Film Review: Tarzan and the Huntress (1947)

![(source: tmdb.org)(https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/27gBh0aNRzs9b0loQSMGZAvZbaj.jpg)

Tarzan and the Leopard Woman, the eleventh instalment of the classic Tarzan film series starring Johnny Weissmuller, might be problematic to certain segments of today’s audience with its reactionary and “politically incorrect” views on Africa. Tarzan and the Huntress, its 1947 sequel directed by Kurt Neumann, goes in the opposite direction and it might be quite appealing to those progressive and even more to those with strong environmentalist views.

The title character, played by Patricia Morrison, is Tanya Rawlins, a big game huntress who organised a major expedition into Africa in order to fill American and other zoos around the world with animals that were no longer being sent during the recently ended Second World War. She visits the kingdom ruled by the wise old King Farrod (played by Charles Trowbridge) who sets strict limits on the number of animals to be hunted, fearing that their numbers could otherwise be depleted. When Tanya’s attempts to change his mind fail, her unscrupulous assistant Paul Weir (played by Barton MacLane) forms a pact with the King’s nephew Prince Ozira (played by Ted Hecht). The King is “accidentally” killed during the hunt and Ozira, as the new ruler, allows Tanya’s expedition to catch as many animals as it can.

That doesn’t sit well with Tarzan, who calls animals to his part of the jungle, which would make Tanya’s safari follow them and lead to inevitable conflict during which Tarzan rescues Prince Suli (played by Maurice Tauzin), the King’s son who miraculously survived an assassination attempt.

Tarzan and the Huntress shows that a film series, even in its late stages and even with the technical and budget limitations of a B-production, can deliver the goods to its target audience. This is mostly due to the long and fruitful experience gained by producer Sol Lesser, director Kurt Neumann and the regular cast, and their efforts function like clockwork. The film has a seemingly unimaginative and predictable script, but Neumann’s direction provides a very good combination of action and romance, all delivered with rapid pace and in short running time, suitable for a younger audience.

Despite the “whitewashing” of Africa characteristic in that period of the series (with natives being portrayed as white), the script by Jerry Ruskin and Rowland Leigh offers some rather progressive content. King Farrod is portrayed as a wise, visionary and benevolent ruler who provides his subjects with some sort of welfare state and wants to preserve his country’s wealth and natural resources from greedy, manipulative and unscrupulous Westerners. This very subtle injection of left-wing politics, which occurred on the eve of the Red Scare and McCarthyist purges in Hollywood, probably wasn’t noticed by most of the audience, interested in a simple story with clear heroes and villains.

The latter are represented by the vile character of Paul Weir, played by Barton MacLane, who had played a similar character in the earlier instalment Tarzan and the Amazons. The most impressive member of the cast is, however, Patricia Morrison, one of the most beautiful and underrated actresses of 1940s Hollywood, who puts her exotic looks to great use. Tarzan and the Huntress, however, fails to exploit her as a possible seductress or rival to Jane (played by the weak Brenda Joyce) for Tarzan’s affection. Her character actually doesn’t fight Tarzan and instead has to deal with the chimpanzee Cheeta, whose antics sabotage her plans in comical ways.

Johnny Sheffield, the child actor playing Tarzan’s adopted son named “Boy”, was 16 years old at the time of production; this was his last appearance in the series. He would later star as the protagonist of the similarly themed film series Bomba the Jungle Boy from 1949 to 1955. For Johnny Weissmuller, who, despite being in his early forties, still has an impressive physique and delivers good stunts, Tarzan and the Huntress was the penultimate film of the series.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

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