Tarzan the Fearless (1933)

Olympic gold medallist Buster Crabbe does his level best to keep this jungle effort moving along, but somehow even his scantily clad, highly toned physique can't stop it from quickly becoming, frankly, dull! A group of Europeans bearing a letter from the estate of "Lord Greystoke" to the effect that there is £10,000 for the person who can prove "Tarzan" (the rightful heir to the "Greystoke" titles and estates) is deceased. Now some of our travellers would be very happy to find him alive, others - less so. That's the scene set for a manhunt, where Crabbe is frequently the quarry. This time, Julie Bishop plays "Jane", to whom our hero takes an immediate shine - and with him frequently coming to her rescue, she sets out find her recently kidnapped father who was out looking for the emerald temple of "Zar". This temple had been efficiently hidden/guarded down the centuries and was now being protected by Mischa Auer and his warriors - determined that nobody was going to pinch the priceless jewels embedded in a statue of their god. On the face of it, it has the ingredients for a decent adventure - but the acting is woeful, frankly. There is precious little chemistry between any of the actors; the action scenes recycle themselves with monotonous regularity and although the animals do liven things up (particularly the lions, with whom our eponymous hero does not have a lingo) it just struggles. Originally a twelve part series, this version condenses much of those into just shy of 90 minutes, but even then it is far, far too long to sustain anything other than a cursory interest. It is based on an original Edge Rice Burroughs story - but just not one of his best...