Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Movie review - Tarzan #10 - "Tarzan and the Leopard Woman" (1946) **1/2

Pretty good B-Tarzan where the gang take on a cult who kill people while disguised as leopards. There are lots of strong features here: the leopard cult are interesting and do cool dances in their underground lairs; the leopard woman (Acquanetta) is a splendid creature, very sexy; there is a full-on leopard attack done quite well; one of the baddies is a ten year old boy who wants to cut out Jane's heart - and he doesn't turn good in the end, so meets a grisly death; the baddies are more complex than usual, with a clash between the smart evil doctor and his lover the leopard woman and her hot tempered brother; there is an attempted sacrifice of four young women; the baddies are also quite formidable, and would haved knocked off Tarzan and co if not for Cheetah.

The main thing ruining the fun is, I admit it, PC factor (hey I'm Gen X what can I say). The doctor is a half caste who has the gall to want to fight the British who are to take over a native territory - he is a typical villain of the time, an educated half native who hates the British and wants to kick them out so the locals can have resources. They do try to emphasize the villain's evil-ness by having them try to kill four local girls who are to be teachers. But it doesn't help that the representative of the British here is a buffoonish commissioner, played by Denis Hoey (who played the idiot cop in the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films). This does lead a slightly negative taste in the mouth. It could be interpreted as being some anti-Commie propaganda.

No comments: