancing
Henry Stephenson	...	Sir Thomas Lancing
Frieda Inescort	...	Mrs. August Lancing
Henry Wilcoxon	...	Mr. Sande
Laraine Day	...	Mrs. Richard Lancing
Morton Lowry	...	Mr. Richard Lancing

Storyline

A young couple die in a plane crash in the jungle. Their son is found by Tarzan and Jane who name him Boy and raise him as their own. Five years later a search party comes to find the young heir to millions of dollars. Jane agrees, against Tarzan's will, to lead them to civilization.

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Plot Keywords:

1930s | 30s | danger | perilous escape | journey | 

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Taglines:

All New! The First Tarzan Picture In 3 Years!

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Family | Romance

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 June 1939 (USA)

Also Known As:

Tarzan in Exile

Filming Locations:

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

Box Office

Gross USA:

$2,265,020

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$4,551,840

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

82 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White (Sepiatone)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

It is stated that "Boy" is the heir to the Greystoke title. In the original books, it was Tarzan himself who was the heir to the Greystoke title.

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Goofs

The remains of a sunken western-style boat can be seen in the background of the underwater scene. This would imply that at some point in the past whites had somehow carried this boat all the way up the thousand-foot high escarpment, which makes no sense. It also conflicts with the concept that the escarpment was was supposedly a myth and undiscovered until approximately nine years before this scene, when the first white safari reached it. The boat was apparently overlooked when this scene was being prepared.

In the same scene one sees a sea turtle, which would be out of place in a river.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Mr. Richard Lancing: Wildebeest again.
Mrs. Richard Lancing: I think we've seen about a million today.

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Alternate Versions

Originally released as Tarzan in Exile (1939), the film originally ended with the death of Jane. Protests by fans and Edgar Rice Burroughs forced the studio to reshoot much of the film so Jane survives.

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Connections

Followed by Tarzan the Magnificent (1960)

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Soundtracks

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

User Reviews

It's a boy!

With Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) and Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan) nicely settled into their treetop des-res (complete with all mod cons), it was only going to be a matter of time before we heard the pitter patter of little footsteps (other than Cheetah's, of course). However, with the Hays Code in full effect, and our arboreal lovebirds not actually wed, they sure weren't going to be permitted to have a child of their own via the normal method.

The writers of the Tarzan series get around this problem by having a child delivered from the sky by 'the great metal stork'—a plane that crashes in the jungle with a baby boy as the only survivor. Cheetah finds the wailing bundle of joy and whisks him off to Tarzan and Jane, who decide to adopt the lad, naming him Boy (Tarzan's second choice, after having Elephant rejected by Jane).

Five years of blissful family life later, and an expedition turns up at the escarpment searching for the plane and any possible survivors. But Tarzan and Jane have become rather attached to their little tyke, and aren't about to give him up, especially when they discover that two of the visitors only want Boy for his vast inheritance.

Aimed at the matinée crowd, this particular instalment features none of the graphic nastiness or raciness that can be found in the first two Tarzan films (the obligatory native killing at the end of the film—via a huge skull-cracking device—is brief and non-explicit); instead, we get mild peril as Boy is attacked by pipe-cleaner tarantulas and a back-projected rhino, comic relief courtesy of Cheetah the chimp, and a lot of fun interplay between Tarzan and his 'son', the best scene being an impressively shot moment of underwater horseplay.

6.5 out of 10, happily rounded up to 7 for the bit where Cheetah turns her lips inside-out to amuse the new arrival (which makes me laugh just thinking about it).