When someone asks which Tarzan film is the best, the answers might vary depending on various criteria. In the case of the Classic Hollywood series that featured Johnny Weissmuller, the most iconic of all actors that have ever played the character, most fans, critics and film scholars point towards Tarzan, the Ape Man, the first film in the series, as the best. Second best, and for some the best, is its direct sequel Tarzan and His Mate, 1934 film directed by Cedric Gibbons.
The plot begins roughly one year after the events in Ape Man. At the trade station in Africa, explorer Harry Holt (played by Neil Hamilton) and his old friend Martin Hamilton (played by Paul Cavanugh) start an expedition in the interior of the African continent, hoping to reach the legendary elephant graveyard and collect ivory that would make them rich. In order to do so, they must deal with a hostile cannibal tribe and cross Mutia Escarpment before they reach the relative safety of the jungle ruled by Tarzan (played by Weissmuller), a white man raised by apes. Holt was there before and he hopes to find Jane Porter (played by Maureen O’Sullivan), the daughter of the explorer who led the previous expedition. She now lives with Tarzan. Holt, who had romantic feelings for her, gives her latest fashionable dresses and gramophone records, hoping to convince her to return to civilisation. She is, however, happy to be with Tarzan. Arlington is, however, determined to get to the elephant graveyard, a place Tarzan considers sacred. When Tarzan refuses to help, Arlington decides to take matters into his hands and remove Tarzan as an obstacle for his plans.
Whatever Ape Man did, Tarzan and His Mate did equally well or, in some instances, even better. This achievement is even more impressive, considering that the production was difficult with Cedric Gibbons, a notable production designer signed as director in the credits, who left early, leaving the job to Jack Conway and Jim McKay. Their approach was not to reinvent the wheel and do everything W. S. Van Dyke did in the previous film. Tarzan and His Mate again discards most of the music, allowing the audience to focus solely on action, which this film has plenty of. Again, those scenes are made with near perfect combination of seamless animal handling, risky stunt work and variety of special effects. Probably the most complicated is the scene of an underwater fight between Tarzan and a large crocodile in which the latter is “played” by a large mechanical device. Although it might not look much to an audience accustomed to modern CGI and although some of the movements might look too mechanical, the scene was impressive enough to be recycled in a number of subsequent Tarzan films.
Scriptwriter James Kevin McGuiness doesn’t want to reinvent the wheel and builds most of its work on the previous film. The plot in the first part looks very much like the plot of Ape Man, but the content doesn’t look too repetitive. Action is quick and brutal, there is a lot of violence directed both at humans and animals, including the ending when even some of the major characters are being eaten alive by lions. At times, the brutal realities of jungle life affect even Tarzan’s chimpanzee companion Cheetah. Of course, at times the script uses clichés of Hollywood genre films, especially those dealing with a protagonist who is allowed to stay alive after some incidents that would be fatal to regular characters. On the other hand, the script also allows some more quiet moments that put more emphasis on dialogue and characters discussing differences between the simplicity of life in the jungle and the opulence of living in civilisation. Like in the previous film, the best acting part goes to Maureen O’Sullivan who again, has great chemistry with Weissmuller and compensates for his clear lack of proper acting ability. Her scenes with Weissmuller are also arguably the most erotic in the series and it is heavily implied that Jane living with Tarzan practises what people at the time used to call “living in sin”. Jane in the film appears in the most revealing costumes in the series, including the scenes where it is implied that she sleeps and swims nude. The famous underwater nude swimming scene, featuring Olympic gold medallist Josephine McKim as O’Sullivan’s body double, was soon afterwards cut out due to Hollywood’s strict enforcement of draconian MPAA Production Code. As such, Tarzan and His Mate represents one of the last of so-called “Pre-Code” Hollywood films and good insight into what Tarzan film series would look like if it was made with more adult audience in mind. The Code led producers to make all the next sequels family-friendly and those films, although ultimately successful, didn’t have the “edge” and freshness of the first two films.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)
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