I love this movie so much

You won't be disappointed!

Great Film overall

As Good As It Gets

Jane is still in London when she sends word to Tarzan to make up some of the medicine for jungle fever.Heading out with Boy across the desert they run into some no good guys trying to capture a horse. Shooing them off they make the acquaintance of a female magician on a mission for a sheik. They all end up in a city where the no good guys are holding sway over the local ruler. Tarzan and the magician all end up in trouble and it isn't long before there is a chase into the desert which ends in a jungle where giant monsters lurk.Good action adventure sometimes gets a bit side tracked, however when its on point it's solid entertainment, even the giant monsters which come off as pure hokey fun. Highly recommended

Tarzan's Desert Mystery (1943) ** (out of 4) Jane, who once again sends Tarzan a letter saying she isn't coming home, also asks her boyfriend to get a secret formula that can cure troops fighting in the war. Tarzan, Boy and Cheetah set out to do this but end up fighting Arabs. I found it incredibly difficult to stay awake while watching this film and it took several viewings to be able to do so. I thought the first forty-minutes of this thing were deadly dull and lacked any nice comedy or action. The female lead also wasn't very interesting, which hurt matters. The film eventually picks up at the end when Tarzan must enter a mysterious jungle full of living vines, prehistoric creatures and a huge spider. If only the entire film had taken place here. This is the first Tarzan I've actually been disappointed in to the point where I probably won't watch it again.

Edger Rice Burrough's Tarzan was never meant to be muscular although as portrayed by Elmo Lincoln, Frank Merrill and Gordon Scott's Tarzan was indeed very much so. Young Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan was lithe, strong and athletic with a beautiful manly body. In Tarzan and the Desert Mystery, Johnny Weissmuller looked big , strong and the way he lifted the Arabs --accompanying the American girl magician Nancy Kelly who was providing a free performance in the middle of a desert-- and threw them by mistake despite protests from Kelly was very impressive and entertaining. The second scene that was equally entertaining was the scene in which Tarzan was attacked after being falsely accused of stealing the stallion. Here we find Tarzan throwing the opponents about like little toys and fighting like a majestic lion. I think only Weissmuller could give such a splendid performance. He looked every inch a Tarzan and I should think he was much better built than perhaps Lincoln and Scott. Scott had weight lifter's build and became an extremely believable Tarzan in later films and Lincoln so long as he was in the jungle proved to be a very popular Tarzan with the moviegoers. Nancy Kelly's performance was very humorous and at times very very perceptive. Johnny Sheffield's performance as boy was as to expected , excellent. Cheeta was a great fun to watch and interestingly besides the usual quota of animal extras viz lions, elephants, wild horses, monkeys a number of mysterious prehistoric creatures were included and also a gigantic spider. The stallion that Tarzan rode added an extra element of interest and a novel feature and instead of stampeding wild elephants we have horses stampeding in this movie. The story is quite what one could expect if one is familiar with Newspaper Tarzan Comic Strips as drawn by Hogarth, Manning, Celardo and Foster. These news paper comic strips gave Tarzan a personality and ultimately made it popular enough to be made into movies. The story is a good change but what one could expect for a good Tarzan yarn. Another feature one notices in this film is instead of the " repetitious" vine swinging one finds in in some of excellent MGM films the vine swinging is a refreshing change in this RKO film. I enjoyed it very much and it is an excellent fare for the whole family. I have seen it several times.

Tarzan receives a letter from Jane who is nursing British soldiers back in England during the war, which asks Tarzan to travel to a jungle out in the Sahara desert to collect a special type of malaria serum from a plant. On there journey there Tarzan and Boy, come across a wild horse they rescue from a German and some Arabs and they also bump into a lady magician who gets stranded in the desert. When they take the lady to her destination - an Arabian city> Tarzan is arrested for supposedly stealing the horse because of some shifty Nazis. But he manages to escape and head off to the jungle to collect the very important serum, but the jungle offers up some surprises. Oh, I recall vividly when I was a kid I use to sit in front of the TV on weekends watching the black and white Tarzan movies. Well, that's when I wasn't watching a western or some anime. So, seeing that an entry of the Tarzan series was on one late night, I thought that bit of nostalgia wouldn't go astray. And what a delight it was. I wouldn't class it is one of the best, but in all it was a strange mix that throws in the unexpected. The story is quite a mystery, because there's so much going on with one incident after another occurring. What Tarzan faces on this erratic adventure includes Arabs, Nazis, gigantic prehistoric beasts, dangerous plants and a giant spider. Limbo, thinks Tarzan has he work cut out for him! While, it might have those interesting facets it does take a while to get going with it being rather talkative and Tarzan gets less screen time. This is when Boy played by Johnny Sheffield chirps in and Cheetah the chimpanzee makes for the usual comic relief. But its Nancy Kelly who dominates the film as the stubborn Connie the American Magician. There seems to be more of a comedy of capers thanks too Nancy Kelly's character who comes up with some humorous quotes and like others have already mentioned; she makes a good substitute for Jane. The film takes place mostly in a desolate backdrop (of course studio sets), but when it hits its dense jungle setting in the last half hour that's when it becomes lively with it's out-of-this-world development with everything in the jungle mostly being big. Johnny Weissmuller is more than capable as our hero Tarzan and Otto Kruger gives a perfect performance as the sneaky Nazi Heinrich. The action and comedy are worked in reasonably well by director Wilhelm Thiele; who incorporates a touch of suspense. The story is rigid and been done before, but the new surroundings and the uncanny nature of some sudden turns and changes makes it more memorable and gives it an edge. It's not a groundbreaking entry to the series, but still its a fun adventure for all.