THE TRIUMPH OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1935)
Article 1880 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-8-2006
Posting Date: 10-5-2006
Directed by Leslie S. Hiscott
Featuring Arthur Wontner, Lyn Harding, Leslie Perrins

Sherlock Holmes is called out of retirement after a man is murdered in a nearby estate. It turns out that the man had an association with an American secret society known as the Scowlers.

Though this doesn’t complete the list of the Wontner Holmes series, it probably will be the last one I cover; the only one left is THE MISSING REMBRANDT, and, from what I can gather at this point, it is considered lost. This one is somewhat more lively than SILVER BLAZE , and once again, it is based on a specific story (“The Valley of Fear”) with Moriarty shoehorned into the plot. I quite liked this one, because the elements that play into the solution of the mystery are quite odd; clues that lead Holmes to the solution of the mystery are an unlocked door, a candle, and a missing dumbbell. A good half of the movie is backstory about the victim’s involvement with the Scowlers, and these sections are quite exciting. At this point, I suspect that this is my favorite of the Wontner Holmes series, even if the movie doesn’t really effectively weave Moriarty into the plot.

TERROR BY NIGHT (1946)
Article 1879 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-7-2006
Posting Date: 10-4-2006
Directed by Roy William Neill
Featuring Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Alan Mowbray

Sherlock Holmes is hired to protect a valuable diamond from theft while it is being transported by train. When an attempt is made at theft and a man is murdered, Holmes begins to suspect the involvement of a nemesis he’s never meant: Colonel Sebastian Moran.

The fantastic content is slight in this entry in the Rathbone Holmes series. We have a bit of science fiction with the special gun, and touches of horror in the fact that part of the plot revolves around a coffin, and by the presence of Skelton Knaggs (who was always rather creepy). Still, this is one of the most entertaining films of the series; I like the interesting array of characters, the fact that almost the whole story takes place on a train, and the fun series of twists and turns in the story. Unfortunately, Watson is at his most buffoonish here, especially when he decides to conduct interviews without the help of Holmes or Lestrade, though he does redeem himself in the final fight. You won’t really be surprised by the revelation of who turns out to be Moran, but it’s still pretty satisfying to watch everything unfold. Dennis Hoey has probably his most prominent performance as Inspector Lestrade here.

TARZAN TRIUMPHS (1943)
Article 1878 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-6-2006
Posting Date: 10-3-2006
Directed by William Thiele
Featuring Johnny Weissmuller, Johnny Sheffield, Frances Gifford

A princess of a lost civilization flees to Tarzan when her city is overrun with Nazi invaders. Tarzan is reluctant to save her people until the Nazis kidnap Boy.

With this movie, I have now completed the entire Tarzan series with Weissmuller in the role. This was the first one after RKO took over the series from MGM, and the character of Jane is not present since Maureen O’Sullivan had stopped doing the role and no replacement had been found; Frances Gifford serves as something of a mock Jane in the character of Zandra. This series brought back a certain amount of savagery to the series, largely because the advent of wartime propaganda made the savagery fashionable; the Nazis themselves are portrayed as violent brutes, ruthless, heartless and often stupid as well. Because they were Nazis, they were allowed to do horrible things in the movies, and because they were Nazis, it was acceptable to do horrible things back to them. Everyone gets into the act, too; this may be the sole time Boy was allowed to kill someone, and Cheeta even manages to get hold of a machine gun to mow a few of them down. The movie is almost surreal at times; when the monkeys shake the leaves in the trees to cover Tarzan’s body so he won’t be discovered by the Nazis, one can only marvel at how evil the characters must be if even the monkeys can tell. Cheeta steals the show here, though; his constant absconding of a crucial part to the Nazi radio, his screams of terror when Boy is caught and tortured by the Nazis, and the aforementioned machine gun scene are all memorable. Still, I do miss the MGM days when I watch the RKO Tarzans; the MGMs usually had a lot more elephants.

TARZAN’S NEW YORK ADVENTURE (1942)
Article 1877 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-5-2006
Posting Date: 10-2-2006
Directed by Richard Thorpe
Featuring Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O’Sullivan, Johnny Sheffield

Boy is taken to New York by a circus trainer when it appears that Tarzan and Jane have died in a fatal accident. However, thanks to the quick thinking of Cheeta, Tarzan and Jane survive, and make their way to New York in the hope of getting Boy back.

It was a real treat to go back to one of the earlier movies in the Tarzan series after spending a couple of movies towards the end of the Weissmuller era. This one, despite spending a good half of its running time in an urban environment, has more animal action and savage natives than the other two movies combined. In particular, I couldn’t help but notice how the later movies were somewhat short of elephants; this movie has plenty of them, and they play a massive role in the exciting climax of the movie as well as providing some of the cuter animal moments that don’t involve Cheeta. There is, of course, the great novelty value of seeing Tarzan in a place where he doesn’t belong, and the movie makes good use of the concept. In particular, I liked the sequence where Tarzan is trapped by police on the Brooklyn Bridge. A good supporting cast helps as well, and it features Charles Bickford as the villain, Chill Wills, and Mantan Moreland (in a cameo in which he has a phone conversation with Cheeta). According to IMDB, an uncredited Elmo Lincoln is one of the circus people.

TARZAN AND THE MERMAIDS (1948)
Article 1876 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-4-2006
Posting Date: 10-1-2006
Directed by Robert Florey
Featuring Johnny Weissmuller, Brenda Joyce, George Zucco

An unscrupulous trader makes money by disguising himself as the god of a native tribe, whose members offer pearls to him. When he decides to take one of the native girls for his bride, she escapes and runs into Tarzan. When she is kidnapped by the natives, Tarzan comes to her rescue.

It’s rather instructive to watch this, the last of the Weissmuller Tarzan movies, right after having viewed the previous one in the series, TARZAN AND THE HUNTRESS . The departure of Johnny Sheffield is felt; there is very little of the interplay between the characters that made the last movie in the series enjoyable; Cheeta even seems rather dispirited, and her antics consist of little more than stealing and strumming Benji’s guitar. The whole production seems cheaper than the previous one as well, and though it’s fun to see George Zucco as the high priest, his costume unfortunately reveals how scrawny his arms and legs were at this point, and he looks emaciated and frail. The fantastic content of this one is somewhat higher than that of the previous one, though; though I neglected to mention it in my previous review, other than the slight fantasy content inherent to a Tarzan movie, there was little else that could be called fantastic. Here, the hint that a native god is alive gives it a stronger touch, and you’re actually a little startled the first time you see him move. This would be the last Tarzan movie for Weissmuller; though the official story was that Weissmuller was getting old and out of shape, the prologue to the AMC showing of this movie I have on tape suggests that the true reason was the producer’s desire to find a Tarzan who would work for less money, and given how much cheaper this production looked than the earlier ones, I find that quite plausible. Boy’s absence is explained by his having been sent off to school in England.

TARZAN AND THE HUNTRESS (1947)
Article 1875 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-3-2006
Posting Date: 9-30-2006
Directed by Kurt Neumann
Featuring Johnny Weissmuller, Brenda Joyce, Johnny Sheffield

A safari of hunters conspires with some greedy natives to assassinate a native king who is restricting the amount of trapping the hunters can do. When the new regime allows the hunters to capture animals without limit, Tarzan takes action.

The opening parts of this movie are the best, as they feature Tarzan, Jane and Boy all having fun with each other; these scenes show that a real chemistry had developed between all the actors concerned. Cheetah is also on hand, and she proves to be one of the great animal comedians of all time; her quest to get hold of the huntress’s compact is one of the highlights of the movie. These scenes go a long way to compensate for the fact that the plot this time was pretty tired; most of what happens here has happened before in other Tarzan movies, and it is very short of real surprises. Still, it is, like all of the Weissmuller Tarzan movies, rather enjoyable, even if the savagery was long gone by this point. This was, however, Johnny Sheffield’s last movie in the series; his contract had expired and he had signed up with Monogram to make Bomba movies. Weissmuller himself had only one more Tarzan movie in him, though Brenda Joyce would hang around in the series long enough to welcome Lex Barker into the role.