MIKE HENRY VS RAFER JOHNSON IN 'TARZAN AND THE GREAT RIVER'

Title: TARZAN AND THE GREAT RIVER Year: 1967 Rating: **1/2

The previous years' TARZAN AND THE VALLEY OF GOLD had the jungle-traipsing hero in a suit with a handgun, competing with the James Bond franchise and, in TARZAN AND THE GREAT RIVER, supposedly taking place in the Amazon instead of Africa, they're back to the jungle: although there is one rudimentary scene with Mike Henry's muscular yet monotone Tarzan wearing civilian clothes...

Mostly though, the story's centered so much on a maverick boat captain... played by game-show-host Jan Murray with child-actor Manuel Padilla Jr his first-mate sidekick... that GREAT RIVER is more like an attempt to spinoff another franchise from Tarzan... who mostly stands around giving both the captain and kid advice on growing up...

Mike Henry in TARZAN AND THE GREAT RIVER

Meanwhile the token ingenue's pretty blonde Diana Millay as a doctor whose syringe scares the natives even more than the main villain, played by black British actor Rafer Johnson, whose curse supposedly caused an epidemic...

So it's all down to one finale fight against Tarzan in a terrific looking exterior location of bamboo bridges built along a mountainside: which should have happened a lot sooner, and for much longer.

Mike Henry in TARZAN AND THE GREAT RIVER

Rafer Johnson in TARZAN AND THE GREAT RIVER

Bamboo Fortress from TARZAN AND THE GREAT RIVER

Bamboo Fortress from TARZAN AND THE GREAT RIVER

Mike Henry and Manuel Padilla Jr in TARZAN AND THE GREAT RIVER

Jan Murray in TARZAN AND THE GREAT RIVER

Diana Millay TARZAN AND THE GREAT RIVER