Tarzan's Greatest Adventure

Tarzan's Greatest Adventure is a 1959 American Eastmancolor adventure film directed by John Guillermin, produced by Sy Weintraub and Harvey Hayutin, and written by Les Crutchfield, based on the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. With a strong supporting cast that included Anthony Quayle and Sean Connery, and a focus on action and suspense, the film won critical praise as a Tarzan film that appealed to adults as well as children. The film features a literate Tarzan portrayed by Gordon Scott. The character of Jane, Tarzan's wife, does not appear and is not mentioned. At one point, Tarzan briefly romances a female character, suggesting that he is a loner, not a family man. Cheeta, Tarzan's chimp companion in many films, appears only a few times near the start of the film, and the kind of comic relief that Cheeta represents is generally absent from the film. Plot At night, the African village of Mantu is raided for its supply of dynamite. The village doctor and radio operator interrupt the robbery and are fatally shot. Before dying, the operator gasps, "Slade" over the shortwave radio. The next morning, Tarzan is awakened by drums, alerting him to something wrong. He departs his treehouse and arrives at Mantu, where a funeral is being held for the fallen villagers. A police inspector informs Tarzan of the raid. Tarzan then embarks by canoe to catch an old nemesis named Slade and his gang of raiders. Along the way, a small plane taunts Tarzan with low flyovers. However, the aircraft's engine stalls, and it crashes, depositing an American ex-fashion model, Angie, into the river. Unwilling to leave her stranded, Tarzan brings Angie to the hunt. Meanwhile, Slade and his quartet of thieves are just miles in front, travelling by riverboat. Their destination is a secret diamond mine, where they will use the stolen dynamite for excavating the gems. When their riverboat malfunctions, the thieves begin to quarrel among themselves. Eventually, one of them leaves the boat and is later stuck in quicksand and drowns; another dies when Tarzan, who has now caught up with the raiders, nails him with bow and arrow. However, Tarzan is injured, requiring Angie to tend to his wounds. She attempts to steal medical supplies from Slade's boat but is captured. Slade uses her to lure Tarzan into a trap, but the plot fails, costing the life of another Slade accomplice. This leaves only Slade and his one surviving ally, an ex-Nazi named Kreiger.