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"My Mother's Tarzan"
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Weintraub had been successful placing his Tarzan in authentic locales.
Still with television in mind he wanted a leaner Tarzan.
However, in the back of his mind he had already decided who
his next Tarzan would be after watching the first rushes from
TARZAN THE MAGNIFICENT .
Jock Mahoney would be the next Tarzan.
(did anyone even notice or remember
that he)
(had been the villian in the
previous movie ???)
Jock had already been successful as
the star of many
Universal-International pictures,
mostly westerns,
in the 1950's and been the star
of
Gene Autry's Flying "A" production
for television,
The "Range Rider" (1951),
with co-star Dick Jones as his
side-kick, Dick West.
and later in the fifties NBC's
Yancy Derringer (1958),
with co-star X Brands.
Previous to his acting career,
Jock had already become a well respected
top Hollywood stuntman in the
40's and early 50's, doubling for
Gregory Peck, Errol Flynn, Randolph
Scott, and most notably was
the stunt double for Charles
Starrett, the "Durango Kid".
Throughout his career Jock always
did his own stunts, and
in reply to an interviewer,
he said "I would never ask another stuntman,
to do something that I wouldn't
do himself."
Jock was also (for a time) the
step-father of actress Sally Field,
having married Paramount contract
player Margaret Field in 1953.
Jock was thrilled to play a boyhood favourite,
and in 1962 at the age of 42,
Jock Mahoney became Tarzan No.
13
The movie was shot on location and
the script was fashioned after a real life
I believe that "TARZAN
GOES TO INDIA" was
the first
Weintraub had a winner and set about
to star Jock in another epic.
"TARZAN'S THREE CHALLENGES"
This time Tarzan travels to exotic
Thailand to help a
Misfortune befell Mahoney, as during
filming he contracted
Mahoney kept shooting, but lost
a great deal of weight and strength,
Weintraub still had his eye on a
possible television series for Tarzan
Click here to go immediately to my
in
"
TARZAN GOES TO INDIA"
situation, where a valley was being
flooded by the construction of a dam,
and the lives of many animals were
going to be lost.
Tarzan Movie to gross over
distributor alone, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,
in it's initial run.
This time he set the location in
Thailand and 1963 saw the release of
which co-starred Woody
Strode.
young prince make it to his coronation.
The young prince's father is dying, and Kahn,
his uncle wants him dead before he becomes the "holy one".
The prince's father does die, and Kahn gives up the pursuit.
After the prince passes his own challenges at the coronation,
Kahn invokes an old "physical" challenge, but there
is a rule that the prince can substitute, a champion.
He asks Tarzan, to be his defender.
Tarzan accepts and he defeats Kahn.
"dengue fever", "dysentery" and
finally "pneumonia".
falling to 175 lbs. from his normal
220 lbs., which became evident
throughout the movie, especially
when matched against the bulky Strode.
and probably felt Mahoney was too
old and settled to keep audiences
attention, and they came to an
agreement that Jock would relinquish
his role as "Lord of the Jungle".
I believe this could have been
a fatal mistake for Weintraub and
Mahoney.
I'm sure Jocko would have appealed
to older and younger viewers, as a more
mature Tarzan, and still capable
of doing his own stunts once his health returned,
and would not have been so injury
prone as subsequent Tarzan actors.
"Jock Mahoney Tribute Pages"
for the whole story of this great actor and stuntman.
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of
"My
Mother's Tarzan"
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