4.3/10
Senior Film Conservator

A definitive 4.3/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Tarzan and the Green Goddess remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
Honestly, only if you’re a glutton for punishment or have a weird obsession with 1930s jungle serials. It’s for the folks who find joy in really questionable editing and acting that’s somewhere between a stage play and a frantic pantomime. If you want a smooth story, you’re going to hate this. Like, a lot. 🐒
The whole thing feels like someone took a pair of scissors to a longer story and just started taping the pieces back together while blindfolded. Scenes just stop. Other scenes start in the middle of a sentence. It’s dizzying.
Tarzan here, played by Bruce Bennett, has this stiff, upright energy that makes me think he’s more comfortable in a boardroom than a canopy. He’s not exactly the primal wild man you might expect. He’s more like a polite neighbor who wandered into the Amazon by mistake. 🌴
There’s this moment where they’re supposedly deep in the 'Green Goddess' territory, but the background looks suspiciously like a local park in California. You can practically hear the cars honking in the distance if you try hard enough.
It’s weirdly fascinating to compare this to something like The Unknown Cavalier. Both have that 'made on a shoestring' vibe, but at least that one has a clearer sense of direction. This one? It’s just running on fumes and jungle vines.
Also, the plot about the 'Green Goddess' is barely there. It’s just an excuse to get people to walk through bushes and look surprised at things that aren't there. At one point, a guy finds a statue and looks so confused I’m pretty sure he didn’t know what the prop was supposed to be. 🗿
I’ve seen Alexander Hamilton, and while that’s a totally different beast, it at least feels like a finished movie. Tarzan and the Green Goddess is more like a rough draft that got released by accident. It's not the worst thing ever, but don't expect a masterpiece. Just expect to be confused.

IMDb 7
1925
Community
Log in to comment.