The First and Only Weekly Online Fanzine Devoted to the Life and Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs
Issue 0584
Presents
An ERB C.H.A.S.E.R. Online Encyclopedia Feature
and another in the
ERBzine of the Silver Screen Series

THE NEW ADVENTURES OF TARZAN
and
TARZAN AND THE GREEN GODDESS
Part I

Tarzan films were major money earners in the world market in the thirties, with as much as 75 per cent of the total gross from foreign boxoffice. In fact, in many African and Asian countries their premiers were black-tie affairs. In 1934, to cash in on this popularity and the considerable profits to be made in production and distribution, Burroughs teamed with George W. Stout, Ben S. Cohen and Lee Ashton Dearholt to form a film company to promote ERB's works. Their first Tarzan film was based on an original story outlined by Burroughs called Tarzan and the Green Goddess. For the first time ERB had some control over how his hero would be portrayed on the screen. The actor he selected to play Tarzan was American Olympic athlete Herman Brix who had been MGM's second choice for Tarzan the Apeman. Brix, as well as being a silver medal winner in the 1928 Olympics,  was a former University of Washington football and track star.

Looking to achieve authenticity, Dearholt suggested that the film be done on location in Guatemala. The venture ran into many problems, before, during and after production: financing, storms, accidents, diseases, rugged remote locations, technical difficulties, poor reviews, the Dearholt and Burroughs divorces, and MGM's campaign to keep the film from getting good bookings. Despite all the difficulties, Dearholt brought back a considerable amount of footage which was later released in a variety of serials and features, and, thanks to foreign markets, the venture eventually made money.

TRIVIA: Brix won a silver medal in the 1928 Olympics for the shot put.
TRIVIA: Brix's Tarzan was one of the few times that ERB's apeman was accurately depicted in films: a mannered, cultured, soft-spoken, well-educated English lord who spoke several languages.
TRIVIA: Tarzan's chimp companion was called Nkima -- not Cheetah, the name used in the MGM films. Nikima was the name of the apeman's monkey sidekick in ERB's later Tarzan novels.
TRIVIA: The chimpanzee, Jiggs, was paid $2000 for the role of Nkima.
TRIVIA: "Adventures" was offered to distributors in a variety of formats: a complete seven-reel, 75-minute feature ~ a seven-reel feature followed by 11 episodes ~ a 12-chapter serial ~ and later, as Tarzan and the Green Goddess, a 72-minute feature film edited from the last 10 chapters of the serial with added new footage.
TRIVIA: During the film's production, Dearholt married the film's lead lady, Ula Holt and ERB divorced his first wife to marry Dearholt's ex, Florence.
TRIVIA: The unique Brix jungle yell was "Mmmmmmmm-annnn-gannnn-eeeeee."
TRIVIA:  Brix did his own stunts, resulting in mulitple injuries and tropical fever and chronic exhaustion.
TRIVIA: Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, personally requested prints of many of the Tarzan movies for private showings.
TRIVIA: Bennett's wife was: Jeanette Cannon (January 1933 - ?). They had two children.

         1934
          ERB, Dearholt and two other investors, formed Burroughs-Tarzan Enterprises to produce Tarzan
          pictures. Their office was located at 8476 Sunset Boulevard. Plans were made to film a Tarzan movie
          in Guatemala.  In October, Olympic athlete Herman Brix was chosen to play Tarzan in Guatemala.
          Ed refused to write a  movie tie-in novel, preferring to leave the promotion to a special Whitman Big
          Little Book, a Tarzan Clan campaign, and Signal Oil.  Dearholt ran into casting problems but the
          Tarzan film expedition sailed for Guatemala in November. In December, the Dearholt expedition,
          aboard the liner Seattle, landed on the Guatemala coast in a storm which caused incredible difficulties.
          The December 11 issue of Variety reported that the Guatemala Tarzan film would be called Tarzan
          and the Green Goddess. Titles later considered included The New Adventures of Tarzan and
          Tarzan's 1935 Adventures.

          1935
          On January 7 ERB was reported to be enthusiastic over the early Guatemala rushes, on what was to
          be a 12-part Tarzan serial but on March 5 he was disappointed over the uncut film from Guatemala.

          1. New Adventures of Tarzan (I) (1935 - 265m (12 episodes) - b/w)
              ...aka Tarzan and the Lost Goddess (1935)
              ...aka Tarzan in Guatemala (1935)

          PLOT: The Green Goddess is a totem worshiped by the primitive natives of a lost city deep in the
          jungles of Guatemala. It contains both a fortune in jewels and an ancient formula for a super-explosive
          which could threaten world safety in the wrong hands. From Africa, Major Martling and Ula Vale
          launch separate expeditions to find the Goddess and place its secrets in safe hands. Ula's fiance died in
          an earlier attempt at the same goal and she has taken up the trail in his memory against the advice of
          her lawyer, Hiram Powers, who covets the Goddess for himself and sends Raglan, a mercenary, to get
          it for him. Aboard their ship to Guatemala is Lord Greystoke - aka Tarzan - on a mission to find his old
          friend, d'Arnot, whose plane crashed in the vicinity of the same lost city. Tarzan joins forces with
          Martling, and they reach the lost city in time to save d'Arnot, but lose the Goddess to Raglan. Ula joins
          Tarzan and Martling in pursuit of Raglan, whence they must contend with the perils of the jungle,
          Raglan's henchmen, and a party of primitives from the lost city sent to retrieve the Goddess...

          PLOT: Most prior screen incarnations of Edgar Rice Burroughs' legendary jungle hero were not even
          close to Burroughs' character. The Tarzan of the books grew up in the jungle, yes, but returned to
          England and was educated at Oxford before returning again to his jungle home. He was nobility even,
          the son of Lord and Lady Greystoke, and inherited his father's title. He was an intelligent, literate,
          culturally-aware man. Yet the cinematic version of Tarzan, up to that time, was an illiterate animal-like
          hermit whose first contact with civilization was his soon-to-be-girlfriend Jane. Burroughs was incensed
          at this portrayal, and that motivated him to produce his own Tarzan production more in line with his
          original vision of the character, namely a serial entitled The New Adventures of Tarzan. The serial
          was later edited into two (short) feature films released in the following years. The first film bore the
          same title, and the second was called Tarzan and the Green Goddess.

          This first half of the 1935 serial relates several characters' efforts to find the green goddess, a valuable
          artifact in the possession of a tribe of natives in Guatemala. Burroughs and the filmmakers that worked
          with him on this weren't quite successful in bringing the real Tarzan to cinematic life. It's easy to see
          how The New Adventures of  Tarzan's story could be a gripping, rip-roaring novel -- but it's
          somehow unengaging as a film. The plot is solid, but it's hard to tell, so thoroughly is it camouflaged by
          deplorable acting and poor quality sound. (The opening credits even contain an apology for the bad
          soundtrack.) It's partially redeemed by some gripping suspense scenes and intriguing visuals. But as a
          whole, it's uninvolving and forgettable.

          The Green Goddess is a totem worshiped by the primitive natives of a lost city deep in the
          jungles of Guatemala, which contains both a fortune in jewels and an ancient formula for a
          super-explosive which could threaten the world in the wrong hands. From Africa, Major Martling
          launches an expedition to find the Goddess and place its secret in safe hands. So does Ula Vale, whose
          fiance died attempting a similar expe- dition, despite the warnings of her lawyer Hiram Powers, who
          recretly wants the Goddess' contents for himself and has dispatched Raglan, a mercenary, to get it for
          him. Aboard ship to Guatemala, they meet Lord Greystoke - aka Tarzan - on his way to the same
          locale to find his old friend d'Arnot, whose plane reportedly crashed near the lost city. On reaching
          Guatemala, Tarzan, the Martling party and Ula learn of Raglan's devilish mission and that he has a
          good head start on them...

          REVIEW: This is the second of two films edited from the 1935 serial, The New Adventures of
          Tarzan, the first  bearing the same name. Herman Brix (also known as Bruce Bennett) plays the lead
          role, portraying him as the intelligent, literate English Lord he was in the books. Not surprisingly, this is
          very much like the first film -- a decent if confusing plot, terrible acting, rousing action, and an
          unbearable soundtrack. It's less innovative than the first film, however, and the sped-up fight scenes
          aren't as thrilling as they were at the time. Brix's Tarzan yell remains the most disconcerting of them
          all.

HERMAN BRIX aka BRUCE BENNETT

Herman Brix aka Bruce Bennett Mini Bio from IMDB by Ed Stephan  Birth name: Herman Brix
Birth: 19 May 1909, Tacoma, Washington, USA
Herman Brix was a star shot-putter in the 1928 Olympics. After nearly getting the lead in MGM's Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), he was picked by Edgar Rice Burroughs for his own production of New Adventures of Tarzan, The (1935/I), the only one between the silents and the 1960s to present the character accurately, as a sophisticated, polyglot English nobleman. Metro blocked "Adventures" out of most theaters, but it was very popular in the foreign markets, resulting in the Tarzan and the Green Goddess (1938) sequel made essentially of reworked footage from the earlier movie. After "Adventures" he made a number of serials for Republic, including a Tarzan-like Kioga in Hawk of the Wilderness (1938). After this he dropped out for a few years, took acting lessons, and changed his name to Bruce Bennett, dropping his Tarzan and athlete connections. He made many movies after that, gaining fame as a leading man in many Warners products. In 1960 he retired from movie making and went into business, becoming sales manager of a multimillion dollar vending machine company. In 1967 he returned to acting in TV guest appearances.

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Bruce Bennett Bio Excerpt from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:

Actor. (b. May 19, 1909, Tacoma, Wash., as Herman Brix.) Was there an athlete in the 1932 Olympics who didn't play Tarzan? Champion shot-putter Herman Brix, a tall, superbly muscled youth with ruggedly handsome features and a low growl of a voice, was handpicked by the Ape Man's creator, Edgar Rice Burroughs, to star in the 1935 Burroughs-financed serial, The New Adventures of Tarzan following in the footsteps of fellow Olympic stars Johnny Weissmuller and Buster Crabbe. (He'd previously played bits in such films as 1934's Riptide and Student Tour. The Brix vehicle, shot on location in the wilds of Guatemala, was more faithful to Burroughs' character than the Weissmuller films, but its chances were sabotaged by MGM-dashing Brix's hopes for stardom. He toiled in other serials-including Shadow of Chinatown (1936), Hawk of the Wilderness, The Lone Ranger, The Fighting Devil Dogs (all 1938), and Daredevils of the Red Circle (1939)-and a series of cheap adventure flicks for producer Sam Katzman before signing with Columbia in 1940. Trying to leave his athletic reputation behind, he changed his name to Bruce Bennett, and learned his chosen craft from the ground up, apprenticing in bit parts in Three Stooges shorts, B Westerns, and low-budget crime films, even starring in some, such as The Secret Seven (1940) and Underground Agent (1942).  As the years passed, Bennett got better and so did the pictures: The Man With Nine Lives, Before I Hang (both 1940), The More the Merrier and Sahara (both 1943). Bennett got his best breaks at Warner Bros. (though mainly in meaty supporting roles) in such films as Mildred Pierce (1945), A Stolen Life (1946), The Man I Love (1947, a decent leading role), Nora Prentiss, Dark Passage (both 1947), Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948, playing the ill-fated American who attempts to join Humphrey Bogart's expedition for gold), Silver River (1948), and Task Force (1949), among others. Angels in the Outfield (1951), Sudden Fear (1952), Dream Wife (1953), Strategic Air Command (1955), and Love Me Tender (1956) showed an aging Bennett in a variety of character parts. By the time he made the ultra-cheap genre films The Alligator People (1959) and The Fiend of Dope Island (1961), though, he recognized that he'd come full circle and, except for an occasional TV appearance (and a role in the legendary, unreleased Deadhead Miles made in 1972), retired from acting.

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CURIOUS MERCHANDISING DEPARTMENT
THE NEW ADVENTURES OF TARZAN with Herman Brix as Tarzan
12 INDIVIDUAL VIDEOS FROM VIDEOZONE INC.  NY. USA ©2000
Each chapter on a separate tape with a different Tarzan actor photo on each cover.
TZ-01   THE NEW ADVENTURE Lex Barker
TZ-O2  CROSSED TRAILS         Jock Mahoney
TZ-03   DEVIL'S NOOSE             Herman Brix
TZ-04   RIVER PERILS                Denny Miller
TZ-05   UNSEEN HANDS                 Herman Brix
TZ-06  FATAL FANGS              Gordon Scott
TZ-07  FLAMING WATERS        Buster Crabbe
TZ-08  ANGRY GODS                         Lex Barker
TZ-09  DOOM'S BRINK                  Denny Miller
TZ-10  SECRET SIGNALS            Buster Crabbe
TZ-11  DEATH'S FIREWORKS      Herman Brix
TZ-12  OPERATOR 17          Denny Miller