Movie Review: Tarzan's Revenge (1938)

Synopsis: While on an African safari with her parents and fiancé, Eleanor Reed is rescued from the mud by a loin-cloth-wearing man who calls himself Tarzan and eventually spends a day together with the jungle man. Tarzan soon needs to come to the rescue again when a chieftain, Ben Alleu Bey, kidnaps Eleanor so he can make her part of his harem.

Who's in it? The movie stars Glenn Morris, Eleanor Holm, Hedda Hopper, C. Henry Gordon, George Meeker and George Barbier.

Review: I've had Tarzan's Revenge in my movie library for months and just never got around to watching it. I decided to finally do that this morning and, while it wasn't a terrible movie, it also wasn't as good as I was hoping.

I'll start out with the positives. Glenn Morris makes a halfway decent Tarzan. He had the yell down, looked the part and has decent chemistry with his love interest, Eleanor (Holm).

The movie also has some solid supporting characters. Eleanor's mother, Penny (Hopper), was meek to the point I think she'd catch a bad chill just from opening a refrigerator and was the last person who should have been on safari. Eleanor's fiancé, Nevin (Meeker) was the guy you loved to hate. He acted tough whenever he was holding a gun and shooting helpless animals but immediately showed his true colors whenever any danger presented itself. In other words, it was easy to see why Eleanor had no issue running off with some nearly naked guy she just met in the jungle.

The main problem I have with the film is it is 70 minutes long and takes about an hour to get to the main plot. 

In fact, Ben Alleu Bey (Gordon) may just be the most patient villain in cinema history. Despite meeting and deciding to kidnap Eleanor early in the film and having plenty of opportunities to grab her when she's alone, he instead waits as Eleanor is rescued by Tarzan from mud, is rescued by Tarzan from a lion, spends a day swinging around on vines and swimming with Tarzan, returns to her family, goes swimming with Nevin and nearly gets eaten by a crocodile. 

Between that and his very little screen time, I was beginning to wonder if maybe the filmmakers forgot there was supposed to be a villain for Tarzan to get revenge on. Now I am just wondering if maybe he and his henchmen were just lazy.

Final Opinion: As I mentioned, there were some good things about this film. However, the decision to keep the main plot on ice until the movie was nearly over did keep this movie from being as good as it had the potential to be.

My Grade: C

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Here are some reviews of other movies with a character named Tarzan:

Movie Review: Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)

Movie Review: Inside Information (1934)

Movie Review: The Legend of Tarzan (2016)

Movie Review: Phantom Rancher (1940)