TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN

 

A Tarzan movie?? The main reason for this blog post is that TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN (1949) stars Evelyn Ankers, the lovely Universal scream queen of the 1940s. 

Ankers plays Gloria James, a famous aviatrix who has been presumed dead since she disappeared while flying over Africa 20 years ago. Gloria is still alive--after bailing out of her plane, she stumbled onto a secret valley which contains a village of white-skinned natives who, due to the powers of a nearby fountain of youth, never age. Tarzan (Lex Barker) knows about the valley, and guards its secrets. But Jane (Brenda Joyce) comes upon a newspaper article stating that Gloria's fiancee might beat a murder charge if the aviatrix was alive to give testimony. Tarzan travels to the lost valley, brings Gloria back, and she travels to England to help the man she loves. Gloria's arrival at a local trading post attracts the attention of a couple of nefarious characters (played by Albert Dekker and Charles Drake), who want to know the reason why the woman has not aged. Gloria soon returns, with her now-husband (Alan Napier). Being away from the valley has caused Gloria to return to her natural age, but she wants to go back to the spot with her husband to regain the years they were apart. Tarzan reluctantly takes her to the valley, but the goons from the trading post intervene, causing trouble for everyone. 

I haven't seen a lot of Tarzan films, but the ones I have mostly follow the same basic pattern--a group of white interlopers, greedy for a treasure, or some sort of element, take advantage of Tarzan and Jane's good natures and create havoc in the jungle. TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN uses this pattern, but the subplot involving Gloria James and the lost valley makes it stand out. Actually, the story of the missing aviatrix and the village containing a fountain of youth would have been enough for a whole movie on its own, and it might have been better without all the Tarzan trappings. Gloria James' story is far more interesting than whatever Tarzan and Jane are up to, and the supposed zany antics of Cheeta the chimp just slow the movie down. 

By the time this film was made, the Tarzan series had moved from MGM to RKO, and the entries had more of a lower-budget B picture aspect to them. TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN was Lex Barker's debut as the King of the Jungle (he was the first actor to succeed Johnny Weissmuller in the role). Barker is a decent Tarzan, but he's not all that charismatic. While this was Barker's first time in the series, this was also Brenda Joyce's last outing as Jane, and both Barker and Joyce are unable to make as much of an impression as Evelyn Ankers and the bad guys. 

Ankers gets one of the better roles in her screen career as Gloria James. She gives a fine, understated performance as the lost aviatrix (and the makeup she sports for her natural age is understated and effective as well). She pleads to Tarzan to return her to the hidden valley, but she's not a vain woman desperate to regain her youth--she just wants to be able to finally spend time with the man she loves. Albert Dekker and Charles Drake make a dangerous pair (Dekker even gets a very dramatic close-up during his death scene), and Henry Brandon (who played Scar in THE SEARCHERS) plays an antagonistic native of the lost valley who mistrusts Tarzan. The original movie Tarzan, Elmo Lincoln, has a small cameo. 

Lee Sholem directed TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN, and the story was co-written by Curt Siodmak, who wrote many of the Universal horror films Evelyn Ankers starred in. The film works best when it deals with the lost valley--there are several impressive matte shots as the characters travel to and from there--but the scenes with Tarzan, Jane, and Cheeta are dull. The result is that this is a Tarzan film where the main character is overshadowed by a story that will remind viewers of both Amelia Earhart and Frank Capra's LOST HORIZON.