A New Tarzan Swings Aboard

Lex Barker's Jungle Debut is Tarzan's Magic Fountain (1947)

Sol Lesser's unveil of a new Tarzan, Lex Barker, still with the broken English, but progressed from Weissmuller, and trimmer in the bargain. Jungles amount still to a backlot and hospitality extended by tropical Southern Cal; you could rent enough animals around town to scrape by. The Dark Continent must have been choked with "lost civilizations": I'm beginning to think they outnumbered the found folk. This time, a fountain of youth is contested goal, but we never see anyone bathe in it, other than Cheetah's fadeout swig played for a laff. In fact, there is surplusage of funny monkeys here, Lesser knowing his audience and aiming (down) for it. Some nice matte work lends stature, effort made to spike the series now that a fresh vine-swinger was aboard. The Tarzans sat top-of-the-bill in most situations; this series wouldn't sink to "B" level until Paramount-poor ones with Mike Henry, and Ron Ely paste-ups from TV. Tarzan's Magic Fountain did a more than respectable $1.8 million in worldwide rentals, its foreign receipts ahead of domestic per custom for these. One reason Tarzan sustained so long was oversea biz a shoo-in, the Ape-Man travelling better than almost any action figure Yanks had developed.