Okay, take a guess what I watched tonight. You can actually have three guesses and I bet you still won't get it. Take a minute or two to think about it, and I'll even give you a hint : look at the title of this blog.
Aww shucks, now I've probably given it away, so I might as well just tell you (though I'll bet you never would have guessed it) : Tonight's movie was "Tarzan And The Mermaids" (1948), starring Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan and Brenda Joyce as Jane. How did I come to watch a Tarzan movie, you ask? I can't remember exactly, because I ordered an entire three disc Tarzan collection from the Libe back around Christmastime, and it just arrived yesterday. I think I ordered it because of a library database search for Brenda Joyce, who I may have seen in a recently viewed Noir. At any rate, I am sure that it resulted from a search for either an actor, actress, or director, and among the cast, Brenda Joyce is the one that comes to mind.
Once I got my Tarzan discs from Northridge Library, I wasn't sure I was even gonna watch them. It was one of those "what was I thinkin"? situations. However, I had already used up three of the five flicks from my "Forbidden Hollywood" set, and three of my six "Falcons". I wanted to save the remainders of both collections, so as not to just run through them at warp speed. Therefore, why not give Tarzan a chance? I'd ordered him, after all, and to stretch the point, he does have a town named after him - Tarzana (named because Edgar Rice Burroughs lived there) - that is located just south of the town of Reseda, from where I am writing.....
So.......Tarzan it was. The title is misleading because there is only one Mermaid, not plural, and even so, she is a Mermaid in name only, or maybe in spirit. Lemme tell you why, and please bear with me.
On an island downriver from the jungle home of Tarzan, Jane and Cheetah, there lives a group of natives known as the Aquatanians. They worship a pagan God called Balu, who lives on the island as a gold statue, but can be brought to life through the mediation of the tribe's High Priest (played by the slightly sinister George Zucco of 1940s monster movie fame). The High Priest tells the Aquatainians that Balu wants a wife. He has chosen the most beautiful maiden Mara (Linda Christian). She wants nothing to do with marrying Balu, and seems to know something about him that isn't palatable, so at the last minute, she runs away from the ceremony and dives off a cliff into the ocean. All of the natives are excellent cliff divers, as we shall see later in the picture.
Mara never becomes a Mermaid in the physical sense, because she maintains a 100% human body, with no fish bottom half. But she must have been swimming undersea for all the time after her escape, because she isn't seen again until days later, when Tarzan casts his fishing net and pulls her in.
He brings her back to his hut, where he and Jane feed her and listen to her tale of woe. Meanwhile, a Merry Troubadour (John Laurenz) wanders in and out of the movie. His name is Benji, and you never know when he will show up, lute in hand, to sing an inspirational song or two. This time, while Tarzan and Jane are nursing Mara back to health, Benji has his lute stolen by Cheetah, who subsequently climbs a tree and strums a few chords himself, for comic relief.
Yes, there is a Ton Of Plot happening in this 68 minute motion picture. :)
I'm not kidding, either. Because what happens is that the Pagan God turns out to be a fake. He's just a businessman in a Gold Plated God Suit, and he is there on the island to secure a foothold for his company to recover the massive undersea load of pearls that had been a secret of the natives until he arrived. Now, abetted by the Slightly Sinister George Zucco as "The High Priest", he is pulling a fast one on the natives in order to steal their pearls and take over the island.
But, now that Tarzan has rescued Mara, will he be able to stop this scheme? I would not bet against him, as he swims through Gigantic Sea Caves in order to spy on Zucco and the businessman and uncover their nefarious plans.
I wonder where this movie was filmed? I was thinking Catalina. Could it be Hawaii? I dunno, but wherever it is, it's got some Humongous Sea Caves.
To sum up, "Tarzan And The Mermaids" (misleading title and all), was not only better than I was expecting, but it was very entertaining, well plotted and a lot of fun, in a Saturday Matinee kind of way.
Because of the viewing success of this Tarzan film, which gets Two Thumbs Up for sheer popcorn value, I will most likely be watching another Tarzan movie in the next several days, so prepare yourself.
Tomorrow night I may watch something a bit heavier, since I will be off work and at home for the next several days, but we shall see........because I am loving my One Hour Movies, they leave me time to draw, and I am enjoying my Prismacolor pencils very much.
Once upon a time, back in the late 1970s and early '80s, there was a nearby theater called Thee Movies Of Tarzana. It was located on Ventura Boulevard just west of Reseda Bl, about six miles south of Northridge. Once in a while my friends and I saw a movie there.
It would have been really cool to see Tarzan in Tarzana, though we were way past that era by then. /////
See you in the morning. Hope your day was good. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment