Tarzan the Fearless

Plot

Tarzan swings through the trees with his chimpanzee Cheetah. When a lion attacks a deer caught in a trap, Tarzan jumps down with his knife, lands on the lion, and kills it after a struggle, then frees the deer. He later rescues Dr. Brooks, an elderly scientist held by followers of Zar, God of the Emerald Fingers, in their lost city. Dr. Brooks's daughter Mary and Bob Hall search for him, guided by treacherous safari leaders Jeff Herbert and Nick Moran.

Tarzan finds Mary swimming and dives in to save her from a Nile crocodile, wrestling the creature. Tarzan and Mary grow fond of each other. Jeff seeks to kill Tarzan for a reward of 10,000 pounds. All are captured by Zar's people and brought before high priest Eltar.

Bob secures their release by giving Eltar a map. Jeff dies in a struggle with Tarzan over a gun; Nick is killed by a lion. Mary and her father choose to remain with Tarzan rather than return to civilization. The film ends with Mary teaching English to Tarzan in a cabin.

Production

Producer Sol Lesser acquired rights to five Tarzan films from Edgar Rice Burroughs after an independent producer went bankrupt and the contract was thought void, but courts upheld it. Lesser announced his Tarzan production weeks into filming of MGM's Tarzan the Ape Man; MGM paid him to delay until their film was released. Tarzan the Fearless was Lesser's first Tarzan production; he never made another serial, moving to features. Burroughs had assured MGM their contract was exclusive, making the rival production an embarrassment, but Lesser and Burroughs later became friends and arranged a five-picture deal.

The serial was described as extremely crude, almost devoid of music, and with poor sound; a score was later taken from old westerns, and minutes passed with silent stock footage of distant animals. The working title was Tarzan the Invincible. Lesser wanted a svelte athlete and was appalled at casting the large ex-football player, believing it would make the film a comedy. Burroughs said it was Pierce's choice and nothing seemed to hurt Tarzan.

Lesser had a comedy script written with Jane in the masculine role but was unhappy with it. He tricked Pierce into giving up the role by offering $5,000 and an MGM screen test, which Pierce accepted; the test was a Shakespearean soliloquy for which he was unsuited, and he never worked for MGM.

Release

Sol Lesser planned an unusual release: the serial was available as a traditional 12-chapter serial or as a 61-minute feature (the first four chapters spliced together) to be followed weekly by the remaining eight chapters, though it was often shown as a stand-alone movie. This feature had no ending, leaving villains at large and Tarzan with the girl unchaperoned. An 85-minute true feature version of the entire serial was edited by Mascot Pictures for exhibition abroad, appearing in the United Kingdom in 1933.

This 85-minute version later became available in the United States via television and 16mm home rental, eventually reaching home video. The serial itself and the first-four-chapter feature are considered lost, though a reconstruction using material from the feature version, intermittent additional footage, stills, and descriptive inter-titles was released on DVD in 2016 by the Serial Squadron website.

Critical reception

In 1933, many theaters played only the 61-minute feature without the following chapters, leading to a confusing experience and poor reviews. William Tray in London's The Nation wrote that the movie versions of Burroughs's Tarzan books reduced the age limit for viewers by three or four years, and that even an intelligent child might find it embarrassing to see Buster Crabbe jumping from tree to tree, caressing synthetic apes, and making hideous noises.