A low budget but lively jungle adventure yarn with some blood-and-thunder action to recommend it. However, the title is a little misleading because for the most part, this is a film set in the jungle with the leads fighting off jungle perils - I guess the Turkish just wanted to cash in by making a home grown Tarzan adventure film for themselves. They do actually arrive in Istanbul for about three travelogue-type minutes at the very end of the film, complete with the standard laughing chimpanzee joke. Tarzan himself is rarely-seen, occasionally swinging on vines and making the famous Johnny Weissmuller call thanks to a lack of copyright in Turkey - but don't be mistaken, Kunt Tulgar is no Weissmuller and just seems wooden.
The rest of the film is padded out with silly and unwanted (at least by me) comic relief involving cowardly men being attacked by various creatures and tons and tons of stock footage of birds, chimps, elephants, tigers, lions, just about every jungle animal you could imagine is bound to be in here somewhere. Tarzan gets to do his heroic stuff like wrestling lions and fighting crocodiles, and a bikini-clad Jane turns up in the second half to offer some romance to the plot. There's also an incredibly racist depiction of a bunch of natives which serves to further date the movie; this looks like it was made in the late '20s, not the early '50s! These natives kidnap the heroes and lead to the film's amusing climax which sees Tarzan arriving to save the day as some loud, exciting music drones on. TARZAN IN ISTANBUL - a somewhat creaky outing that hasn't aged too well since it was first released.
The rest of the film is padded out with silly and unwanted (at least by me) comic relief involving cowardly men being attacked by various creatures and tons and tons of stock footage of birds, chimps, elephants, tigers, lions, just about every jungle animal you could imagine is bound to be in here somewhere. Tarzan gets to do his heroic stuff like wrestling lions and fighting crocodiles, and a bikini-clad Jane turns up in the second half to offer some romance to the plot. There's also an incredibly racist depiction of a bunch of natives which serves to further date the movie; this looks like it was made in the late '20s, not the early '50s! These natives kidnap the heroes and lead to the film's amusing climax which sees Tarzan arriving to save the day as some loud, exciting music drones on. TARZAN IN ISTANBUL - a somewhat creaky outing that hasn't aged too well since it was first released.
