Silly, but enjoyable Tarzan outing involves the well cast Tom Conway as a great white hunter tricking Tarzan, Jane, and Boy (Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O'Sullivan, and Johnny Sheffield) into helping him find some hidden gold. The group, as usual, runs afoul angry natives, and Tarzan has to rescue all of the white people from the racist native stereotypes. Racist stereotypes of native people never come off well to modern eyes, but besides that ugliness, this remains an entertaining Tarzan adventure, particularly when you have George Sander's real-life sound-alike brother as one of the villains.

Curly-haired Johnny Sheffield (as Boy) and chimp "Cheeta" are the main attractions in this fifth MGM "Tarzan" adventure. Beautiful jungle mate Maureen O'Sullivan (as Jane), who wanted to leave the film series after "Tarzan Finds a Son!" (1939), still tends the tree-house. The plot gets going when a swimming Sheffield finds gold in the jungle king's pool. Greedy white people and spear-chucking natives threaten young Sheffield, bringing Johnny Weissmuller (as Tarzan) into action. Whisky-soaked Barry Fitzgerald (as O'Doul) swings ahead of the guest stars. Watch "Cheeta" get drunk on Mr. Fitzgerald's Irish blend. Yes, a drunken monkey can walk a straight line on his hands. This one's nicely photographed, but obviously heavy on borrowed plots, reaction shots and stock footage.***** Tarzan's Secret Treasure (12/1/41) Richard Thorpe ~ Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O'Sullivan, Johnny Sheffield, Barry Fitzgerald

Fifth of the Johnny Weissmuller/ Maureen O'Sullivan Tarzans is a good if much too formulaic adventure. The plot has Boy discovering gold in a river. Tarzan and Jane of course don't need it but when a group of explorers come through on their way to a plague site their greed is brought out and all sorts of nastiness occurs. For me this film is a mixed bag with much of the first half repeating variations on things that have happened in the previous films (jungle romp, torture by natives, etc), though this time with Boy and Cheetah instead of Tarzan and Jane. The film perks up once the explorers come in and the villainous ones, led by the ever wonderful Tom Conway, begin to try and do away with everyone. The climatic battle on the river is high light to the film, though it weakly trots out the alligator fight that has been in least two other films in the series. A good film thats very middle of the pack as Tarzan films go. Worth a look on cable or with a second feature.

I love the old Johnny Weissmuller/MGM "Tarzan" movies of the 1930s and 40s. I have them all six of them on laserdisc from the 1990s, but I have to wonder in what form they will arrive on DVD -- if ever? Watching "Tarzan's Secret Treasure" (1941) today I was amazed to hear for the first time, after many viewings, Barry Fitzgerald's O'Doul character refer to a little black native boy as a "pickaninny." In the earlier Tarzan movies the blacks are constantly called "boy" and other derogatory terms and often casually shot by white men for disobeying orders. I'm not sure, but I think there may be a problem with this being released on DVD today, but my point is that I DON'T want to see these films edited in any way. They're time capsules of entertainment from an earlier era, and they should be preserved.