Jungle films sometimes incorporate some noirish sequences, but as they were generally made for the matinée trade, the most often used plot element was mystery. Admittedly, in some movies like Tiger Fangs (1943), this mystery element was easily penetrated by a seven-year-old, even though it seemed to puzzle slow-of-brain Frank Buck and company. Admittedly, a bit of well-staged action helped to distract from the plot's shortcomings. However, aside from its copious use of incredibly ancient (but no doubt, cheap) stock shots, this movie's most notable contribution to audience entertainment lay in the engaging performance by Dan Seymour as an overweight, short-sighted villain. The rest of the players were a waste of time. It was particularly sad to see super-lovely June Duprez (star of Korda's luxurious Thief of Bagdad) forced to stand around in the shade of such pushy "B" regulars as Duncan Renaldo and J. Farrell MacDonald. I would rate the St Clair Vision DVD as no more than a seven out of ten!

Tarzan and the Mermaids (1948) * 1/2 (out of 4) This sorry excuse for an adventure movie marked the twelfth and final film for Johnny Weissmuller in the role of Tarzan. This time out he and Jane (Brenda Joyce) are enjoying life without Boy who is in England studying. This time out Tarzan must save a woman (Linda Christian) who is being "offered" up to a man (George Zucco) pretending to be the God of Aquantania but our Ape Man friend knows he's just a fake and plans on saving the girl and showing the people the truth. RKO decided to shoot this Tarzan in Mexico City and it really shows because the locals are obviously not from Africa and none of the footage looks anything like a jungle. Most of the time it looks as if you're visiting a resort because the water is clear, the skies blue and there's not a single shot of what appears to be anything resembling a jungle. Who knows, perhaps RKO was rewarding their stars by allowing them to shoot in such a pretty location. I do somewhat doubt this because if they were too cheap to hire someone to write a story it's doubtful they were going to do anything useful for the cast. This entire film is so incredibly bad that one can't help but wonder if the screenwriters and director Florey were experimenting with some grass or some extremely harmful alcohol. The story is all over the place and it never makes a bit of sense as characters and their motivations seen to change every few minutes. The screenwriters and production crew couldn't even seem to deliver what the title promises because there's not a single mermaid to be seen and the only time the word is used is by a supporting player who throws the word out when Tarzan catches a (normal) woman at sea. This one word of dialogue seems to have been shot apart from the rest of the movie and just thrown in and I'm guessing it was thrown in after the producers realized that they wasn't a mermaid in the film. Weissmuller, clearly packing on the pounds by this point, sleepwalks through the film as does Joyce who is really wasted. The two of them don't seem interested in anything going on and have zero chemistry together. Zucco was a master at "B" films but sadly he doesn't add anything either as his dialogue will put you to sleep and his character just isn't very interesting. Christian isn't too bad in her part but the screenplay doesn't give her much to do. TARZAN AND THE MERMAIDS would mark the final film in the series and sadly it's the worst of the bunch. I guess this is to be expected because the previous two entries were rather poor and it's clear that everyone involved had given up all hopes for the series.

Johnny Weissmuller knew to get out while the getting was good, but he waited too long by making this stinker. The racism is evident by the total absence of black people in a film supposedly taking place in Africa. Of course, the tipoff comes in the credits when the associate crew is almost entirely Mexicans, and the film made in Mexico. Tarzan doesn't show up until 13 minutes into the 90-minute film. Robert Florey has taken heat from some reviewers for a middling job as director, but the real blame belongs to screenplay writer Carroll Young.There is something to salvage, here,however. Gustav Rojo and John Lorenz had interesting careers, as did Fernando Wagner. Tracking their work on the IMDb database shows they appeared in many Mexican films but also in some U.S. films and TV series. Here's an example of how being bilingual and get you jobs in more than one country. And Linda Christian had to start somewhere. Dmitri Tiomkin must have owed some poker debts to pay off when he did the musical score, or maybe the music was leftovers from Duel in the Sun.When compared to the tightly written plots of Tarzan and the Amazons and other earlier Tarzan films, this one is an embarrassment. And where were the mermaids, anyway?

Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan saga ends here.Weissmuller ended his Tarzan career after twelve motion pictures.Here he lives in the jungle with the sweet Jane (Brenda Joyce) and Cheeta.Boy has left to study in England.And a man named Benji (John Laurenz) brings some singing mail from him.Linda Christian plays a young girl who is being forced to marry an evil pearl trader who poses as the God Balu.But she's in love with Tiko (Gustavo Rojo).So she jumps into the ocean and escapes until Tarzan captures her in his net.Robert Florey's Tarzan and the Mermaids (1948) isn't the most critically acclaimed Tarzan movie but it works for me.It's a lot of fun to watch this character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs getting away from sticky situations.In this movie the sea has a big part.It's a real treat to watch the beautiful and sensual Linda Christian swimming and diving like a mermaid.The movie is full of great underwater action.Take Tarzan battling with a giant octopus, for instance.Some sweaty situations take place on shore, as well.Altogether this is a nice way for Johnny Weissmuller to say farewell to the character, the mighty Tarzan.