cult film freak: MIKE HENRY IN THE ESPIONAGE 'TARZAN AND THE VALLEY OF GOLD'

Title: TARZAN AND THE VALLEY OF GOLD Year: 1966 Rating: ***1/2

You can tell that TARZAN AND THE VALLEY OF GOLD is imitating/emulating the popular mid-1960's James Bond franchise by the opening credits alone, with a vibrant, jazzy score and psychedelic colors tracing what winds up the opening scene's empty bullfight arena, with Mike Henry's usually scantily-clad hero actually dressed-up in a dapper business suit for a duck-and-cover shootout...

Winding up in another (filmed entirely in) Mexico location full of gorgeous pyramids where David Opatoshu as Vinero attempts taking over, more like a Bond villain than Tarzan's a spy, eventually trading his civilian clothes for the signature loin-cloth framing a ripped/muscular build, the usual Tarzan template from Johnny Weissmuller to Lex Barker to Jock Mahoney leading to the USC Trojan football star's acting breakthrough...

Mike Henry and Nancy Kovack in TARZAN AND THE VALLEY OF GOLD

His first mission's to find young Manuel Padilla Jr. (who would soon co-star with TARZAN Ron Ely on TV), right after he's kidnapped by the villains who initially invaded the jungle (awkwardly blended with grainy stock-nature-footage): including who'll become Tarzan's final-fight rival, obvious by the sheer size of Don Megowan's tall and muscular Mr. Train, who winds up at the titular valley with his boss commanding army tanks to force gold from the peaceful natives...

At this point feeling like a Spaghetti Western, and making David Opatoshu a fitfully despicable villain who deserves his eventual demise, thanks to Tarzan's last minute reliable resilience (with the help of villain's-secretary-turned-helpful-ingenue Nancy Kovack and a few resourceful animals) in a low-budget yet slick-looking, thoroughly-entertaining American International production: a double-whammy time-machine not only into the peak of the spy-genre, but when Tarzan movies were adventurous pulp-sourced programmers before becoming idealistic melodramas.