Ron Ely’s TARZAN-21-THE GOLDEN RUNAWAY

Ron Ely’s TARZAN-21-THE GOLDEN RUNAWAY

 

I salute this effort to do something completely …well, almost, different. The action comes early on in a very terrifying pair of openings. First, a horrific fire destroys a mission building as Tarzan and a mysterious heavy set man (played by the excellent Sean McClory as Red McGeehan, ironic as he is not red headed here; in the haunting LOST IN SPACE episode THE ASTRAL TRAVELER he plays a redheaded, redbearded ghost who had gout in when he was alive) save at least three children so that no one dies in the fire (their African father and seemingly dark but white mother—a first in that time if that is true are together outside, the father seemingly doing nothing to save the kids, one of the kids BTW looks as if he’s white but covered in soot and hopefully it is NOT black face because it looks strange).

 

Then pygmies seemingly aim poison darts from blow stick at a surrendering Cheetah while Tarzan is swimming (and splashing at Cheetah). They also aim at Tarzan, too. Apparently, a suit case full of money is given to Tarzan (from McGeehan) to help rebuild the mission but authorities will not because they believe the money has been stolen.

 

Chundra Lal is a comic character who seems to be one of those officials who send Tarzan off on missions or who help Tarzan, only now I’m going to have to recheck the episode as he’s cowardly, greedy, and helps the main villain who turns out to be (not a surprise) Henry Fitzroy, the white man (American) who is the “protector” to Martha (the credits rarely give last names to characters, unfortunately but IMDB gives her the last name of Tolbooth (Tolbooth, really?) but it hardly sounds like that in the episode and the DVDs are NOT subtitled, unfortunately). He seems to be British, by jove, old boy.

 

Martha is played by the wonderful Gia Scala who with brunette hair. She had blond hair in VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA second season episode JONAH AND THE WHALE (aired first in the second year). She was terrifically wonderful in that, too, and made the episode even more dramatic as a Russian woman who loses her partner in a whale attack and later she’s swallowed by a whale while exploring in a diving bell with Admiral Nelson. In real life, her mother was Irish and her father Italian from Sicily, giving her an Italian accent and lighter looks. She’s exotically pretty. In 2008, the Democratic Republic of the Congo released a postage stamp bearing Scala's image. Her life was tragic.

 

What’s different about this episode, you might ask? Well for one it’s the TARZAN show doing a romantic comedy years and years before ROMANCING THE STONE (an awful movie in my opinion and this is far better, just). The sequel to that JEWEL OF THE NILE was to be the second before the third CRIMSON EAGLE, never made it past the development stage. RACING THE MONSOON, which never made it past the idea stage, was to be a forth, more recent return of the characters from that horrid movie.

 

I digress. Red’s pursuit of Martha is, at first, creepy in a charming kind of way or is that charming in a creepy sort of way but as she smilingly starts to respond to his less aggressive attempt to woe her, their relationship grows warmer and it is nice to see the girl NOT fall for Tarzan. Red also tries to take Tarzan and his pride (and here Tarzan does show a significant amount of over-pride) and the results are actually kind of funny. Thus, the comedy of this episode does sort of work, though it’s only mildly funny and the music accompanying such scenes signal us that this is not a serious episode, despite the very scary pygmy tribe and the tribe helping the villains. At one point the pygmies seem to strangle one of villains’ henchmen with a noose but he seems to be alive and tied up, thus perhaps no one actually died on screen here. There’s also comedy sound effects when Tarzan beats Red a few times at physical confrontations. Fortunately, the comedy sound effects are NOT overdone.

 

Martha is in the jungle, ready to go into Ju Ju country to find her brother and clear his name of having stolen money (he did steal money but instead of Red being his accomplice, it turns out the brother, Carlo, had Henry as his accomplice). In fact, Carlo and Red were together in the small plane when it crashed in Ju Ju country. Red was a pilot and leaving when rebels took over a camp. Carlo asked for a ride and then put a gun to Red to take him somewhere, Portuguese country (?). Somehow Red survived and Carlo did not and also somehow Red came to be liked, even loved by the pygmy  tribe, who seem not to speak much and when they do, it is not English. The warning to not enter their country is a skull on a vine. Martha finds Cheetah hilarious.

 

 

At one point, Red, trying to get Cheetah to turn off the water, turns it back on (?) and then tells Cheetah to turn it off? He also calls Cheetah a madam so maybe the chimp was played by a female? Was she doubling from LOST IN SPACE? BTW, this episode and Sean’s LOST IN SPACE episode aired in the same year.

 

At first, I thought this might have been a Christmas episode as Sean seemed to be a Santa Claus type giving to the mission but it didn’t air in December of 1966.

 

Also unfortunately, at one point, Tarzan calls Red a mercenary, which I guess is okay but then he calls him a killer, too. So…are we to side with a known killer who’s now become nice and trying to protect the Ju Ju whose land and river or lake have diamonds on the bottom?

 

I’m not sure what to make of this episode. There is some action and there is an attempt here to do something different with the jungle/Tarzan format. Tarzan is almost the sidekick to Red, who, along with Martha, ARE the main characters. Tarzan becomes a supporting character in his own show and Jai is NOT present at all, other than his name in the credits.

 

There are really few surprises here and though mildly funny, almost no real belly laughs as the romantic comedy comes from the situation…though it’s not particularly romantic or funny. There IS chemistry between the unlikely pairing of Red and Martha, thanks to the charm of the actors playing them and both actors had difficult lives going forward, so there’s that kind of melancholy in thought if not in the episode itself.

 

As ever the show looks great and sounds great with what seems to be yet another new score. There are a few stock footage shots of the black haired Ely from earlier last year.  

 

One thing I have to add to this review is that Ely, who always looks terrific in body and face, here, looks even more muscled than usual with veins popping, chest out, muscles straining and looking even bigger, a washboard stomach, etc. He also seems to be healing from that bloody nose wound he had last episode so that makes me think that it was a REAL injury.

 

There’s also two giraffes hitting each other’s necks which makes me think it is a mating ritual.