The New Adventures of Tarzan is a 1935 American film serial in 12 chapters starring Herman Brix. The serial presents a more authentic version of the character than most other film adaptations, with Tarzan as the cultured and well-educated gentleman in the original Edgar Rice Burroughs novels. It was filmed during the same period as the Johnny Weissmuller/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Tarzan films. Film exhibitors had the choice of booking the serial in 12 episodes, the feature film (also called The New Adventures of Tarzan), or the feature film followed by 11 episodes of the serial.

The serial was partly filmed in Guatemala, and Tarzan was played by Herman Brix (known post-war as Bruce Bennett). The final screenplay was credited to Charles F. Royal and, from Episode 6 onward, also Basil Dickey. It was produced by Ashton Dearholt, Bennett Cohen and George W. Stout under the corporate name of “Burroughs-Tarzan Enterprises, Inc.” (which also distributed) and was directed by Edward Kull and Wilbur F. McGaugh.

Plot

The original version of the plot proposed involvement of munitions runners and government agents, focussing more on the super-explosive formula hidden in the idol. This was rewritten during production, but some elements remain, such as the otherwise nonsensical final chapter name "Operator No. 17" and Ula Vale's unexplained periodic use of disguises in the first few chapters. (Ula Vale was originally written as a government agent using "Operator No. 17" as her code name; this plot element was dropped from the revised script, but only after some scenes from the earlier shooting script had been filmed, along with the main title cards.) Sources disagree about Burroughs' involvement with Brix's casting. Some stated that Brix was hand-picked for this serial by Burroughs while others state that it was Dearholt who cast Brix and that Brix only briefly met Burroughs afterwards for a handshake and some photographs. Brix was never paid for his work on this film In reality, "Don Castello" was merely a pseudonym chosen by Dearholt, who had previously starred himself in several silent films of his own making and planned all along to do so here.

MGM's contract with Burroughs was for just two pictures and this had run out with Tarzan and His Mate. Guatemala had no motion picture industry of its own, so everywhere they went the company had to carry tons of equipment brought with them from the States, including an enormous sound truck that was not designed for the winding, dirt mountain highways which made up most of the country's transit infrastructure. and had major stations at Puerto San José, Guatemala City and Puerto Barrios, which allowed the crew to transport their equipment easily to these locations. The only difficult locations to reach were Chichicastenango and Tikal, since there were no IRCA services available to those places, although there was airline service to Peten available.

200px|thumb|[[San Francisco Church (Antigua Guatemala)|San Francisco church ruins in 1875; the Green Goddess temple scenes were filmed at this location in 1935. Photograph by Eadweard Muybridge.]]

The places where the filming took place were:

  • Chichicastenango: scenes of a native town where the explorers first met.
  • Antigua Guatemala: The Green Goddess temple in the abandoned Spanish city, filmed at the ruins of San Francisco Church.
  • Livingston: scenes where explorers prepare to go into the jungle
  • Puerto Barrios: arrival and departure of the boats carrying the explorers
  • Tikal: jungle scenes
  • Quiriguá: Mayan city where they get lectured on the Maya civilization
  • Guatemala City: then-luxurious Palace Hotel was used to shoot the scenes of the hotel in the imaginary town of At Mantique

Problems

While in Guatemala in 1933 troubleshooting for RKO, Ashton Dearholt met and fell in love with a young swimmer whom he hired as the serial's lead actress. She was named Florence Watson, but he rechristened her Ula Holt. He brought her back to Los Angeles with him and installed her in the Dearholt household. Dearholt's wife, Florence Gilbert, left with their two children and eventually filed for divorce shortly before the expedition's departure. While filming, Edgar Rice Burroughs divorced his wife Emma Hulbert and married Florence Gilbert, 30 years his junior, on 4 April 1935, after which they escaped to Hawaii for their honeymoon. He would write in his personal diary that he had fallen in love with Florence when she accompanied Dearholt to his first meeting with Burroughs in 1929.

Burroughs decided that he needed immediate money and that Burroughs-Tarzan Enterprises was not going to make it for him after all. He reoptioned MGM's contract for a third Weissmuller film and approved the sale of three of Sol Lesser's remaining four options to MGM, who agreed to make a large "authorisation payment" to Burroughs. (Sol Lesser had acquired options for five Tarzan productions from a defunct company, the first of which he used to make Tarzan the Fearless in direct competition with MGM's films.) MGM paid Lesser $500,000 for his options and paid Burroughs $25–50,000 per film. In the ape language used in the Burroughs' Tarzan novels, "Tarmangani" means "Great White Ape". MGM's Johnny Weissmuller films, featuring the now standard yell, had been in production for some time when this serial was created, starting with Tarzan the Ape Man (1932).The original version of the plot involved munitions runners and government agents, focussing more on the super-explosive formula hidden in the idol. This was rewritten during production, but some elements remain, such as the otherwise nonsensical final chapter name "Operator No. 17" (Ula Vale was originally written as a government agent using "Operator No. 17" as her code name, but this entire plot line was dropped from the final script).

Chapter titles

  1. The New Adventures of Tarzan
  2. Crossed Trails
  3. The Devil's Noose
  4. River Perils
  5. Unseen Hands
  6. Fatal Fangs
  7. Flaming Waters
  8. Angry Gods
  9. Doom's Brink
  10. Secret Signals
  11. Death's Fireworks
  12. Operator No. 17 -- Re-Cap Chapter

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See also

  • List of film serials
  • List of film serials by studio
  • List of films in the public domain in the United States

References

Most of these references emanate from the Tarzan film and serials fan communities and are largely based on pressbook material, each other, and, less often, viewings of one or both of the Fancey-edited feature versions of serial, without also viewing the serial itself, and should be taken as of questionable reliability in re this title

  • The New Adventures of Tarzan at the TCM Movie Database
  • ERBZine #0584: New Adventures of Tarzan

Downloads and online viewing

  • The complete film serial at Google Video