Of all the classic Tarzan films starring Johnny Weissmuller, one of the more likely to anger today’s “woke” audience is Tarzan and the Leopard Woman, the tenth instalment directed by Kurt Neumann and released in 1946. The script by Carroll Young assumes that the audience will think that there is nothing wrong with the British Empire and its efforts to colonise Africa, even when those efforts are supervised by a well-meaning but pompous district commissioner (played by Dennis Hoey). Headquartered in the picturesque city of Zambesi, he is expanding British rule to the nearby area of Bagandi, sending caravans of goods and preparing to send four young schoolteachers who would bring the benefits of Western civilisation to impoverished and uneducated natives.
One of the caravans has been attacked, and the only survivors report that it was done by leopards. This occurs just as Tarzan (played by Weissmuller) visits Zambesi. Unlike the district commissioner, he is quite sceptical about leopards being able to cause such carnage. His scepticism is quite valid because the attacks were carried out by followers of a local leopard cult led by the high priestess Lea (played by Acquanetta). Her most important ally is Dr. Ameer Lazarus (played by Edgar Barrier), a Western-educated native who actually resents Western civilisation and wants to stop its advance into his native lands. Lea’s young brother Kimba (played by Tommy Cook) tries to help their efforts by using the kindness of Tarzan’s companion Jane (played by Brenda Joyce) in order to spy on Tarzan.
Like Tarzan’s Desert Mystery made a few years earlier, Tarzan and the Leopard Woman doesn’t feature a single black member of the cast despite being set in Africa. The natives who actually appear are light-skinned and played by white actors. Ironically, the only cast member who is not is Acquanetta, a former model whose exotic looks were explained by her Arapaho ancestry, although she was, at least according to some sources, a light-skinned African American who managed to pass as white and thus escape institutional racial discrimination in 1940s America. Edgar Barrier, the actor playing Dr. Lazarus, in the scene of his rousing anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist speech to leopard cult followers, does so in a manner that was deliberately copied from Adolf Hitler.
On the other hand, Tarzan in this film looks quite domesticated. Far gone are the days when he was happy in his splendid isolation at the top of the Mutia Escarpment; now he is quite comfortable spending increasing amounts of time in civilisation, where he even gets the opportunity to befriend local wrestling stars. Johnny Sheffield, on the other hand, can’t hide his puberty any more, but the strict MPAA Production Code barred the scriptwriters from exploring those themes and, as a result, the character of Boy is underused.
If we are to ignore the reactionary politics and revisionist take on the main character, Tarzan and the Leopard Woman is actually quite a good piece of escapist entertainment, with Kurt Neumann handling action scenes well and keeping the running time very short, not allowing the audience to dwell too much on some details that would look too “pulpish” (like four schoolteachers, played by fashion models, being conveniently snatched for the purpose of human sacrifice) or wouldn’t make any sense. The character of the sociopathic native boy, played by Tommy Cook, looks quite refreshing for the Tarzan series, although he isn’t developed enough. But fans of the series are, despite those flaws, likely to be pleased with the film.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/ Leofinance blog https://leofinance.io/@drax.leo Cent profile https://beta.cent.co/@drax Minds profile https://www.minds.com/drax_rp_nc Uptrennd profile https://www.uptrennd.com/user/MTYzNA
Unstoppable Domains: https://unstoppabledomains.com/?ref=3fc23fc42c1b417 Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax Bitcoin Lightning HIVE donations: https://v4v.app/v1/lnurlp/qrcode/drax Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax 1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
