Tarzan Goes to India (1962)

How sad is this?

Best movie ever!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The ape lord of darkest Africa gets a change of setting in this globe-trotting adventure yarn. The opening shot sees him literally dumped out of a bi-plane into a lake in India, but from then on the jungle antics are much the same as in previous Tarzan movies, as he battles evil developers and fights the odds by himself. Taking over the role from Gordon Scott (who had relocated to Italy to make a series of sweaty peplum epics by this time) is the lean and lithe Jock Mahoney (who incidentally had played the chief villain in Scott's previous outing, TARZAN THE MAGNIFICENT), who, whilst pretty forgettable as screen Tarzans go, proves himself mildly worthwhile in both the acting and action stakes - but he's no Gordon Scott, because he just lacks the muscle and doesn't play to the camera in the same way.The Indian locations are put to good use, and the movie is well-filmed and always colourful to watch. The film is aimed at youngsters with short attention spans which is why there is a wealth of easy action, including attacks by "rogue" elephants which are filmed in such a way that they resemble attacks by Godzilla or any other large monster, with screaming villagers fleeing for their lives and lots of destructive power. One scene, in which Tarzan dodges bullets from the enemy in a quarry, puts the boundaries of credibility to the edge (I can't believe the bad guys manage to hit both sides of the ground around Tarzan but not actually touch the guy himself) but its all clean fun. Tarzan also gets up to his old tricks by dodging deadly snakes and battling a ravenous leopard. Keep an eye out for the mondo-style sequences in which a ferret (?) ferociously fights a snake and two elephants battle it out, for real. No need to say which film genre those scenes remind me of.Aside from Mark Dana, and Leo Gordon's dastardly evil turn as the villainous Bryce, the cast is mostly taken up by Indian actors and actresses who acquit themselves well with their roles - especially the singularly-named Simi's turn as Princess Kamara; quite charming. Unfortunately there's a sickeningly cute child actor called Jai around who rides elephants and is required to be rescued and looked after by Tarzan - not only does he drag the pace of the film down every time he appears, but he's really obnoxious too and should have been written out. Also, the sequence in which Tarzan and Bryce fight it out should appear at the end of the film, as its played as the climax, but instead there are another twenty minutes involving a march of elephants which, despite being visually impressive, just aren't really all that interesting. And try and avoid the sentimental ending unless you have a bucket to hand.According to Pete Tombs' excellent Mondo Macabro book, Tarzan Goes to India inspired a number of low-budget Indian adventure films such as TARZAN AND HERCULES and TARZAN AND KING KONG. I can't help but wonder if these cheap quickies might in fact be more entertaining than the rather predictable and simplistic film which helped inspire them.

Poor Jock Mahoney gets saddled with "Jai the Elephant Boy" in this snorefest. Worse even is that this is the follow up to one of the best Tarzan's, "Tarzan the Magnificent". No spoiler here, one look at the cast list tells you that Leo Gordon is the main bad guy. Dumb Jock, looking all of about 130 pounds, after picking off one baddie with his bow and arrow, inexplicably drops his bow and sneaks up another armed baddie he easily could have skewered with an arrow. I suppose his reasoning was to trade this baddie for the captured Jai. But even the elephant knew Leo would blow this guy away to get to Tarzan. Leo gets dispatched an hour in and what follows is a herd of elephants going left to right... right to left ... left to right ... you get the picture. Worth watching once if you are a Tarzan fan but don't let this be the first one you watch!

Might as well been titled "Tarzan Goes To Indiana", and it would have been just as believable. A good example of what Hollywood producers can do to a good concept. By this time they had ridden this horse into the ground and kicked the crap out of it. Naked Tarzan in a biplane with aviator goggles and cap? The first scene turned me off completely.Take Tarzan out of darkest Africa and he's no longer Tarzan(with the exception of Weismuller's "Tarzan Goes To New York"- at least he put some clothes on for that one).Throw some khakis and a pith helmet on Jock Mahoney and call him Jungle Jim, for Pete's sake!The post- Weismuller Tarzans were just a little too sophisticated for me.They lost some of the charm and mystery of the "ape-man". Don't bother with this one if you're a traditional Tarzanist.

Jock Mahoney's first outing as Burroughs' Tarzan makes for a nice, enjoyable movie. Though like many sixties adventures it is aimed at a younger crowd, accounting for a rather irritating kid sidekick, it is much truer in tone to Burroughs' work than most of what preceded it. Mahoney is a good Tarzan, portraying him as intelligent and articulate as the written version, although a bit to mellow. This is not the savage Tarzan of the books. The Indian scenery is wonderful, the story, while fairly simple, is well done, and most of the acting is good for it's genre and time. The elephant roundup is spectacular. All in all, one of the better Tarzan movies of those i've seen so far.