Once this arc concludes, writers Basil Dickey and George Plympton (and their “supervisor,” Wiliam Lord Wright) fall back on the myriad machinations of Jeff–his designs on Mary, his attempts to kill Tarzan, and his theft of one of the emeralds of Zar–to keep the plot wheels spinning for another eight chapters, supplemented by the attacks of the forces of Zar.Ībove: Buster Crabbe arrives to rescue (left to right, center picture) E. Again like Chandu, Fearless was designed to be easily editable into a feature film thus, the first four episodes essentially follow the same story arc as the successful MGM feature Tarzan the Ape Man, which Lesser was obviously determined to imitate: an expedition enters Tarzan’s territory, Tarzan falls in love with a girl on the expedition, and ultimately saves the lives of the expedition members. Thus Fearless, like Lesser’s second serial, The Return of Chandu, doesn’t look or feel like a independent chapterplay its editing, camera work, and action scenes are all comparable to those of contemporary Mascot and Universal serials. Tarzan the Fearless was the first of two serials turned out by Sol Lesser, a theater-chain owner and independent producer who often made B-films for distribution by the bigger studios, and who didn’t work on the shoestring budgets of other 1930s independent serial producers like Harry Webb, Sam Katzman, or the Weiss family. The resulting concoction makes for somewhat jarring and choppy viewing (a terrible new drum-themed soundtrack in the gap portions didn’t help matters), but Stedman’s reconstruction is very worthwhile for the serial historian, since it provides a better look at the cliffhanger endings and overall story structure of Tarzan the Fearless than the feature version ever did. In 2016, Eric Stedman of the Serial Squadron edited these fragments into an ersatz “restored” DVD version of the serial, using a copy of the serial’s original script to order the scenes correctly he filled in a few narrative gaps with stills, but over half of his recreated episodes still ran significantly shorter than the originals. For many years, the only footage surviving from the serial was an 85-minute British feature film consisting mostly of footage from the first four episodes and the last two more recently, an incomplete portion of Chapter Nine surfaced as well. In most reviews, I leave comments on the state of extant prints for a footnote, but Tarzan the Fearless, like Clancy of the Mounted, is so incomplete that its condition needs to be noted at the start of the review. However, Mary soon acquires another admirer in the person of Tarzan, who continually protects the girl from jungle dangers.Ībove: Tarzan swings through the trees of his jungle realm (Sherwood Forest is the actual location). The expedition is also threatened from within by its self-seeking guide Jeff Herbert (Philo McCullough), who wants (a) the prized emeralds of Zar, (b) a reward placed on Tarzan by the representatives of the Greystroke estate, and (c) Mary herself. His daughter Mary (Jacqueline Wells) and her fiance Bob Hall (Edward Woods) lead an expedition in search of him, encounter the mighty ape man Tarzan (Buster Crabbe), and incur the wrath of the reclusive and hostile surviving denizens of Zar. Alyn Warren) is lost in the African jungle while searching for remnants of the ancient quasi-Egyptian civilization of Zar. Alyn Warren, Matthew Betz, Mischa Auer.Īrchaeologist Dr. Starring Larry “Buster” Crabbe, Jacqueline Wells, Edward Woods, Philo McCullough, E. Principal, 12 Chapters (only partially surviving), 1933. The Files of Jerry Blake Movie Serial Reviews and Other Cliffhanging Material
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