Tarzan’s Fight for Life (1958)

[5]

Gordon Scott continues his reign in the famed loincloth in Tarzan’s Fight for Life. In this chapter of the ongoing series, Tarzan is trying to mediate between an English doctor building a hospital in the jungle and a jealous witch doctor who feels his power is being usurped. A young native chief’s life hangs in the balance and when the witch doctor steals the wrong medicine from the hospital, Tarzan has to stop him from accidentally killing the young chief.

I found this chapter less goofy than most other Tarzan flicks, but the plot is more protracted and doesn’t pay off in any memorable way. Way too much of the movie is spent with the doctors, the natives, and the tedious plotting. What you want to see more of is the interaction between Tarzan, Jane (Eve Brent), the boy Tartu (Rickie Sorensen), and even that scene stealing Cheeta the Chimp. We get to spend maybe ten minutes with this odd, surrogate family and its with them where the movie has its laughs and charm. And if the film’s high points revolve around family bonding, it’s low points revolve around animal antics. As Tarzan, Scott is forced to fight a big rubber snake unconvincingly, and in a peculiar, reportedly impromptu moment, the actor mounts and awkwardly rides a baby giraffe.

With Woody Strode.