A good Tarzan adventure film, with  Lex Barker in the title role.  Lex Barker does and did a great job as  Tarzan because he just looked the part, and was athletic enough to cope with the demands of this role in five films –  I wish he had stayed longer as Tarzan  though.

These Tarzan films with Lex Barker had pretty good budgets so looked very good on the Cinema Screen First-class actress Dorothy Hart is lovely as Jane and does most of the real acting here. She was a truly gifted actress who soon left film land  for roles in prestigious television productions and other activities that she found far more fulfilling – eventually working for the United Nations

BELOW – Dorothy Hart with Lex Barker – Tarzans Savage Fury 1952

There is also a  boy character well played by Tommy Carlton -m ABOVE with Lex Barker – and BELOW with a friend on the set of the film.

Patrick Knowles does a great job as the villain of the piece.      BELOW

Tarzan’s Savage Fury was one of the only Tarzan films to make reference Tarzan’s  background –  Tarzan being the Earl of Greystoke.  In this story the cousin Greystoke played by Patric Knowles is an imposter who with his guide Charles Korvin comes to see  Tarzan.

The real Greystoke has  been killed at the beginning of the film and Patric Knowles takes his place.   The object is to gain access through Tarzan,  to a tribe which has a fortune in diamonds which they use in their  religious ceremonies. The cast throughout is good.

This film is well worth watching for the action and physicality that Lex Barker brings to the Tarzan role, and also for Dorothy Hart’s luminous presence and fine acting.

Here in England at the time, was a Television programme Picture Parade on BBC Television  – in the very early days of Television,  which reviewed new cinema releases. Peter Haigh worked hard to make it popular and included  interviews with the likes of John Wayne, Anna Neagle and Joan Crawford.

However I do remember him reviewing this film and showing clips from it one night- and as a small boy to see these scenes from a new and exciting Tarzan film was thrilling – I remember it to this day – and even the clip of film which had Tarzan swimming across a river. 

We would not have had our Television set long at the time of the film release – so maybe it is one of my earliest television memories. That of course would be viewed on a 14 inch screen but somehow we just loved it.

Peter Haigh was replaced in 1962 and went to live in Portugal, where he opened a waterside restaurant. In 1957, he had married the Rank starlet Jill Adams. They had a daughter before they separated.

I remember Jill Adams in The Green Man