Tarzan and His Mate is the second of the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films. It is also the last of pre-Hays Code Tarzans. Like its predecessor it is a fun jungle adventure story that seems a little dated, but still provides a lot of entertainment.
This movie opens with Harry; Jane's father's partner, returning to Africa to collect the ivory they discovered in the first film. Jane's father is dead and so this time Harry has teamed up with Martin, a less scrupulous partner who is eager to earn some money off of the elephant ivory. Together they set off into the jungle hoping to find Tarzan and Jane again so that Tarzan can lead them back to the elephant graveyard and because Harry is still in love with Jane and wants her to come back to civilization with him.
Tarzan, who they eventually do meet up with, isn't keen on the idea of their looting his jungle and so comes into conflict with Harry and Martin. Along the way of course Tarzan must fight off lions, alligators, rhinos and a vicious native tribe.
The amount of sexual chemistry between Tarzan and Jane in the first film was a surprise to me and if anything they amped the sexiness up even further here. Jane is shown naked in silhouette as she tries on clothes and stockings, spends most of the movie in a loin-cloth bikini and even goes completely nude for a swim with Tarzan (a scene that was cut from many prints of the film at the time of its release). After she gets all dolled up in one scene, Tarzan approaches her, examines her all over, smells her perfume and then carries her off to his nest where the next scene shows her waking up in bed; clearly naked under the covers. It's quite obvious that the big draw for her staying in the jungle is the hot sex she's having with Tarzan. I know that Maureen O'Sullivan would get my vote for the 1930s actress I'd most like to be stranded in the jungle with.
Another trend from the first film that is carried on here is the overt racism. When one of the native bearers refuses to go any further, Martin quite casually shoots and kills him and neither Harry or Martin are the least bit perturbed by it. And once again they don't mind laying into the natives with their whips.
Unfortunately, the very poor rear projection also makes a return in several of the action scenes. When Tarzan is dodging the rhino you can clearly tell that he is standing in front a movie screen. Although just a scene later he is actually riding a rhino, so there is some trade off. Some of the scenes look quite good and others not so much.
The chimpanzee Cheetah's role is expanded this time around and he provides some nice comic relief. While not quite the great apes Tarzan is normally associated with, the chimpanzees in general are well handled and you have to give a lot of credit to the animal handlers on these films.
Once again Tarzan's origin is left a mystery and even his screen time is limited. The movie runs about 104 minutes and Tarzan doesn't even make an appearance until about 20 minutes into the story. The title is Tarzan and His Mate and it's an accurate one. Jane is given equal if not more screentime than Tarzan. Surprisingly this doesn't damage the fun at all as Jane is almost the real draw in the story anyway.
At one point Jane says the line, "A woman's greatest weapon is a man's imagination." It's also true of this movie. Even when it doesn't look the most believable you can still imagine what the film makers were trying to do and it doesn't damage the fun at all.
