Tarzan's Secret Treasure (1941)

I love this movie so much

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is another one of the MGM produced Tarzan films starring Johnny Weissmuller. The film begins with Boy (Johnny Sheffield) discovering gold nuggets while swimming. When Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan) tells him about the things people in the civilized world do with that gold, Boy decides to head to the city to buy something with his new treasure. Unfortunately, the kid is naive and doesn't realize that men will do just about anything for the rocks. So, when he meets up with four men from a scientific expedition, he doesn't realize that two of them will get gold fever and threaten to destroy this jungle family. At the same time, a real fever (plague) strikes. Can these evil men be defeated and goodness reign supreme? While this is a very well-written episode, it also worked well because of the wonderful supporting cast. All four of the white men in the expedition are well-established MGM supporting actors (Reginald Owen, Barry Fitzgerald, Tom Conway and Philip Dorn) and their experience add a bit of class and quality to the film. The only negatives, and I noticed them because I recently watched ALL the MGM Tarzan films, is that several of the scenes (such as the crocodile fightand the vicious way the natives murder the porters) were recycled from earlier films in an effort to save money. Still, it was enjoyable and once again proves that people really can be jerks!

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.

This formulaic fifth outing for Weissmuller and O'Sullivan proves that the series' writers were already starting to struggle for fresh ideas, the film being not much more than a messy hodge-podge of themes and footage lifted from the previous four movies.This time around, Tarzan's idyllic jungle life comes under threat from a pair of greedy scientists, Medford (Tom Conway) and Vandermeer (Philip Dorn), who discover the existence of a rich vein of gold running through the escarpment on which the ape-man lives. Realising the villains' true intentions—to mine the region for its hidden wealth—Tarzan refuses to reveal the exact location of the main seam, but when the bad guys kidnap his woman, Jane (O'Sullivan), and adopted son, Boy (Johnny Sheffield), he has no option but to comply—at least until he gets the upper hand and once again calls his elephant pals for some help.It pains me to say it, because I love Weissmuller's Tarzan movies, but this particular adventure is fairly tiresome: Medford's villainy is patently obvious from the get-go (after all, he does wear a pencil-thin moustache and a slimy smirk on his face); Irish light relief O'Doul (Barry Fitzgerald) is fun, but is easily bested by Cheetah, the real comedian of the series (the hairy beast gets drunk this time and walks on her hands—priceless!); Boy's best friend Tumbo is a lame attempt at trying to add a new character to the franchise; and we get to see Weissmuller wrestle that damn croc yet again!On a more positive note, director Richard Thorpe does achieve a fair amount of tension, especially as Boy crosses a deep ravine on a fallen tree and when Tarzan launches an underwater attack on some nasty natives' canoes, and it's almost impossible not to enjoy Cheetah being catapulted over a gorge with a vine in order to rescue our hero from a precarious ledge.Oh, and that weird bird from Tarzan Escapes makes another appearance; I can't get enough of that guy!

Nasty, great white hunters trick Boy and Jane into helping them steal Tarzan's secret cache of gold. During the getaway, they're captured by the even nastier Gaboni tribe who have some rather unpleasant activities planned for their captives. Tarzan to the rescue with the help of his elephant friends. This is one of my favorite Tarzan movies. Tom Conway is the epitome of debonair sleaziness and Barry Fitzgerald is great as a lovable Irishman who refers to the Ape Man as Mr. Tarzan.