Tarzan and the Golden Lion

UP UNIL A FEW hours ago, we had not seen anything of this movie, except for some still photos that appeared in various periodicals and movie oriented books. And, although we had purchased a new DVD of it some 2 or 2 years ago, it has been sitting on our "to do" viewing back-burner ever since.

WE MUST ADMIT that we entered into this viewing session with some negative, preconceived notions about the film. It should not have been that way; for we weren't brought up that way and were taught not to "judge a book by its cover."

WELL IT WAS about an hour later that we emerged from our private screening room following an epiphany of sorts. Seeing is still, after all, believing; and what we saw is a highly underrated and unfairly panned TARZAN entry. When all is said and done in this world and the films of the great Ape-man of Edgar Rice Burroughs' fertile mind and prolific pen, TARZAN AND THE GOLDEN LION will get its proper due.

WHAT WE FOUND was a concise, tightly constructed adventure film story. In its opening sequence, all of the familiar Tarzan elements and characters are quickly established and paraded before the camera's lens. Tarzan is in the Jungle with his pet Lion (Duh! The title!) and climbing on and swinging from vines in the trees. Lady Greystoke (Jane Porter) is introduced as is her sister-in-law, Tarz's sister; so naturally we also meet one Jack Bradley, Lord Greystoke's partner in adventuring in Jungles and love interest for the sister.

WE NEXT ENCOUNTER a band of riff-raff cast off renegade marauders; who are hell bent on plundering the Greystoke's considerable holdings at the family digs, the plantation. The gang of sub equatorial Jungle thugs are truly a democratic crew; drawing their membership from a great cross section of humanity, be they whites, blacks or what have you.

THIS THE OBVIOUS enemy of Tarzan has break away hostile warriors from the local tribe; including the traitorous Chieftain, portrayed by a virtual unknown of an actor, one William Henry Pratt (better known as Boris Karloff). The head honcho is named Esteban Miranda. Do you think he could be a Spaniard?

ALL THIS PLOT needs is another, much more hostile tribe to counterbalance the friendly, peaceful local tribesman; who are happy and willing allies of Tarzan. And well, magically we have this mountain people tribe; who are ignorant, superstitious and are ruled by highly unscrupulous and extremely exploitative white thugs.

JUST FOR GOOD measure, we have the additional element of having these mountain people's sitting on a diamond mine of the highest order.

FOR ANYONE WHO was brought up on the MGM/RKO TARZAN Pictures done in the mode of Johnny Weissmueller's monosyllabic dialog (and that's a "Lion's Share" of our readership) will find this a trifle un-Tarzanlike. But, in many respects it is much closer to the stories of ERB and serves us well in broadening our perception of what a Tarzan story could be.

IN WHAT CAN only be described as a no-name cast today, we have James Pierce (mentioned above) supported by: Dorothy Dunbar (Lady Greystoke, Jane), Frederick Peters (Miranda), Edna Murphy (Betty Greystoke, Tarz's sister), Harold Goodwin (Jack), the previously mentioned Boris Karloff and others.

THE PORTRAYAL OF the Lord of the Jungle by Mr. Pierce is really quite credible. His climbing and swinging stunts are done well; even though some more difficult were doubtless augmented with the benefit of professional stunt-men. The greatest drawback to Jim Pierce's portrayal is neither his acting nor his considerable physical presence. It is that Fred Flintstone-style Caveman costume. Instead of the loincloth style that was used over the years, the "animal hide" covers half of the chest in a singlet over his left shoulder.

PERHAPS THE MOST surprising aspect of the movie's cast membership is the absence of any pachyderms. Elephants and lots of them are an absolute essential to a Tarzan picture and as indispensable as a box of popcorn.

NOTE: * James Pierce's experience as TARZAN proved to be a proverbial mixed bag of an experience. On one hand, its lukewarm reception did little for his acting career, with the role of Prince Thun of the Lion Men in the FLASH GORDON Serial (Universal, 1936). But on the other hand, he did meet and marry the Boss' daughter, Joan Burroughs on the movie set. The pair did the voices for Jane and Tarzan on the syndicated TARZAN Radio Show.

I found this to be the most disappointing of the silent-era films (though the lost Gene Polar opus, "The Revenge of Tarzan," was supposedly worse). Despite Edgar Rice Burroughs' enthusiasm for the casting of James Pierce, he really does not make a good Ape-Man, and seems more at ease in the "dinner jacket" scenes set at Lord Greystoke's African estate. Pierce would have been better served should he have chosen to stay with the film "Wings" (the first -- 1927 -- Academy Award winner for Best Film) instead of opting for this rather dodgy entry into the Tarzan series. To give Pierce credit, this future Burroughs son-in-law did make a fine radio Tarzan, and was a capable supporting actor in B-productions (Flash Gordon, a few low-budget westerns, etc.). Far more important, as a pilot, he was one of the founding members of what would become the Air National Guard.

Overall, a few good action sequences scattered here and there, some nice set designs, but little else to recommend it. Except, perhaps, for the presence of Boris Karloff in one of his early roles, hamming it up as a villainous African Chieftain. Only in Hollywood!

The only known print is titled in French (reportedly unearthed in the closet of an insane asylum!), and clocks in at about 57 minutes in length.

Oh, by the way, when Pierce, with little notice, dropped out of "Wings," the producers of that film were forced to hurriedly recast his role. They settled on a gangly young lad named Gary Cooper.

This early "Tarzan" film was considered a goner until a copy was discovered in France, in the 1990s. From then, it seems to have had a minimal "restoration" of English subtitles. Presently, it's readily availably, but has been treated shabbily. One DVD issue credits a new musical soundtrack, but runs the film as a literal silent. Released in 1927, "Tarzan and the Golden Lion" was a late period "silent" film which likely had a synchronized effects soundtrack. Silent film may have been wordless, but they were never silent.

This one's plot was based on an actual Edgar Rice Burroughs story, and seemed to be one of several films to have had Mr. Burroughs' involvement, on some level. In this case, Mr. Burroughs approved the casting of James Pierce (as Tarzan). Mr. Pierce married Burroughs' daughter, and turned down the Gary Cooper role in "Wings" (1927) for this role - before casting aspersions, realize the role in "Wings" was, at the time, extremely minor. Unfortunately, Pierce was overly made-up, and made to wear a costume which looked better covering up the weighty Elmo Lincoln, who previously played "Tarzan of the Apes" (1918).

The plot should be familiar to jungle watchers, but this "Tarzan" might be unfamiliar to viewers of the later Johnny Weissmuller films released by MGM (and others). Herein, Pierce (as Lord Greystoke) has begun his life as a English nobleman, and made Dorothy Dunbar (as Lady "Jane" Greystoke) the mistress of his woody estate - but, he returns to the swinging jungle life. "The Golden Lion" of the title is Pierce's loyal feline companion, which gives the film an edginess not present in others. The production values are fairly high, too, for this sort of thing. Watch out for a face-painted Boris Karloff as the main nasty native African man.

***** Tarzan and the Golden Lion (3/20/27) J.P. McGowan ~ James Pierce, Edna Murphy, Harold Goodwin, Boris Karloff

Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1927)

*** (out of 4)

Tarzan (James Pierce) and his lion must fight off strangers to the jungle who are searching for diamonds. The stakes are raised when they kidnap his sister(?!). This is a pretty good silent version that never takes itself too seriously. The film only runs 57 minutes and thankfully each minute is full of action and other things to that nature. Pierce is good in the title role and the supporting cast, including Boris Karloff, are good as well. It's interesting to note that Pierce was engaged to Edgar Rice Burrough's daughter at the time this was being made. Burrough's convinced Pierce to turn down the Gary Cooper role in Wings to do this film. You gotta wonder what the two men talked about after Wings went on to do everything it did.

I agree that this is a rather bland film but for the person who wants to "see 'em all" this is necessary. It was the only Burroughs film that I did not own. I loved it because I knew Pierce and his wife who was Joan Burroughs, ERB's daughter. Burroughs picked Pierce to be Tarzan. Scenery is fine and action is limited to running toward the camera. If you are under 60 and don't care about "just a Tarzan film" you can forget it but for me it was a dream come true that I never thought I'd see. Silent so you can add your own Tarzan yell. That is a chance for self-expression.