TARZAN'S GREATEST ADVENTURE

Anthony Quayle and Sean Connery 

TARZAN'S GREATEST ADVENTURE (1959). Director: John Guillermin.

Tarzan (Gordon Scott) pursues enemy Slade (Anthony Quayle) and his party even as Slade hunts for a hidden diamond mine and its riches. Tarzan is saddled with a somewhat callous woman named Angie (Sara Shane of Three Bad Sisters) who has survived a plane crash and develops more courage and warmth as the movie proceeds. Slade's associates include old Kruger (Niall MacGinnis); pretty Toni (Scilla Gabel); wily Dino (Al Mulock); and strutting, charismatic O'Bannion (Sean Connery). Tarzan's Greatest Adventure seems more intense than the Weissmuller Tarzan films, has an excellent script with well-realized characters, and boasts excellent acting from the entire cast. Quayle [The Wrong Man] underplays beautifully, which only makes him seem more menacing, and more of  a contrast to the swaggering Connery, who demonstrates the star presence he had even before he became James Bond. Scott makes an appealing and attractive Tarzan. The movie is fast-paced and has an exciting cliff-side climax. There's an interesting scene involving Dino and O'Bannion, a locket that Dino refuses to show him, and some deadly quicksand. Cheetah appears, but isn't given much to do, for shame, but the tone of this film is never comic. Guillermin also directed The Whole Truth and co-directed The Towering Inferno.

Verdict: Maybe not his greatest, but this is a brisk and entertaining Tarzan adventure. ***

THREE BAD SISTERS

THREE BAD SISTERS (1956). Director: Gilbert Kay.

A millionaire goes berserk during a plane trip and causes a crash in which he’s killed. His sister blames the pilot, a handsome lug named Jim (John Bromfield) who becomes involved with the dead man’s three daughters. Lorna (Sara Shane) actually isn’t so bad, although even she doesn’t seem so put out by her father’s demise. Vicki (Marla English) is the sexy youngster who comes afoul of her beautiful older sister Valerie (the truly beauteous Kathleen Hughes), as the two have a really nifty, rather sadistic "cat fight" which leads to tragedy. Brett Halsey appears briefly as one of Vicki’s cast-off boyfriends, and Madge Kennedy is fun as the sisters’ gun-totin’ Aunt Martha, who tries to shoot Jim. A hilarious moment occurs afterward when Lorna says to Jim as they prepare to go back into the mansion where Aunt Martha lives: "If Aunt Martha isn’t cordial, please overlook it." Cordial? In the previous scene she tried to murder the guy (nobody calls the police and has her arrested for this, even though it’s clearly a case of attempted homicide)! Okay, this is a dumb, badly acted, silly movie, but it holds the attention and Gerald Drayson Adams’ script has some interesting facets, such as the business with the sisters daring each other to dive off a cliff at just the right second when the tide comes in and the water is deep enough to survive. From Bel-Air, which was not exactly MGM.

Verdict: Amusing trash. **1/2.