WITH THIS BEING the second Tarzan romp starring Gordon Scott, the improvement that was evident in the initial Scott feature, TARZAN'S HIDDEN JUNGLE, was continuing to come to fruition. The speech pattern displayed by Mr. Edgar Rice Burroughs' creation was going much more toward that of an educated person and away from the "Me Tarzan, you Jane" routine.PRODUCED BY THE combined forces of America's Sol Lesser and Britain's Solar Productions, this was filmed mostly in the United Kingdom, with some great deal of footage being filmed in Africa. The making of movies was becoming less a regular thing for Mr. Lesser, who would turn over his screen rights to the character to producer, Sy Weintraub.AFTER TAKING OVER the Tarzan series from MGM, Mr. Lesser first used the reigning apeman, Olympic swimmer, Johnny Weismueller, who in turn gave way to Lex Barker and then to Gordon Scott. The pictures were his productions, but they were released by RKO Radio Pictures. Their association lasted up to the first Scott feature and then various other distributors were employed.THIS FEATURE MARKED the return of MGM to the Tarzan stories as the prestigious 'Tiffany Studio' was retained as the films' booker in the U.S.A. Reviving their interest in the Jungle epic, MGM would soon do its own production of TARZAN THE APEMAN (remake,1959) with Denny Miller in the loincloth this tome.THE PHOTOGRAPHY, BOTH in studio and on location, was well integrated into what appeared to be seemless; kudos to the photography guys. All of the animals you'd suspect showed up and to the first time (at least to our recollection), they were all of the species Loxodonta africana or in our vernacular, African Bush Elephant. In just about every prior picture, the Pachyderms were of the Elephas maximus persuasion (Indian Elephant). Some sported "falsies" on screen; those being add-on larger false ears to render heir appearance to look African. THIS PICTURE MARKED the first time that Tarzan was seen in color, a habit that he wouldn't shake for a long time. (Although at least one other movie, the patch quilt TARZAN AND THE TRAPPERS-a combination of 3 episodes from the failed and unsold Tarzan TV series, reverted to B & W. )AS FOR THE story, we have nothing out of the ordinary; just another day at the (Jungle) office. Lost expedition from crashed airplane is saved from hostile natives who are being employed by evil White Hunter/Ivory poacher, Tusker Hawkins (Robert Beatty. Lovely ladies Yolanda Donlan and Betta St. John are present to make an absent Jane potentially jealous. The rest of the featured cast is rounded out by Wilfred Hyde-White, Peter Arne, Nigerian born Orlando Martins and former Orson Welles associate, George Coulouris. Veteran character actor, Don Beddoe, makes an uncredited appearance as a partner in the illicit Ivory trade.WE FOUND THE picture to be a worthwhile Jungle tale and what was most important about a Tarzan movie, it was fun.

Released in 1957, "Tarzan and the Lost Safari" stars Gordon Scott as the ape man who assists five survivors of a plane crash near the Opar tribe, savage Africans known for sacrificing white people. A "great white hunter" enters the picture and seems to want to help the survivors, but Tarzan smells something fishy. This incidentally was the first Tarzan film in color.The plot's great and the movie features many positives. For one, Scott's one of the best actors to play Tarzan and went on to star in a couple of the best Tarzan films, 1959's "Tarzan's Greatest Adventure" and 1960's "Tarzan the Magnificent." The African locations are meshed well with the studio work and the studio sets look great, considering the time period. It's sometimes hard to distinguish between authentic Africa and studio "Africa." There's quite a bit of action, numerous shots of animals and I enjoy the scenes where Tarzan interacts with the wildlife, like the lion (which isn't faked).Unfortunately, there are some bad elements. For instance, the eye-rolling way a vine is always conveniently nearby for Tarzan to easily swing/climb to where he needs to go. Why sure! Then there's this kiddie vibe that's hard to explain, like the producers were trying to appeal to five year-olds, which is strange because there are quite a few adult-oriented elements. What could've been a quality Tarzan flick is sunk for these two reasons.While Scott's interpretation of the ape man is good the writers have him speaking limited English in the manner of Weissmuller, which is in contrast to Burroughs' book version where Tarzan can speak several languages fluently. I can live with this, however, as it's a movie interpretation of the character. This changed with Scott's two last films as the ape man, noted above, where his portrayal was more faithful to Burroughs.The film runs 86 minutes and was shot in the Congo, Africa, as well as Iverson Ranch, CA, and studio sets in England; plus stock African footage.GRADE: C+

Betta St. John is pretty, but she leaves a lot more for the imagination to ponder once she falls into the water.Betta's fiancé is such a stiff, he argues with her and then points out a herd of hippos while he flies everybody into a flock of flamingos causing the plane to ditch in the jungle. Enter Gordon Scott as 'Tarzan' with his cute little monkey companion 'Cheetah'. Native warriors, a cynical adventurist, and several boring passengers of the downed plane go through their paces between Tarzan's action scenes and the next time Betta gets wet.Best line in the movie is when Betta tells off her airplane-obsessed fiancé: "Why don't you get a guided missile, then you could spend your weekends on the moon!".

This film was made in England and it shows. It opens with a plane full of filthy rich snobs flying back to Europe after attending some grandiose wedding. We have the "pleasure" of meeting Diana Penrod, who is unhappily married to the pilot. This miserable, ungrateful wench does nothing but complain about her husband, who has done nothing wrong. Her main complaint is that he ignores her because he's too interested in flying. Oh my, how horrible! The poor little darling has to be married to a millionaire, go to weddings of the elite and royalty, and fly to exotic places. Maybe she should go see a psychiatrist to help her deal with such a terrible and unfair life. I was really hoping that they would feed this jerk to the lions, but she becomes the heroine of the movie! In 1957, this would only happen in Britain. She's too independent and unsupportive of her husband. It's this kind of attitude and mind-set that has led to present day British women being the worst women in the world - completely useless and deluded, stomping around trying to prove they can do anything a man can do, but failing miserably. If British women are so wonderful, then why are there so many British men living in Thailand married to Thai ex-prostitutes? Anyway, some of the good things about this movie: 1) The location footage of African wildlife looks great in color and was probably a real treat for viewers back in the 50's before documentaries became so prevalent. 2) No Jane, so there is no Ozzie & Harriet in the jungle story-line. 3) The native dance scene at the end was awesome! The music sounded like recordings I've heard from Africa, and the costumes were great. 4) A superb ending that features mysterious caves, an isolated and evil village located on the top of an unreachable karst, native dances, white sacrificial victims, and Tarzan playing the bongos! The ending almost makes up for the first hour of the movie (which really wasn't that bad).