In his excellent book on the cinema of the British Empire, Visions of Yesterday, Jeffrey Richards remarked in passing that Tarzan took on communists in Tarzan’s Peril and this film. You could argue the baddie in Tarzan’s Peril was a commie; the anti-commie slant is a little bit more obvious here, though you still have to look for it. Charles Korvin kills Tarzan’s cousin and gets Patrick Knowles to impersonate said cousin; Knowles admits to being a traitor to England, Korvin refers to Knowles being from the “bourgeois” and works for a fictitious European country that is an enemy of England.
Knowles and Korvin ask for Tarzan’s help in locating a source of diamonds; they claim they need them for England (where “the chips are down”) – which surely is going to raise Tarzan’s suspicions considering the number of greedy explorers who’ve trooped through his jungle over the years. But at least it’s a different sort of lie and Jane encourages him to go along with it.
The film benefits from the addition of a “Boy” character – Joey, an American, played by Tommy Carleton, an engaging child performer. He helps compensate for another bland Jane (Barker’s fourth in only his fourth movie). They could never get a right match for Barker - this one seems a lot older; to be fair, she’s not helped by the fact she’s shown to be pining for Tarzan while he’s away, implying that she spends a lot of time stuck at home – no wonder she gets so excited by the mention of diamonds, it’s like she can’t wait to get out of her tree house to do diamond shopping.
Some good action sequences: Tarzan rescuing Joey, crossing the desert, the expedition’s arrival at the native village to find that cannibals have attacked, Tarzan rescuing Jane from being sacrificed at the end. Barker acts with more authority and confidence than before. The villains are strong and its refreshing to have a plot that harks back to the history of Tarzan’s family.
On the downside there are some racially insensitive moments such as when Korvin distracts some natives with a few magic tricks. And the ending where Cheetah engineers a plane crash by the commie pilots (they misinterpret his chimp talk as their native language) is a bit full on – a reprise of the Tarzan Triumphs end gag, only with more violence.
NB the ending with the Africans giving Tarzan given half the diamonds – what exactly does he plan to do with them?
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