Tarzan's Revenge (1938)

20th Century Fox took its crack at the Tarzan franchise when producer Sol Lesser signed Olympic Decathlon champion from the 1936 Olympics Glenn Morris to play the jungle hero. As Tarzan Morris sure looked good in a loincloth, but Johnny Weissmuller handled dialog like John Barrymore in comparison to Morris.

There's no Jane in this feature, but there is an Eleanor, Eleanor Holm playing a character of the same first name. If you remember the film Funny Lady, Eleanor Holm 1932 Olympic female swimming champion was the woman who broke up Fanny Brice's marriage to Billy Rose. Here she's the daughter of George Barbier and Hedda Hopper and fiancé of George Meeker who are on an African Safari.

On the ship taking them up country to Tarzan's domain is rich Arab sheik C. Henry Gordon who brings out the villainous Moslem characters he did in such classic films as The Charge Of The Light Brigade for another run. Holm does an act of lese majeste upon Gordon's person, but all that does is whet Gordon's appetite for her. He pays off the expedition's bottom feeding guide Joe Sawyer to steer the party in his direction.

Meeker as always plays a shifty character himself, but one look at Morris and Meeker knows its curtains for him and Holm.

Done on the cheap and by a pair of leads who as actors were great athletes Tarzan's Revenge created no demand for these two as a screen team. The supporting players, professionals all, do their best to salvage this film, but it was impossible.