Friday, February 26, 2016

Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (1966)

First of the Mike Henry Tarzan's has him acting more as a man of action on the order of James Bond than a jungle man.

The film opens with Tarzan's arrival in Mexico. He's been brought into protect a boy who knows the location to a city made of gold. The boy is wanted by a crazed millionaire who sends his enemies booby trapped watches and kills them with wild gadgets. Tarzan heads off into the jungle with only a leopard, lion and chimpanzee to help him.

This is an entertaining film, but you can feel the series starting to break down. Mike Henry proves to be a kick ass Tarzan, and makes you regret he got type cast by his role as Jackie Gleeson's son in the SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT films, but at the same time he can't sell this new superhero ape man. The real problem here is the script which is more TV spy show than Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Having seen all of the Mike Henry films its kind of sad that he didn't become a bigger action star. His physical presence is commanding and he has an great ease with action sequences. The problem with his Tarzan stint was I don't think the producers knew what to do with the character in a changing world. This is easily the best of the three films Henry appeared in and the one must see,if not for an okay adventure then to reclaim Henry's standing in your mind as something other than being the son of Sheriff Buford T Justice.

No comments:

Post a Comment