Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure with its well-written characters and performances, goes beyond a mere manhunt movie.
One reviewer wrote:
“A masterpiece in the series. The best Tarzan film since Tarzan and his Mate. The leap in quality, after years of steady decline in Tarzan movies, is remarkable."
The movie stars Gordon Scott, giving a capivatingly serious performance as an articulate Tarzan. The Shakespearian trained Anthony Quayle is mesmerizing as a much-disturbed criminal. He actually has more screen time than Tarzan, giving the movie an atmosphere of pent-up evil.
Sean Connery plays one of the Quale’s henchmen. (Paid $5,600)
Gordon Scott said: “Connery was marvelous. He and I had some good laughs together. They wanted to use him in the next Tarzan, even though he gets killed in this one because he was very good. He said OK. but he had to do this thing called Dr. No. We couldn’t touch him after that.”
The director, John Guillermin kept the movie’s pace going with excellent staging and camerawork. The skill he showed, catapulted him to: The Blue Max, The Towering Inferno with McQueen & Newman, King Kong (1976), Death on the Nile and Skyjacked with Charlton Heston.
Guillermin said: "For a short schedule, fairly low-budget picture ($750,000), the whole Tarzan project really got me quite excited.”
Gordon Scott made six Tarzan movies and starred in 22 more action movies. He teamed with friend Steve Reeves for Duel of the Titans.
How did Scott Sabotage Alfred Hitchcock?
The Master of Suspense was preparing his masterpiece Vertigo which was to star Vera Miles. She was under personal contract with Hitchcock, had appeared on his TV series, and in Hitchcock’s The Wrong Man.
Hitchcock had costumes designed for Miles, as well as a painting of her to be used in Vertigo. He planned that movie to make Miles a major star. Becoming ill, Hitchcock delayed the movie for a few months.
Four years before this was happening, Miles had appeared with Gordon Scott in Tarzan’s Hidden Jungle, and they got married.
During the Vertigo delay, Scott got Miles pregnant, and Hitchcock got Kim Novack to replace her. Later, Miles appeared in Psycho.
Scott received no credit for recasting Vertigo.
The debate of which actress would have been best for Vertigo continues to this day.
Filmmaking & story techniques of Tarzan's Greatest Adventure continues to inspire me. One of the reasons I took a big financial risk to write/direct Forbidden Power.
