This movie is not so much about Tarzan but more about seeing Bo Derek’s breasts. A year earlier she had just become a household name as the object of Dudley Moore’s desire in the hit comedy “10”. Bo became sought after by all the studios which her husband John saw as an opportunity to boost his own directing career. If the studios wanted Bo then it would be in a movie that John directed. To his credit John realized that Bo’s strength at the time was not in acting but in looking good. He would not be wasting anyone’s time attempting to get Bo that Academy award for best actress in some thought provoking film. Derek’s plan, a mainstream erotic movie that took every opportunity to show Bo in the nude. I suppose when looking for a famous female literary character for the subject of an erotic movie the only one they could come up with was Tarzan and Jane, otherwise Tarzan is usually thought of as a family friendly character who’s main audience is pre-puberty boys.
It begins no different than any of the previous Tarzan films. Richard Harris ( who also starred with Bo in her first and so far best mainstream movie “Orca” ) is a big game hunter who plans an expedition into the heart of Africa to capture the legendary white ape. Insisting on coming along with him is his headstrong daughter Jane ( Bo Derek ). The expedition travels up river following the sounds of the familiar Tarzan call as if an ape would yodel. John Derek’s version of Africa seems to be endless rivers, ponds, and slow moving streams, and Jane’s garments seem to conveniently be a thin white dress. And Jane takes every opportunity to travel across Africa by walking through the water, occasionally up to her neck so that when she emerges her dress is completely transparent. That pretty much sums up the entire movie.
It does not even matter that in the actual Africa no one would travel through the water like this as the waters are infested with crocodiles. Of course there is Jane’s dad who wants to turn Tarzan ( Miles O’Keeffe ) into a trophy even after he finds out that he is human and not the white ape legend said he was and the inevitable tribe of savages who Tarzan has to rescue Jane from. The savages had removed Jane’s clothes and coat her in white mud perhaps in preparation of a sacrifice, an idea that Derek most likely got from the 1976 version of “King Kong”. White mud that Tarzan immediately washes off Jane the second she is rescued. And then there is the inexplicable scene where Jane is on a beach with Tarzan even though if they are suppose to be in deepest darkest Africa then they should be nowhere near the ocean. So much of this movie is about Bo Derek finding reasons to strip that it should have been more accurately called “Jane the Naked”
There is very little to recommend about this movie. The acting is terrible. You would expect that from Bo Derek and Miles O’Keeffe in his first movie role. But veteran actor Richard Harris seems to deliberately turn in a bad performance. The plot is so minimal that even the low budget B Tarzan movies of the past had more of a story. However, if it is soft porn you are looking for and you were one of the millions who found Bo Derek attractive then this may as well be the movie for you. On a side note, in 1984 the definitive live action Tarzan movie was made. “Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes” was a big budget extravaganza that dazzled audiences with it’s mixture of real and robotic apes to depict Tarzan as a boy being raised by an ape family. It had Academy Award worthy performances and an intelligent script, something that is rare for a Tarzan picture. Tarzan’s reputation, tarnished by the John Derek film, was now restored to it’s former glory. That same year Derek directed his wife in yet another bad movie “Bolero” while Miles O’Keeffe starred in “Cave Dwellers” which in turn would be immortalized on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
