"Tarzan And The Amazons" + "A Lie Too Big To Fail" by Lisa Pease

Tonight's Tarzan was "Tarzan And The Amazons" (1945), and the title tells you, right off the bat, most of what you need to know about the story. Tarzan and Boy are getting ready for a rafting trip to the trading post downriver to buy supplies for the treehouse and also some presents for Jane, who is returning from another one of her trips to England. Before they can depart, they hear a commotion in the jungle. A young woman is running from a panther, hot on her heels. She carries a bow and arrow, and appears to be a warrior (warrioress?), but Tarzan sees she is no match for the charging cat and comes rapidly to her rescue.

As he and Boy tend to her, a bracelet falls from her wrist. Made of pure gold, it bears an embossed, overlapped symbol of a tree, Sun and snake. Boy is inquisitive and wants to know the meaning of the symbol, but the woman is mum. It is clear that Tarzan knows something, but he is silent as well. He changes the subject on Boy, but Boy will soon discover for himself the symbols' meaning, because Tarzan decides to help the stricken woman get back to Palmiyra, the hidden city behind the mountains at the edge of the jungle. This is where she is from, where her people live in secret. She is an Amazon, a tribe of Tall, Strong Women.

I was figuring that the producers must have hired the entire volleyball teams from USC and UCLA, gave 'em jungle skirts and headbands and set them loose.... :)

When Tarzan gets Athena the Amazon back to her tribe at Palmiyra, he is immediately excoriated by the Amazonian Queen, Maria Ouspenskaya (of "Wolfman" fame). She is a tiny person, and elderly, but her word is law. Lucky for Tarzan that she is his pal. The secret city of the Amazons is never to be compromised. Death awaits all intruders, but Tarzan is excepted this time - even though he has brought Boy and Cheeta with him - because he has known about Palmiyra forever, and he has kept it a secret, even from Boy and Jane.

The Amazons let him go and he returns to the jungle just as Jane is arriving by boat, with yet another retinue of scientists, microbiologists and a zoology professor. Tarzan has Had It Up To Here with these types, as seen in other films from the series, because he knows that all they want is to plunder.

Jane is once again the voice of moderation, trying to explain to Tarzan that the men are only there to study the land, not to exploit it. But Tarzan knows differently. He has jungle intuition. He can talk to and command the animals, after all. He is King Of The Jungle. He sees that the scientists have hired a local hunter to lead their anthropological expedition, a blustery, craven man interested not in science but only in profit.

This is when Cheeta gets into the act. She has been content to try her hand at fishing throughout the first half of the movie - with zero success - but by the time the safari gets underway she is back to her old tricks of stealing anything she can get ahold of. This time she swipes the Golden Bracelet. The master hunter who is leading the expedition discovers it, sees it is made of gold, and his own intuition, made of greed and envy, drives him to find out where the bracelet has come from.

Boy has been simmering at Tarzan from the beginning of the movie, because Tarzan won't tell him about Palmiyra, the secret city of the Amazons. Now, Boy has a chance to get back at Tarzan and prove himself to be a man, because he was with Tarzan when they went to Palmiyra to return the wounded woman at the start of the movie.

Boy knows the way there. He knows the route over the jagged mountains, and offers his services to the hunter and his clients, the scientists, who seem benign enough. Jane approves of them and Boy loves  and trusts Jane.

But Tarzan knows Hunter No Good. Boy in Bad Fix now. Can Tarzan straighten situation out?

The movie would more accurately have been called "Boy and The Amazons", because this is really Johnny Sheffield's movie more than Weissmuller's. Boy gets himself into a major league jam by leading the hunter and the scientists into the lofty netherworld of Palmiyra, where they find themselves suddenly surrounded and outgunned by the large tribe of fearless Amazonian archers acting at Queen Ouspenskayas' behest.

Boy would surely be Toast here, if not for his relationship to Tarzan.

The hunter doesn't fare as well, and the scientists.......hmmmm. Just watch for yourself.

The script is not quite up to par with last night's "Tarzan And The Huntress", but you still get all of your trademark elements of jungle animals romping, Tarzan & Boy bonding, family time with Jane, and Cheeta stealing the show (literally and figuratively).

Two Thumbs Up for "Tarzan And The Amazons", and hang on, because we still have some Tarzans left! I don't know if the final two movies will play; they are the ones that kept freezing and skipping, but I will try one tomorrow night. Maybe the glitch has worked itself out.

Good singing in church this morning. I am still off work. Went for an Aliso walk this aft, finished Lou Berney's "November Road" (most excellent), and began "A Lie Too Big To Fail" by Lisa Pease, said to be thee Magnum Opus on the Robert F. Kennedy assassination.

Very readable thus far, through 25 pages. She promises to come up with new information on the case. I've read many a book on the subject, so we will see if she can deliver on that promise. ////

The truth is so important in this world. Telling it is the hard part for those in the know. Discerning it is the hard part for researchers and writers.

Eyewitnesses hold the key.  :)

See you in the morning. Love always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)