Johnny Weismuller finally grew too old to play the Lord of the Jungle (though it would be fun to see an elderly Tarzan in at least one film), so producer Sol Lesser went looking for a replacement. He came up with Lex Barker, a handsome model type who has the physique for the part but doesn’t quite work; Weismuller bought a real dimension to Tarzan, a sense of child-like wonder and savagery – Barker just looks like this male model with well-groomed hair. So in a way it’s kind of appropriate he co-stars with the unmemorable Brenda Joyce as Jane, who also looks like a model stuck in the studio jungle.
I understand they wanted to give the series some continuity but it’s a shame they didn’t grab the opportunity to introduce a new Jane. Joyce was always going to be up against it following Maureen O’Sullivan, and she faced competition in her films from more interesting female characters – Amazons, Huntress, Mermaids, and in this one a female aviatrix who has discovered the secret of youth. But the fact is she’s not very good; she’s bland and nagging, too contemporary, and wears lots of clothes all the time so she can’t distract with her body. (Is this why all those films had strong female characters? Because of Joyce?)
The plot is at least a bit different (Curt Siodmark was a co-writer); Tarzan discovers the diary of a lost Amelia Earhart-like flier – apparently a man was blamed for said flyer’s murder, but she’s alive and living in eternal youth land… looking like Evelyn Ankers. Tarzan knew where she was all this time, without telling Jane – which leads one to surmise that he ducked over for a bit of nooky (like he presumably did with the Amazons). Ankers comes back to society, meaning that she will age… which is quite an emotionally powerful story, when you think about it – it sets up a good conflict between Jane (who wants to escort her back to eternal youth land) and Tarzan (who has promised to keep the land secret). Of course baddies go about tracking down the fountain of eternal youth and Tarzan has to stop them – so it’s not super different but at least there’s that eternal youth twist.
There’s a decent action finale, with Tarzan and Jane ducking fire arrows set off by more militant members of the lost civilisation (who, you know something, are perfectly justified – Tarzan has told a whole heap of people about their wold). And there are some actual black people in this too, as opposed to Arabs or Puerto Ricans. (Not playing members of the lost youthful civilisation though – they’re all as whitebread as they come.)
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