Richard Burin "Through the forest I carry the mail/Singing better than a nightingale/As great a lover as postman/And particular friend of the mighty Tarzan."This is the last, and by far the least, of the Weissmuller Tarzans. It's stultifying, truth be told, with a risible storyline utilising a hammy George Zucco, and an inexplicable number of terrible songs (please see above), crooned by John Laurenz. The only brightspots are the snippets of Robert-Florey-does-Robert-Flaherty faux-documentary footage, some decent underwater photography, a bit where loads of stuntmen leap off a cliff and the unexpected octopus duel (it won't be unexpected anymore; sorry). The remaining 61 of the 64 minutes consist of Tarzan swimming and people getting into and out of boats (calling to mind that famous review of They Were Expendable; alas, the similarities end there), as well as those bloody songs. Even Johnny Sheffield and the decent Cheetas had buggered off by this time. RKO's revival of the popular MGM series ultimately created one minor classic of its kind (Desert Mystery), two enjoyable timewasters (Triumphs and Huntress), a pair of iffy, cheesy romps and this dud.

MartinHafer Johnny Weissmuller made a name for himself as Tarzan at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio. However, and I am not sure why, Weissmuller and 'Boy' (Johnny Sheffield) jumped from this prestige studio to the less than stellar RKO--where the budgets shrank considerably as did the quality. The scripts got a lot more weird and the films became chock full of poorly integrated stock footage and animals that often weren't even African. Additionally, 'Jane' (Maureen O'Sullivan) remained at MGM and a new leading lady needed to be found. After having the character be 'off on vacation in England' or 'helping with the war effort' in a couple films, RKO decided to re-cast this character with Brenda Joyce--who bore little similarity to O'Sullivan.This episode was shot in Mexico--which might explain why the extras look a lot more Hispanic than African! And, to make it even more obvious that this is taking place no where near the Dark Continent, you see stock footage of Canadian Geese and the baddies hang out in an Aztec pyramid!!! Why didn't they also have some Moon Men or the Brooklyn Dodgers in the film while they were at it?! The film begins with a woman running off from the land of Aquatania. Why? Because the priest (George Zucco) wants her to marry her people's god, Balu (not the bear). She knows he is NOT Balu but some guy in a costume but her people have been fooled. And when she escapes, she naturally runs into Tarzan and Jane who try to help. In the end, all three end up back in Aquatania for a showdown with the baddies.While absolutely none of this bizarre film makes any sense (I think the writers were experimenting with LSD), it is reasonably entertaining--in a dumb way. I enjoyed seeing the very paunchy Weismuller as Tarzan--not that he was great but seeing an older guy playing this hero gave me a bit of a laugh. This film is a great one actually for bad movie buffs, as it is clearly one of the worst of the Weismuller films--which is a shame, as the earlier MGM ones were surprisingly good.By the way, the Cheeta in the film is much younger and smaller than the one in the last film. This new one was cuter but just didn't have the same screen presence and grace as the old Cheeta!

physyu The vine swinging here is pretty good and the background music better than even some of the so called better Tarzan films involving higher expense. Within the budget constraints that this film was produced - and I don't believe Weissmuller was paid anywhere like handsomely- this is a Tarzan film with light-hearted humor with some very unexpected but entertaining swimming and diving scenes with a dash of adventure . I particularly find the fight with the octopus refreshingly good and rather picturesque and reminds one of Hogarth's drawings of Tarzan fighting an octopus in once famous comic series. The difficult under-water scenes are done very well particularly the scene in which Tarzan battles his many youthful enemies with great swimming skill and craft: he appears agile, strong and a champion in the water that he was. He does quite a bit of rigorous cliff climbing like a mountain lion looking very fit and lion-like and diving into the water here again he appears strong and agile.The grand finale in which he hurled the impostor "Balu" from a high cliff is quite impressive. When his adversaries invaded his "estate" he defended his house and home like a true jungle lord ,throwing some over his head and punching others away as if the were toys! I appreciate Weissmuller's self confidence in asking for a "raise" for the continuation of the Tarzan contract which was terminated with the lame excuse that he was out of shape. More than a dozen or so Jungle Jim adventure films in which Weismuller now "fully clothed" did a bit of vine swinging ,a lot of swimming,diving and fought lions,leopards and tigers showed that Weissmuller could get back into shape again and was fit and strong enough to carry on for a few more years as the one and only Tarzan if only he was given a fair chance.

comicbook-guy Before watching this I'd read that some considered TARZAN AND THE MERMAIDS to be "the worst" of the Weissmuller series. That made me nervous but I gave it a try. I'm happy to say that I was very pleasantly surprised. MERMAIDS might be "the worst" of the Weissmuller series but that doesn't make it a bad film at all. Taking Tarzan away from the jungle for an exotic aquatic romp makes this an unusual entry in the series so prepare yourself for a change of pace. I like it! MERMAIDS is well worth adding to one's Tarzan collection if you can find it. I wish they would release all of Johnny's Tarzan movies on DVD.