Tarzan and the Lost Safari

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Tarzan and the Lost Safari
Tarzan and the Lost Safari movie poster
Directed byBruce Humberstone
Written byMontgomery Pittman
Lillie Hayward
Based onCharacters created
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Produced byJohn Croydon
Sol Lesser
StarringGordon Scott
Robert Beatty
Yolande Donlan
Betta St. John
CinematographyC. M. Pennington-Richards
Edited byBill Lewthwaite
Music byClifton Parker
Production
company
Sol Lesser/Solar Films
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • April 12, 1957 (1957-04-12)
Running time
86 min.
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2,315,000[1]

Tarzan and the Lost Safari is a 1957 action adventure film featuring Edgar Rice Burroughs' famous jungle hero Tarzan and starring Gordon Scott, Robert Beatty, Yolande Donlan and Betta St. John. Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone, it was the first Tarzan film released in color, Eastman Color.[2] The nineteenth film of the Tarzan film series that began with 1932's Tarzan the Ape Man and the first produced by MGM since 1942, it was filmed in Nairobi, British East Africa. The character of Jane does not appear in this motion picture. Released April 12, 1957, it was followed by Tarzan and the Trappers in 1958.

Plot[edit]

An airplane crashes in the jungle of the Kenya Colony of British East Africa in 1956, stranding passengers Gamage Dean (Yolande Donlan), Diana Penrod (Betta St. John), "Doodles" Fletcher (Wilfrid Hyde-White), Carl Kraski (George Coulouris), and Dick Penrod (Peter Arne). Before the plane slides into a gorge the group is rescued by Tarzan (Gordon Scott), who undertakes to lead them back to civilization.

Diana is kidnapped by warriors from Opar under Chief Ogonooro (Orlando Martins). The Oparians desire the strangers as sacrifices for their lion god. She is recovered by Tarzan and hunter Tusker Hawkins (Robert Beatty), whose advances Diana rebuffs. Secretly, however, Hawkins is in league with the Oparians, and plans to sell the castaways to the natives for a fortune in ivory.

Tarzan, rightly suspecting Hawkins' untrustworthiness, exposes his treachery. Now openly in league with the natives, the hunter helps them take the white party captive in Tarzan's absence. The ape man returns to save them before the sacrifice can take place, aided by his chimpanzee ally Cheeta, who sets fire to the native village. He then leads them to the safety of a nearby settlement.

Hawkins meets his fate at the hands of the Oparians, to whom Tarzan has signaled the villain's double-dealing by a creative use of jungle drums.

Cast[edit]

Notes[edit]

The film contains more allusions to the Burroughs novels than usual for a Tarzan movie of the period, including the ape man's brief account of his origin to the female lead (which echoes Burroughs' version, however the she-ape who raised him is incorrectly identified as “Kerchak”). The film also uses Opar, though reducing the grand lost city as described by Burroughs to a generic native village. A male lion seen resting with Tarzan near the start of the film is referred to as “Numa”, a term used for male lions in the Burroughs series. Tarzan, while retaining his then-customary film characterization as an inarticulate simpleton, nevertheless displays considerable shrewdness and resource, foreshadowing the restoration in later movies of Burroughs' original concept of an intelligent, multitalented ape man.

Reception[edit]

According to MGM records the film earned $915,000 in the US and Canada and $1.4 million elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $432,000.[1]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  2. ^ Fury, David (1994). Kings of the Jungle: An Illustrated Reference to Tarzan on Screen and Television. McFarland & Co. pp. 161–165. ISBN 0-89950-771-9. Retrieved 16 January 2024.

External links[edit]

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