The New Adventures of Tarzan (1935) Review: A Sweat-Soaked, Hilarious Mess

If you want to see a guy in a dirty loincloth running around actual Mayan ruins in Guatemala while a real-life chimpanzee screams at him, yes, watch this tonight. Anyone who loves old-school, rough-around-the-edges adventure serials will have a blast. But if you can't stand crackly 1930s audio or actors who clearly forgot their lines, you will absolutely hate it. 🌴

This isn't your polished Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan.

The guy playing Tarzan here is Bruce Bennett (billed as Herman Brix back then), and honestly, he looks way more like the actual book character. He's super athletic, which makes sense since he was an Olympic shot-putter.

You can tell because he actually climbs real trees and swings on real vines without a stunt double. No fake studio jungles here.

The plot is a total mess, though.

Tarzan goes to Guatemala—not Africa, because why not—to find his buddy D'Arnot who got lost.

Along the way, he gets mixed up with some explorers looking for a Mayan idol that contains some super explosive formula. It feels like they wrote the script on the back of a napkin while flying to the location.

Speaking of the location, they actually shot this on site in Guatemala. That is pretty rare for 1935, and it shows.

The jungle looks genuinely thick and sweaty, not like a Hollywood backlot. You can almost smell the humidity and the damp soil through the screen.

But man, the sound recording is brutal.

Sometimes a character starts talking and it sounds like they are shouting into an empty tin can. During one scene near the ruins, the wind is blowing so hard against the microphone that you can barely hear the villain threatening anyone.

It's hilarious, honestly.

Let's talk about Jiggs.

Jiggs is the chimpanzee who plays Nkima, and he is easily the best actor in the whole thing. 🐒

There is a moment where Jiggs just sits on a rock and looks completely fed up with the human actors. I swear he rolled his eyes at one point.

It reminds me a bit of the chaotic energy in other silly monkey-themed films from back then, like Farmer Al Falfa's Ape Girl, though obviously this one has more actual jungle action.

The action scenes are incredibly clunky but charming.

In one fight, Tarzan literally just throws a guy into a bush, and the guy stays there like he got knocked out by leaves. Then there is this terrible green screen—or whatever the 1930s equivalent was—when they try to show a lion.

Yes, a lion in Guatemala. Don't think about it too much.

I also noticed that the main bad guy, played by Ashton Dearholt, wears a hat that looks three sizes too big for him.

He keeps adjusting it during serious dialogue. It completely ruined any tension, and I loved every second of it.

If you're expecting some masterpiece like The Band Concert which came out the same year and was perfect, you are looking in the wrong place.

This is cheap, dirty, and incredibly fun if you are in the right mood. Just don't expect a masterpiece.