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"My Mother's Tarzan"
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Casting agents accidentally found the next Tarzan as a pool lifeguard in Las Vegas.
Former Marine Drill and Self-Defense Instructor and now weight-lifter,
Gordon Scott
at 6 foot-3 inches and 218 lbs. was asked to test for the next ape man.
He was successful and made the following features:
TARZAN'S HIDDEN JUNGLE (1955),
(released by RKO)
Vera Miles and Gordon Scott
were married,
during the filming of "Tarzan's
Hidden Jungle"
TARZAN AND THE LOST SAFARI (1957)
and
TARZAN'S FIGHT FOR LIFE (1958)
both of which were released by
MGM and in
color,
as are all subsequent Tarzan movies.
Eve Brent starred as Jane in
both "Tarzan's Fight For Life"
and sparingly in "Tarzan and
the Trappers".
notice the misplaced "s" in
this old Winnipeg ad.
There is also one more to add in between the above.
Three TV pilots which failed that Weintraub
had made were spliced together and titled
TARZAN AND THE TRAPPERS (1958).
plus
TARZAN'S GREATEST ADVENTURE (1959)
whose cast included Sean Connery and Anthony Quayle.
Scenes from Greatest Adventure
with Sara Shane.
and
TARZAN THE MAGNIFICENT (1960)
whose cast included Jock Mahoney as the main villain "Coy Banton",
and John Carradine as the grizzled father of the Banton Clan, "Abel Banton".
These last two were probably the best released in 25 years.
Produced by Sy Weintraub and Harvey Hayutin, in Africa,
Scott was allowed to speak in an educated manner and were
full of action and superb acting.
Weintraub reportedly paid Lesser three and a half million dollars for his rights.
Scott was never comfortable with
animals and he always felt they didn't like him.
That's why in his last two, Tarzan
always had some excuse to leave Cheeta behind.
In a struggle with a boa, it took
the crew and Eve Brent, who was close by,
some time to realize that Gordon
was actually being strangled.
One more insert into the Tarzan Lineage.
MGM has since 1932 owned the name
"TARZAN THE APE MAN".
They can remake this movie as many
times as they like.
During Scott's reign MGM released Click
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TARZAN THE APE MAN (1959)
starring
Denny Miller,
who later would become known for his role as
"Duke Shannon" on the "Wagon Train" television series,
but would use the acting name of
Scott Miller.
At 6 foot-4 inches and 212 lbs.,
Miller had been a basketball star at UCLA.
Joanna Barnes with Denny (Scott) Miller
Gordon Scott was done with being Tarzan, so he
and Weintraub came to an agreement
to terminate their contract.
Scott wanted to move on and try
other things.
Scott did go on to Europe where
he became very successful making
Sand & Sandal films, most notably,
DUEL OF THE TITANS (1961)
with Steve Reeves, and GOLIATH
AND THE VAMPIRES (1963).
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of
"My
Mother's Tarzan"
Click here to view my Tarzan Movie Guide & Plot Summaries
(only the ones I've seen or have on tape and or dvd)