Tarzan holds a gypsy-themed party at his Greystoke estate after returning from an expedition. He gets an old Gypsy fortune teller to narrate the story of his latest adventure. Along with Major Martling, Tarzan tried to retrieve the Green Goddess, an ancient Mayan relic that is being used as an idol by a small clan of worshippers in the Dead City in Guatemala. An unscrupulous explorer has stolen the statue in the hope that he can use an ancient secret formula hidden in it to manufacture a super-explosive that has the potential to change warfare forever. Tarzan & his companions get into various situations in order to stop the formula from getting into the wrong hands.Tarzan and the Green Goddess was a feature-length (at only 72 minutes long) reedit of some episodes of the old serial The New Adventures of Tarzan. It featured a good performance by Bruce Bennett, who plays Tarzan in a rather unique fashion – this is the only time on film that you see a Tarzan who speaks English articulately & appears to be well-educated (although his Tarzan yell sounds like a stoned coyote). As far as the rest of the feature is concerned, the original serial was far better. It omits the spectacular theft of the idol & instead has plenty of cheap theatrics & cheaper action scenes. Although the scene where Tarzan faces off with a lion was slightly exciting, the rest of the film was one-dimensional & the idea of the hero going to all the trouble to obtain the secret formula only to have his female companion burn it in the end was kind of stupid. The worst aspect was the villain, played by Ashton Dearholt, who made a pathetic & often-put-upon villain.

It's a trial to sit through this travesty. First, Bruce Bennett is not Tarzan. Johnny Weissmuller is Tarzan. True, Bruce Bennett, like Wiessmuller, was an Olympic Champion, but Bennett is merely bland and well spoken, while Weismuller is majestically stupid and has poetry. This takes place deep in the jungles of Guatamala, so deep that the hand of man has never set foot there, and which some will be surprised to find teeming with African animals like giraffes. The country is primitive. The natives of Guatamala worship a stone idol that is sought by rival teams of explorers. Why? Because hidden inside the idol is an ancient Mayan recipe for a salad dressing which was dreamed up by a chef in San Francisco's Palace Hotel in 1923. Spoiler Alert:1 avocado, peeled and pitted; 1 cup mayonnaise; 5 anchovy fillets, rinsed and chopped; 2 tablespoons chopped green onion1 tablespoon lemon juice; 1 clove garlic, chopped; salt and pepper to tasteIn a blender combine the avocado, mayonnaise, anchovies, green onion, lemon juice, garlic, and salt and pepper. Process until smooth, then chill for 24 hours before servingThe first words out of this well-groomed Tarzan's mouth are: "Good-bye, old man.""Tarzan and his band of intrepid followers" must get this secret recipe back to Livingston, whom I thought long dead, before an "unscrupulous band of crooks" can get their hands on it and become "a menace to the whole world."I frankly don't know whether they made it not. I got so hungry that I shut the movie off and made a chef's salad. But, looking at the shape the world is in today, threatened from all sides, my bet is that they didn't get to Livingston and that the formula fell into those unscrupulous hands.

Talk about recycling! As a Zorro fanatic, I have watched a couple of the old serials that used to show in movie theaters. You had to come back every Saturday to see the next part of the story. The original 12-part serial, The New Adventures of Tarzan, was re-edited into two movies, this being one of them.The most interesting thing about this movie is the star, Bruce Bennett, or as he was known then, Herman Brix. Brix was given this role after losing out on a previous film, Tarzan the Ape Man, which cast an unknown BVD underwear model, Johnny Weissmuller. A shoulder injury prevented Brix from getting this role. The rest is, as they say, history. Weissmuller went on to be the greatest Tarzan of all time, and Brix had to eventually drop out of acting, take acting lessons and change his name before returning.

This is the kind of movie I usually delight in making fun of, but I'll hold back a bit in deference to one of my three childhood fictional heroes (the others - Superman and The Lone Ranger). I'm sure the film makers tried hard to put together a serious picture, but the result was somewhat dubious. The best I can say is that it's better than ANY of the Jungle Jim adventures made over a decade later, but certainly below the standard of the Johnny Weissmuller 'Tarzan' films, though I haven't seen one of those recently. I also have to add that I've just learned, after the fact, that this was cobbled together from an earlier serialized version, which would explain a serious jump cut where Tarzan escapes from an unconscious state, tied to a tree in the jungle, only to find himself about to be accosted by an alligator (or crocodile, I can always go back to check for sure).You know, you'd think Tarzan would get it after the first two times he got that part of his anatomy under the loin cloth kicked, but no, he does it again at Mantique, jumping into a crowd of villains in an attempt to secure the 'green goddess'. No credit for learning by your mistakes. And by the way, what kind of Tarzan yell was that? Chalk another one up for Weissmuller.The version of the film I just watched was part of a one hundred! movie DVD compilation from Mill Creek Entertainment, that must have taken seriously some of the other reviewer comments on this board, because I didn't see any African animals like giraffes or rhinos. Not that they were missed, but I was certainly expecting wildlife that didn't honor geographic integrity, common for the era. But wait, there was that lion in the Dead City that should have made mincemeat out of the jungle hero, but guess what? - not a scratch on him!And let's not allow Major Martling (Frank Baker) off the hook so easily either. Why did he commission that 'mysterious ship' at Mantique to make the getaway with the idol? It was pretty much confirmed by all concerned that the lone vessel appeared about the time bad guy Raglan (Ashton Dearholt/Don Castello) arrived in Mantique.Oh well, I tried. I'm still wondering why the warning about the combination of characters relating to the explosives code was written in English. But as for Herman Brix who portrayed Tarzan - quite the superb physique, perhaps the most natural build of any of the movie Tarzans. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the heroine, Una Vale (Una Holt), who kept me guessing with all those costume changes - well done!