Tarzan and the She-Devil ** (1953, Lex Barker, Joyce Mackenzie, Raymond Burr, Monique van Vooren, Tom Conway) – Classic Movie Review 8045

Director Kurt Neumann’s 1953 adventure Tarzan and the She-Devil is Lex Barker’s fifth and final appearance as Tarzan. It features the fifth different actress to play Jane opposite Barker – Joyce McKenzie.

Lex Barker is a virile Tarzan and Joyce McKenzie is a plain Jane in this merely average Fifties black-and-white adventure, in which the famous vine swinger and a herd of wild elephants exact revenge on the ivory hunters who capture a native tribe and kidnap Jane.

Despite the climactic elephant stampede, Tarzan and the She-Devil is too low on action for full satisfaction. It might be hoped that Barker could go in more style but the movie is a bit plain and ordinary, though it is still quite fun. The pachyderm support cast (such as the elephants, plus maybe a rhinoceros or a hippopotamus), the exotic Monique van Vooren as Lyra the She-Devil, the good and nasty Raymond Burr as poacher Vargo and Tom Conway as poacher Fidel provide the best entertainment.

Also in the cast are Oliver Robins, Robert Bice, Henry Brandon, Mike Ross and Michael Granger (as Michael Grainger).

It is preceded by Tarzan’s Magic Fountain (1949), Tarzan and the Slave Girl (1950), Tarzan’s Peril (1951) and Tarzan’s Savage Fury (1952).

When Gordon Scott took over the role of The Ape Man in the next film in the franchise (Tarzan’s Hidden Jungle), the role of Jane was not even included.

The following year, Burr played the villain Thorwald in Hitchcock’s Rear Window. In the movies, Burr usually played the villain, but when he later went to TV he was the hero as Perry Mason and Ironside.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8045

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