TARZAN AND THE GREEN GODDESS - 1938
Directors Edward Kull & Wilbur F McGaugh
Producers

 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ben S Cohen,
Ashton Dearholt & George W Stout
Story
 Edgar Rice Burroughs
Screenplay

 Edwin Blum, Basil Dickey
& Charles F Royal
MAIN CAST
Tarzan

 Bruce Bennett
(aka Herman Brix)
Ula Vale Ula Holt
P B Raglan

 Don Castello &
Ashton Dearholt
Major Martling Frank Baker
George Lewis Sargent
Alice Martling Dale Walsh
BACKGROUND
• In a last ditch effort to extract some additional funds from their project, Burroughs-Tarzan Enterprises (BTE) released a sequel to The New Adventures of Tarzan by editing a 72 minute feature film from the last ten chapters of their serial, as well as adding some new footage.  Since the first film Herman Brix had taken acting lessons and changed his name to Bruce Bennett in an attempt to avoid identification with the Tarzan role and his athletic past.  He is identified by the new name in the credits of Green Goddess.  Edgar Rice Burroughs had loaned BTE $50,000 to launch the enterprise but the poor performance of The New Adventures of Tarzan left them in the embarrassing position of not being able to repay the loan.  Salvation came in the person of Jesse Goldberg.  In an agreement with the producers Goldberg was installed as the sole distributing agent of the film and was to receive 50 per cent of all profits.  The reasonable success of the film in England was sufficient to repay the loan and BTE was able to clear the books.  In 1939 the company closed their doors permanently. (Essoe & Fury)
APE CRY
• To hear the ape cry used in this film click on the image at right
PLOT - Note: Spoiler warning
• The natives of the Mayan Dead City are furious that their sacred idol, the Green Goddess, has been stolen by the invading white explorers.  As the Martling expedition are about to leave Guatemala they are attacked by Raglan who recovers possession of the idol.  Raglan escapes on a schooner captained by his accomplice, Simon Blade, but Tarzan and the Martling party manage to follow them on another boat and eventually overtake them in the jungle.  The entire party, including Tarzan, are captured by the Mayans but Ula kills her guard and manages to free Tarzan.  Disguised in the hooded robes of the Mayans they free George from the torture chamber.  They all escape aboard a ship but it is Blade's schooner and Raglan is also aboard.  The party realise that Raglan is aboard the ship but Raglan is shot and killed in a struggle with Blade.  A hurricane hits the ship and Tarzan, Ula, Martling and George shelter in the ship's cabin and are the sole survivors.  They all return to England and Ula decides to destroy the formula for the explosion which was in the idol.
 
SOURCES
• Tarzan of the Movies by Gabe Essoe, 1968, The Citadel Press
• Kings Of The Jungle by David Fury, 1994, McFarland Classics
IMAGES
• The top photo is from Tarzan of the Movies by Gabe Essoe, 1968, The Citadel Press
• The bottom photo is from my private collection
LYNX
• Read a review and rating of this film at At-A-glance Film Reviews
CAPTURE
• Bag yourself a copy of this film on DVD at Amazon.com or eBay
TARZAN® is the property of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., Tarzana CA.
This independent, fan-based analysis of the Tarzan material is copyright © 2002-2007 Paul Wickham
This page was updated August 2007