TARZAN AND THE GREAT RIVER (1967)
Article 5438 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-29-2017
Directed by Robert Day
Featuring Mike Henry, Jan Murray, Manuel Padilla Jr.
Country: Switzerland / USA
What it is: Tarzan movie

Tarzan goes to Brazil to defeat a killer cult of jaguar men who have been enslaving the native tribes.

After several days of spy movies, it’s a bit of a relief to move on to a Tarzan movie, though that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re having a return to quality film here. By this time, the Tarzan movies were mechanical affairs, and this one mostly consists of a long voyage upriver, making it something of a Double Stuffed Safari-O. Mike Henry wasn’t a great actor, but he was likable in the role; reportedly, he was bitten in the jaw by the chimp playing Cheta and had to have twenty stitches during the making of this movie. Like most Tarzan movies, the fantastic content is pretty marginal, though the jaguar men add a touch of horror, as does a plot element where a disease epidemic is mistaken for a curse of the jaguar men. It’s passable entertainment, but hardly inspired.