Tarzan's Magic Fountain (1949)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Tarzan's Magic Fountain which introduced Lex Barker to the role of Tarzan and marked Brenda Joyce's farewell performance as Jane was hardly a change from some of what the RKO Studio was doing with the franchise when Johnny Weissmuller was swinging on the vines at RKO. Tarzan's keeping secrets again even from Jane about yet another civilization lost in the jungle. This one has a fountain of youth in it and we now learn that Ponce DeLeon was looking on an entirely wrong continent for same.But the secret spills when Cheta brings in evidence of famed aviatrix Evelyn Ankers who like Amelia Earhart disappeared during a round the world flight over Africa. As it turns out she parachuted into the jungle and these people took her in and kept her forever young.Now however she has to go out and give evidence that will save her beloved who in her absence was convicted of murder and has been in prison all these years. When she leaves the Blue Valley with that mystical and magical Fountain Of Youth she reverts to her proper age in appearance, but she and now husband Alan Napier return to Africa to live with the people who took her in.The problem is that a couple of bottom feeders played by Charles Drake and Albert Dekker want to tag along and exploit the youth water. But as it does in Tarzan films, Tarzan and the jungle elements take care of the bad guys.When the series was originally with MGM it tried not always successfully to stay within the Edgar Rice Burroughs parameters of the character. Gradually that changed as the Tarzan budgets got lower. But during RKO the series was at its worst. So many changes were happening in Africa, but no notice was taken at RKO, especially after Howard Hughes acquired the studio.Still Lex Barker does look good in a loincloth.

Johnny Weissmuller quit Trazan in 1948 in order to make films where he could cover his "aging" body. Lex Barker took his place, and for my money he was the ONLY Tarzan who successfully carried the role after Weissmuller's departure.This was Brenda Joyce's final turn as Jane. Brenda was the best and sexiest Jane ever, but she preferred quitting Hollywood altogether, and that's our loss.Thank heavens for RKO and Sol lessor making these Tarzan movies with modest budget and simple plots. They can be watched over and over, while big budget garbage like "Greystone" is relegated to the dumpster.One part of Magic Fountain worth noting is the scene where Jane has led a party of 4 into a ravine in order to get much needed water. It shows how, in Africa, Mother Nature can turn on you on a dime. Rain starts, so they can now drink... but not so fast. The rain is hard and fast, turning into a dangerous flood in mere seconds, trapping them in the ravine. That's how it is: rain for maybe 30 minutes, so hard it might give you a headache. Then nothing. Then sunlight. Then no trace it ever rained. Many dangers from rain. Roads turn to slick mud and you slide. Dangers everywhere.

The "Lost Horizon" aspects of this plot may border on the silly -- the residents of the "Blue Valley" dress in Egyptian-Polynesian style! -- but they provide a serviceable framework for the first of Lex Barker's Tarzan movies. Barker, alas, is asked to play the title role as something of an overgrown bumpkin who can't quite seem to master the use of such basic articles of speech as "a" and "the," and there's little hint of the "killer instinct" which has allowed him to survive for so long in such hostile terrain. However, Barker's Tarzan is a likable sort who looks good in his loincloth which, for the sake of modesty, rides high enough on his midsection to cover his navel. Perhaps his beefcake-highpoint comes in the final reel when he's tethered with outstretched arms in a cave while some men from the Blue Valley prepare to blind him. (Yes, they actually have a tool designed for this purpose: a two-pronged fork that can poke out both eyes at the same time. Why this fork has to be heated white-hot before it can do its work remains a mystery.) Obviously aimed at a Saturday matinée crowd, this briskly-plotted movie devotes a lot of attention to the antics of Cheetah who, during the course of the proceedings, chews bubblegum, learns the peril of hot pepper, and gets to play with ants. Children may giggle, adults will groan. As an added bonus, there's Elmo Lincoln - the silent movies' Tarzan -- who here plays a burly villain with a black eyepatch. He and Barker get to engage in a couple of semi-comic fights.For the record, the fountain doesn't belong to Tarzan nor does it fall under his jurisdiction so the title is something of a misnomer.

TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN (RKO Radio, 1949), directed by Lee Sholem, introduces Lex Barker to the role of Tarzan, and marks the fifth and final performance of blonde actress Brenda Joyce as Jane. With Lex Barker as a new Tarzan after 16 years and 12 installments starring Johnny Weissmuller at both MGM and RKO studios, this must have been a hard act to follow, especially for Barker, since comparisons are evident. With Barker being younger and slimmer to the slightly taller but recently heavier and somewhat older Weissmuller's carnation as the lord of the jungle, his debut into the series is one of the better entries.For TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN, Tarzan (Lex Barker) discovers a woman named Gloria James (Evelyn Ankers) and takes her over to his tree house where his mate, Jane (Brenda Joyce), remembers her as the famous aviatrix whose airplane had disappeared into the jungle some twenty years ago. What has surprised Jane is how Gloria has remained looking so young for a woman her age. It is learned that Gloria had been found and living in the secret valley of eternal youth. Things go well until Donald Trask (Albert Dekker) and Mr. Dodd (Charles Drake), a couple of unscrupulous hunters, enter the scene, invading Tarzan's territory and causing trouble when they learn of and wanting to be taken to the lost valley of eternal youth.Supporting players include Alan Napier as Douglas Jessup, Gloria's former beau; Ted Hecht as Pasco; Henry Brandon as Siko; and David Bond as The High One, among others.What makes TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN interesting is the concept borrowed from James Hilton's novel, "Lost Horizon." Evelyn Ankers, best known for her co-starring roles in numerous horror films for Universal in the 1940s, the best known being THE WOLF MAN (1941), assumes the part of a woman suggested on an actual lost aviatrix, Amelia Earhart (who had disappeared in 1937, never to be seen or heard from again), is quite satisfactory as the middle-aged woman who hasn't aged a day in two decades. Only after she has departed the land of eternal youth does she begin to slowly age, as the Maria character from "Lost Horizon," however, not as extreme. It's not so bad in borrowing from a classic novel to provide new developments to the long running "Tarzan" series, however, it seems a pity that the writers didn't rise above the juvenile standards and predictable screenplay the starts off so well then simmers down midway to what might have been the first superior Tarzan adventure in nearly a decade. While it includes Tarzan getting into the swing of things by traveling from tree to tree on the vine (seen through the opening title credits), giving out his ape call, there's also the traditional Tarzan defeats including his battle with a nasty torch carrying villain (Henry Kulky) for beating an animal and a man below his standards, and on the lighter side, Tarzan's pet chimpanzee Cheta providing the usual comedy relief.As with the cinematic "James Bond" character a decade into the future, the "Tarzan" series would resume with different actors playing the part, and while many claim Sean Connery to be the best "James Bond," and Weissmuller the best "Tarzan," these two fictional creations have become the most recognizable characters of all time. While Weissmuller's departure as Tarzan might have put an end to the series altogether, Tarzan's box-office appeal was still successful, successful enough to keep it going as long as possible. Whether Lex Barker could be categorized as one of the better or least successful Tarzans is a matter of opinion. The duration of the series in which he appeared might have suffered not only for its lack of originality, but the non-consistency of stories and different actresses portraying Jane. Brenda Joyce bowed out of the series and movie making altogether following the release of TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN, going on record in the Tarzan log books as the only Jane to appear opposite two different Tarzans, Weissmuller and Barker. There would be other Janes, but the redheaded Maureen O'Sullivan remains most recognized, playing her six times to Brenda Joyce's five. After four more future installments, Lex Barker would hang up his loincloth, leading the way other actors to keep Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan alive.While TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN was never distributed on video cassette, (DVD distribution came around 2009), it became one of the series of Tarzan adventures in its lineup from the 1930s to the late 1960s to be presented on American Movie Classics cable channel (1997-2000) and Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: July 2, 2011). As former AMC host Bob Dorian had pointed out in one of his profiles about this movie, production began as "Tarzan and the Arrow of Death," and the movie's very first Tarzan, Elmo Lincoln, first introduced on screen in 1918, appears briefly as a fisherman. Interesting bits of Tarzan trivia.(**) Next installment: TARZAN AND THE SLAVE GIRL (RKO, 1950).