Ben Burgraff's critique of TARZAN THE TIGER is so well done that it would be difficult for anyone to comment further on the subject of the movie itself. I for one totally agree with his assessment. I love old serial "Cliffhangers" and this one is a true historical film classic. However, there are numerous companies that produce old movies on VHS tape and DVD for home entertainment, and some produce better tapes and discs than others. Some are perfectly produced with great definition and some are so fuzzy that they appear to dissolve while trying to watch and make sense of them. There are also some that unwittingly destroy a good movie because they are so paranoid that someone might copy the movies that they themselves had copied... So they superimpose graffiti (aka junk logos, etc.) in the viewing area of the subject, thus rendering it so annoying that most viewers can't stand to watch it. The Alpha Home Entertainment DVD Production of this particular 15 chapter serial is perhaps the worse produced thus far. "ALPHA VIDEO" graffiti appears in text with their flag logo at the upper right corner of every opening chapter and through the credits, and at various places in the film, in addition to the close of the film, rendering annoying and worthless. The Alpha Video Production DVD also appears to have been VHS video taped from television because there are those horizontal lines appearing at various places in the disc, and then from VHS to disc. I've seen a sharper image version of this same movie some time ago... It was produced by another DVD producer, I believe it was a Canadian company, and it had no graffiti to deface the movie or to distract one's viewing pleasure. I am among those that would like to see the entire movie from start to ending exactly as it was produced, without graffiti (aka logos, aka signs, aka symbols and text that was not originally in the movie). IF Alpha Video was around in 1929, and are the original and fully legal 1929 producers of TARZAN THE TIGER, then they should do with the film what they wish... But they are not the original producers, and it is a sin to ruin such historic movies the way they are... out of fear of piracy, or perhaps they are being over zealous... Who knows? At any rate, you may want to ask who produced the movie before you buy it... and if its produced by an individual, or a company, or a corporation, or an institution that ruins good movies by superimposing personal graffiti or "logos" on them, then you might want to pass on it until someone comes out with a quality production of your favorite film. And, please don't buy pirated movies... Pirated films are unlawful and they do hurt the industry.
6 Reviews
Non-Genre Tarzan could keep you Occupied
gengar8436 November 2021
THE STORY & GENRE -- Serial 266 minutes. No feature version known. Animal communication is my hallmark for Tarzan as genre, but that's not the case here. Unless you count fighting a gorilla, which I don't, not genre.
THE VERDICT -- Feats of strength, and pre-code girls in skimpy outfits, to keep you occupied. Otherwise, it's kind of dopey, and Frank Merrill's acting is quite limited, but OK, it's Tarzan. I'll give it a 6.5.
FREE ONLINE -- Yes, mainly in pretty rough but watchable condition.
THE VERDICT -- Feats of strength, and pre-code girls in skimpy outfits, to keep you occupied. Otherwise, it's kind of dopey, and Frank Merrill's acting is quite limited, but OK, it's Tarzan. I'll give it a 6.5.
FREE ONLINE -- Yes, mainly in pretty rough but watchable condition.
Hokey but Fun Serial Marked First 'Sound' Tarzan...
cariart24 September 2004
TARZAN THE TIGER is certainly not in a class with the FLASH GORDON or SUPERMAN serials of the 30s and 40s, but it does hold some distinctions; filmed as a silent, to capitalize on the growing popularity of sound, a music track and sound effects were added (most memorably, the first recorded 'Tarzan yell'), making this the first 'sound' Tarzan; 36-year-old gymnastics champion Frank Merrill as 'Tarzan the Tiger', would introduce acrobatics, such as rope-climbing and vine-swinging, which would remain fixtures in all subsequent Tarzan films; Natalie Kingston, 24, as 'Lady Jane', Tarzan's wife, would don a costume very similar to the one Maureen O'Sullivan wore starting with TARZAN ESCAPES, through the remainder of her MGM films; AND Kingston would perform a breast-baring swim, five YEARS before the famous TARZAN AND HIS MATE nude underwater romp.
While Merrill's 'acting' is embarrassing (he seems to be limited to three expressions: happy, dazed, and angry), his character is fairly faithful to the vision of author Edgar Rice Burroughs; educated, a sophisticate, as comfortable in a dinner jacket as in his (unintentionally funny) jungle 'wardrobe' of a leopard-skin headband and half-bib shorts, with moccasins...why he would cover up his Herculean chest is anybody's guess! Of course, after he gets conked on the head after 'liberating' some priceless jewels in the Lost City of Opar, he forgets his 'Lord Greystoke' persona, reverting to a more Weissmuller-type Tarzan (albeit more loquacious), through most episodes of the serial.
As with all serials, cliffhanger endings abound. Will poor Lady Jane, prisoner of Arab slavers, then of a false friend (sleazy Al Ferguson), be sold on the block to the highest bidder, or suffer the indignity of a "fate worse than death"? will La (Kithnou), the rather 'butch' Queen of the eternally dancing (and mentally-challenged) Opar tribe, win the heart of the man she loves, Tarzan? Will our Hero survive even ONE cliffhanger WITHOUT the aid of the local elephant, "Tantar, the Terrible"?
While the plot is silly and repetitious, the serial does offer some impressive views of Merrill's brawny arms and back, and equally impressive views of Kingston's 'charms', as well as a guy in an ape suit (uh, I mean a gorilla) that gives Tarzan the best fight of the fifteen chapters.
All in all, TARZAN THE TIGER isn't bad, as a 'popcorn flick'!
While Merrill's 'acting' is embarrassing (he seems to be limited to three expressions: happy, dazed, and angry), his character is fairly faithful to the vision of author Edgar Rice Burroughs; educated, a sophisticate, as comfortable in a dinner jacket as in his (unintentionally funny) jungle 'wardrobe' of a leopard-skin headband and half-bib shorts, with moccasins...why he would cover up his Herculean chest is anybody's guess! Of course, after he gets conked on the head after 'liberating' some priceless jewels in the Lost City of Opar, he forgets his 'Lord Greystoke' persona, reverting to a more Weissmuller-type Tarzan (albeit more loquacious), through most episodes of the serial.
As with all serials, cliffhanger endings abound. Will poor Lady Jane, prisoner of Arab slavers, then of a false friend (sleazy Al Ferguson), be sold on the block to the highest bidder, or suffer the indignity of a "fate worse than death"? will La (Kithnou), the rather 'butch' Queen of the eternally dancing (and mentally-challenged) Opar tribe, win the heart of the man she loves, Tarzan? Will our Hero survive even ONE cliffhanger WITHOUT the aid of the local elephant, "Tantar, the Terrible"?
While the plot is silly and repetitious, the serial does offer some impressive views of Merrill's brawny arms and back, and equally impressive views of Kingston's 'charms', as well as a guy in an ape suit (uh, I mean a gorilla) that gives Tarzan the best fight of the fifteen chapters.
All in all, TARZAN THE TIGER isn't bad, as a 'popcorn flick'!
Tarzan the Amnesiac
JohnHowardReid22 May 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Despite what all the "history" books will tell you (namely that M-G-M's The Kiss was the final silent feature from a major American film studio), Universal was actually the last of the Hollywood majors to fully convert to sound. This serial, released in March 1930, was probably the last of the last. In fact by the end of 1929, Universal had already released ten all-talking pictures: College Love, Melody Lane, Broadway, The Shannons of Broadway, The Mississippi Gambler, Hold Your Man, The Drake Case, The Long Long Trail, Senor Americano, Shanghai Lady. So as not to be seen dragging the chain, the studio disguised its involvement in Tarzan the Tiger by marketing it as a production of "Adventure Pictures".
The serial is not even a part-talkie, but it does have sound effects (of a sort, including a muffled "Eee-yah, eee-yah!" Tarzan yell), an enjoyably vigorous music score for the first twelve episodes (a so-so score for the rest), andbest of all!tinted stock throughout its entire length (which gives the lie to that old excuse that tinting was discontinued because it tended to distort the sound track. The real reason, of course, was simply one of expense).
Despite its lack of sound, it's pleasing to report that this serial has actually been produced on an admirably lavish budget that not only does credit to Edgar Rice Burroughs' creativity, but even allows director Henry MacRae to satisfy his delightful penchant for fluid tracking shots through some really vast and well-peopled sets.
With one notable exception, the players, though well versed in melodramatic excesses, are capable enough. Miss Kingston is nice to look at too. The one exception, alas, is Frank Merrill whose "acting" varies from a self-preening, smirkingly over-pleased with himself approach to incredibly amateurish scenery chewing. And disappointingly, although Mr Merrill got his start in movies stunting for Elmo Lincoln in The Adventures of Tarzan (1921), here he very noticeably fails to perform many of his own stunts at the start! A few yards of rope climbing, and that's the lot, until suddenly in Chapter Six he starts prancing around on the back of an elephant!
Also disappointing are the very tame chapter endings, such as a very brief skirmish in long shot between a tame lion and Merrill's double; a fall of dust and obvious papier mache rocks on to Merrill's shoulder; Miss Kingston picked up by an "ape"; a spear (which has no chance of success) aimed at Merrill's heart; and a sudden fade-out just as a promising action scene is about to start.
All the same, the chapters themselves are full of incident and move fast enough. Chapter Five in which Al Ferguson does most of the stunting is especially action-packed. Chapter Six is also notable for a choice slave market scene in director MacRae tracks his camera backwards through an enormous outdoor seta shot which he obviously enjoyed making so much that he repeats it with different players at the beginning of Chapter Seven.
Of the quartet of villains, Kithnou is by far the most effective. She has great presence, and we love her abbreviated costume. It's a shame she disappears from the action for such a long stretch. In fact we have just about given up hope when she suddenly rejoins us (bare navel and all) in a brief flashback in Chapter Eight.
The least interesting of the heavies, Sheldon Lewis, is also the hammiest. He takes advantage of facial close-ups to provide a feast of really melodramatic grimacing, but fortunately he's written out of the action at an early stage. It's left to Al Ferguson to play the incorrigibly bad egg, which he does with a certain amount of flair and even style, until forced to play second fiddle to Clive Morgan.
Chapter Nine is the economy episode with a generous helping of Chapter One to refresh ailing memories of Merrill and Kingston divested of their Tarzan and Jane outfits and actually dressed to the nines. (Merrill's Tarzan get-up is distinctly odd and off-putting).
Chapter Eleven, would you believe, actually has a genuine cliff-hanger finale in which Lady Jane falls into a crocodile-infested river and of course is rescued by Tarzan in Chapter Twelve. Is this the first time Tarzan fights a croc, I wonder? Anyway, Merrill disposes of the rubber giant just as convincingly as Johnny Weismuller.
Twelve has a real cliff-hanger too, but neither that or the croc tussle are its main claim to fame. At this late stage, the fourth villain, played by Clive Morgan, finally makes a belated entrance.
Loss of memory has always been a standard ingredient in movie serials. Usually, however, it's a key subsidiary character who suffers this loss. It's most unusual for the main player to wander through the action for 12 episodes not knowing who he is, let alone revert to a simpleton status. To my mind, this constant display of idiocy, allied with Merrill's atrociously hammy performance, considerably dispels our interest in the hero. Fortunately, part of the slack is taken up by the lovely Natalie Kingston, but all the same
The serial is not even a part-talkie, but it does have sound effects (of a sort, including a muffled "Eee-yah, eee-yah!" Tarzan yell), an enjoyably vigorous music score for the first twelve episodes (a so-so score for the rest), andbest of all!tinted stock throughout its entire length (which gives the lie to that old excuse that tinting was discontinued because it tended to distort the sound track. The real reason, of course, was simply one of expense).
Despite its lack of sound, it's pleasing to report that this serial has actually been produced on an admirably lavish budget that not only does credit to Edgar Rice Burroughs' creativity, but even allows director Henry MacRae to satisfy his delightful penchant for fluid tracking shots through some really vast and well-peopled sets.
With one notable exception, the players, though well versed in melodramatic excesses, are capable enough. Miss Kingston is nice to look at too. The one exception, alas, is Frank Merrill whose "acting" varies from a self-preening, smirkingly over-pleased with himself approach to incredibly amateurish scenery chewing. And disappointingly, although Mr Merrill got his start in movies stunting for Elmo Lincoln in The Adventures of Tarzan (1921), here he very noticeably fails to perform many of his own stunts at the start! A few yards of rope climbing, and that's the lot, until suddenly in Chapter Six he starts prancing around on the back of an elephant!
Also disappointing are the very tame chapter endings, such as a very brief skirmish in long shot between a tame lion and Merrill's double; a fall of dust and obvious papier mache rocks on to Merrill's shoulder; Miss Kingston picked up by an "ape"; a spear (which has no chance of success) aimed at Merrill's heart; and a sudden fade-out just as a promising action scene is about to start.
All the same, the chapters themselves are full of incident and move fast enough. Chapter Five in which Al Ferguson does most of the stunting is especially action-packed. Chapter Six is also notable for a choice slave market scene in director MacRae tracks his camera backwards through an enormous outdoor seta shot which he obviously enjoyed making so much that he repeats it with different players at the beginning of Chapter Seven.
Of the quartet of villains, Kithnou is by far the most effective. She has great presence, and we love her abbreviated costume. It's a shame she disappears from the action for such a long stretch. In fact we have just about given up hope when she suddenly rejoins us (bare navel and all) in a brief flashback in Chapter Eight.
The least interesting of the heavies, Sheldon Lewis, is also the hammiest. He takes advantage of facial close-ups to provide a feast of really melodramatic grimacing, but fortunately he's written out of the action at an early stage. It's left to Al Ferguson to play the incorrigibly bad egg, which he does with a certain amount of flair and even style, until forced to play second fiddle to Clive Morgan.
Chapter Nine is the economy episode with a generous helping of Chapter One to refresh ailing memories of Merrill and Kingston divested of their Tarzan and Jane outfits and actually dressed to the nines. (Merrill's Tarzan get-up is distinctly odd and off-putting).
Chapter Eleven, would you believe, actually has a genuine cliff-hanger finale in which Lady Jane falls into a crocodile-infested river and of course is rescued by Tarzan in Chapter Twelve. Is this the first time Tarzan fights a croc, I wonder? Anyway, Merrill disposes of the rubber giant just as convincingly as Johnny Weismuller.
Twelve has a real cliff-hanger too, but neither that or the croc tussle are its main claim to fame. At this late stage, the fourth villain, played by Clive Morgan, finally makes a belated entrance.
Loss of memory has always been a standard ingredient in movie serials. Usually, however, it's a key subsidiary character who suffers this loss. It's most unusual for the main player to wander through the action for 12 episodes not knowing who he is, let alone revert to a simpleton status. To my mind, this constant display of idiocy, allied with Merrill's atrociously hammy performance, considerably dispels our interest in the hero. Fortunately, part of the slack is taken up by the lovely Natalie Kingston, but all the same
An action-packed serial with a handsome, hunky, articulate Tarzan!
Effie7 October 1998
This is an excellent adaptation of the book, Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar. Frank Merrill's classically handsome features and lithe, muscular body make him a fine Tarzan visually; his vine-swinging and elephant riding are unparalleled in the movies; and the script allows him to be the refined, educated Tarzan of the books, at least intially (until he loses his memory.) This is an exciting serial, full of action and with great sets and scenery. The only question is: why a tiger? But the mistake is a charming one, since it echoes the one ERB himself made in initially putting tigers in Africa himself.
Cast corrections for Tarzan the Tiger
filmnutz2 May 2002
Warning: Spoilers
I would like to set the record straight for two members of the cast of this charming and engaging serial. The part of "Queen La of Opar" was played by Kithnou (aka Mlle. Kithnou) a Hindu actress, and not by Lillian Worth as stated on the video cover and in Buck Rainey's book "Serials and Series: A World Filmography, 1912-1956." As was the custom in many silent films, the title card which announced the first appearance of an important member of the cast included the name of that actor. When you watch this serial you will see that the part of Queen La is played by Kithnou.
And so it is with the character, "Mohammed Bey." Buck Rainey lists Frank Lanning as the actor who portrayed this role. In the actual film however, it is clear that "Bey" was played by the actor Paul Panzer.
Viewers who are used to Johnny Weissmuller and other's loincloth portrayals of Tarzan may be surprised to see all the animal skins that Frank Merrill wears in this role. He looks amusing to say the least. And his interpretation of the famous "Tarzan yell" is more like the drawn out exclamation of a Swiss mountain climber..."Yah! Yah!" I laughed each time he did it. Still, he is stoic and muscular and has an aura of strength about him.
Natalie Kingston, as Jane, is spectacularly sexy and desirable! When I saw her topless swimming scene I re-wound the tape at least three times! In fact, I loved every scene she was in, clothed or not. Not to be missed!
And so it is with the character, "Mohammed Bey." Buck Rainey lists Frank Lanning as the actor who portrayed this role. In the actual film however, it is clear that "Bey" was played by the actor Paul Panzer.
Viewers who are used to Johnny Weissmuller and other's loincloth portrayals of Tarzan may be surprised to see all the animal skins that Frank Merrill wears in this role. He looks amusing to say the least. And his interpretation of the famous "Tarzan yell" is more like the drawn out exclamation of a Swiss mountain climber..."Yah! Yah!" I laughed each time he did it. Still, he is stoic and muscular and has an aura of strength about him.
Natalie Kingston, as Jane, is spectacularly sexy and desirable! When I saw her topless swimming scene I re-wound the tape at least three times! In fact, I loved every scene she was in, clothed or not. Not to be missed!
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