Actually, the second Lex Barker outing as Edgar Rice Burroughs' Lord of the Apes should have been called "Tarzan and the Slave Girls" rather than "Tarzan and the Slave Girl." Of course, the action unfolds in darkest Africa and it has a largely incidental quality. Tarzan and Jane are riding an elephant through the jungle with Cheetah following close behind them on a smaller elephant. They enter the land of the Nagasi , natives that Tarzan is friendly with just as some intruders abduct one of the village girls out picking fruit. The villains are the Lionians and they are led by Sengo (Anthony Caruso) and capturing one village maiden is not enough for them so they try to snatch Jane as a prize. Predictably, Tarzan thwarts them. Along the way our heroes discover that the Lionians are afflicted with some deadly disease. Tarzan has to fetch a doctor to save the day. Barker makes a hard charging Tarzan and "Superman and the Mole People" director Lee Sholem likes to show Barker scrambling through the foliage like a linebacker on the prowl. Indeed, Sholem prefers to have Barker run toward the camera and leap over it and uses this set-up on several occasions. Fans of the NBC-TV show "The A-Team" may remember how all kinds of vehicles used to drive over the camera. Well, Sholem constantly has Tarzan jumping over the camera running toward it or leaping over it from a reverse angle. Clocking in at 79 minutes, "Tarzan and the Slave-Girl" follows the Ape man as he plunges into the jungle and follows the Lionians to their stomping grounds. Along the way, Tarzan and company encounter some creepy natives that used poisonous blow darts and disguise themselves like the bush around them. Anthony Caruso is the chief villain and all his efforts are aimed at usurping the High Priest so he can take over. This "Tarzan" outing has future sex-pot Denise Darcel as a native girl who wants to make out with Tarzan. At one point, Darcel tangles with Tarzan's mate Jane (Vanessa Brown in a two-piece outfit) over Tarzan. The feverish action, Barker's straightforward but muscular performance and a solid supporting cast bolsters this predictable fare. Yes, Tarzan belts out his signature yell at the end when he gets trapped in a tomb and he needs an elephant to knock the walls down. Cheetah has a couple of good scenes. One of them has the chimp guzzling liquor while in the second one he is knocking out Lionian guards during the finale.
Review of Tarzan and the Slave Girl
