Sat 4 Jul 2015
A Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: TARZAN’S MAGIC FOUNTAIN (1949).
Posted by Steve under Action Adventure movies , Reviews[3] Comments
TARZAN’S MAGIC FOUNTAIN. RKO Radio Pictures, 1949. Lex Barker, Brenda Joyce, Albert Dekker, Evelyn Ankers, Charles Drake, Alan Napier. Based upon the characters created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Director: Lee Sholem.
While I doubt that many people would consider Tarzan’s Magic Fountain to be their favorite Tarzan movie, that doesn’t mean that it’s not perfectly adequate cinematic escapism.
Directed by Lee Sholem, the movie was Lex Barker’s first appearance as the eponymous title character. As for Brenda Joyce, this would be here final appearance as Jane, having portraying Tarzan’s love interest in four movies with Johnny Weissmuller.
Tarzan’s Magic Fountain is also notable for featuring Evelyn Ankers, best known for her work in 1940s-era horror films. Ankers portrays Gloria James Jessup, an aviatrix whose plane crashed in the jungle decades before.
For years, Jessup had been living with a secretive tribe who control access to – you guessed it! – a secret fountain with restorative powers. As in, fountain of youth powers that make her look a lot younger than fifty. But when scheming criminals get word of the fountain’s existence and when some tribesmen decide they don’t like Tarzan mucking around, there’s conflict and when there’s conflict, there’s adventure to be had. It’s predictable, but it’s not bad.
July 4th, 2015 at 10:11 pm
While getting Jon’s review ready to post, I was surprised to discover that Lex Barker made only five Tarzan movies — can that be right? Here they are, according to IMDb:
Tarzan’s Magic Fountain (1949)
Tarzan and the Slave Girl (1950)
Tarzan’s Peril (1951)
Tarzan’s Savage Fury (1952)
Tarzan and the She-Devil (1953)
The reason I’m questioning this is that when I was a kid, there was always a Tarzan movie playing, and Lex Barker was in it. Or so it seemed to me.
July 5th, 2015 at 12:45 am
Maybe it seems like more because he was on the cover of so many Tarzan comics from Dell. Five seems a small number to me too, heck Gordon Scott did four and Mike Henry three, but maybe it was the endless reruns.
This one is adequate as Barker Tarzans go with the Ankers plot better than the usual jungle shenanigans and a good cast.
I know that seems too few films, but Scott picked up the role around 1956 when Weintraub got the rights, so that is most likely right.
Doesn’t sound right though does it.
Barker, who spoke eleven languages and was actually quite intelligent was never overly happy with the part, but while he did some entertaining roles in other films truth is he had all the screen presence of a rock much of the time though he seemed much happier in Germany playing Old Shatterhand and Kara Ben Nemsi in Karl May films or in Euro Spy and Dr. Mabuse films than anything he did in Hollywood.
July 5th, 2015 at 9:59 am
According to Gabe Essoe’s Book “Tarzan of the Movies,” Barker made five Tarzan films. My guess is that the “endless reruns” made it seem like more.