Tarzan Finds a Son!
| Tarzan Finds a Son! | |
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| Directed by | Richard Thorpe |
| Produced by | Sam Zimbalist |
| Written by | Cyril Hume |
| Based on | Characters created by Edgar Rice Burroughs |
| Starring |
Johnny Weissmuller Maureen O'Sullivan Johnny Sheffield Henry Wilcoxon |
| Cinematography | Leonard Smith |
| Edited by | Gene Ruggiero Frank Sullivan |
| Distributed by | MGM |
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Release date
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Running time
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82 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $898,000 |
| Box office | $2,088,000 |
Tarzan Finds a Son! is a 1939 Tarzan film based on the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It was the fourth in the MGM Tarzan series to feature Johnny Weissmuller as the "King of the Apes".
A plane flying to Cape Town, carrying a young couple and their baby, crashes in the jungle. Everyone on the plane dies, except for the baby who is rescued by Cheeta, Tarzan's chimpanzee. Tarzan and Jane adopt the child and name him "Boy". Five years later, a search party comes looking for Boy, because he is the heir to a fortune worth millions. Tarzan and Jane claim the child is dead and that Boy is theirs, but Sir Thomas recognizes Boy's eyes. The younger Lancings suggest leaving Boy and taking the inheritance; when Sir Thomas objects, they say they will take him back and, as legal guardians, still control of the inheritance. Sir Thomas says he'll tell Tarzan, but the rest of the party imprison Sir Thomas in a tent and plan to abduct Boy. Tarzan overhears them plotting; he steals their guns and throws them into a deep lake. Jane arrives the next day and learns what has taken place, and admits that Boy is Greystoke. She persuades Tarzan to retrieve the cache of guns, without which the search party can't survive. Tarzan retrieves them but Jane drops the rope so that Tarzan is trapped.
Jane, convinced it's the right thing to do, goes with Boy and the rest of the Lancings toward civilization but Sir Thomas convinces her that the younger Lancings only want Boy for his money. Sir Thomas tries to sneak away but they shoot him. Thinking Jane is trying to fool them, they ignore her directions and fall into the hands of the Zambeli, known for mutilation of captives. The white people are held in a separate hut while the tribe begins to kill and preserve the native bearers. Jane is wounded while helping Boy to escape through the fence. Boy finds Tarzan and is aided by chimps and elephants to free him. Tarzan reaches the Zambeli village and uses the elephants to drive away the natives. He saves two of the search party, and he and Jane decide to keep Boy with them in the jungle.
The three-year gap between this and the previous Tarzan film was because MGM had originally let the film rights elapse after Tarzan Escapes. Independent producer Sol Lesser obtained the rights to make five Tarzan movies, but the first of these, Tarzan's Revenge, proved to be a flop. The producers believed that audiences were unwilling to accept Glenn Morris in the role made famous by Johnny Weissmuller. (Lesser had been unable to obtain Weissmuller's services as he remained under contract at MGM.) MGM realized that Weissmuller had continuing attraction as Tarzan and bought out Lesser's interest in the next three films; they restarted their series.
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