Tarzan vs. James Bond--sort of.

Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959) is the fifth of six Tarzan films starring Gordon Scott and the first produced by Sy Weintraub, who would go on to produce six more Tarzan films during the 1960s as well as the Ron Ely TV series.

Weintraub dropped Jane from his version of Tarzan's mythos, but in many ways steered the franchise back towards the ape man's roots in the original novels. Greatest Adventure may not literally be the Jungle Lord's greatest adventure, but it is a superior adventure story, with Gordon Scott playing a more realistic Tarzan than we'd often seen in the films. Like the "real" Tarzan from the novels, he's well-spoken and obviously intelligent, but still a savage at heart.

We certainly see that in this film. A gang of men led by a brutal killer named Slade have killed two men while stealing some explosives. They now head up a river in a boat, heading for a diamond mine Slade had stumbled across. The explosives are needed to clear the entrance to the mine.

But their murders have put Tarzan on their trail. Slade and Tarzan have an unpleasant history and it is soon apparent that either of them would happily kill the other should the opportunity present itself.

Tarzan's pursuit of the killers, though, might be easier if he weren't saddled with a companion--a mildly stuck-up lady named Angie that the Ape Man rescued after her plane crashed.

There's a lot to like about this film. I was struck by how the villains are all given their own distinct personalities--a combination of good writing and good acting. Anthony Quayle gives a very strong performance as Slade--a ruthless man whose obsession with killing (in particular killing Tarzan) slowly overwhelms his desire to get the diamonds.

One of his henchmen is O'Bannion, a brutal thug who's not anywhere near as smart as he thinks he is. O'Bannion is played by Sean Connery, just three years shy of becoming James Bond. This gives us a meta reason for enjoying this movie. At one point, Tarzan is about to ambush O'Bannion, but then is force to stay perfectly still as a tarantula crawls over him. In Connery's first Bond Film (Dr. No), he is at one point forced to stay perfectly still while a tarantula crawls over him.

These villains are perhaps the most thuggish bunch that Tarzan has ever gone up against in any of his adventures. They have joined together in a venture for their mutual profit, but its pretty clear that they would (and in fact do) start back-stabbing each other at the earliest opportunity. And that is exactly the sort of bad guys this particular story needs, adding to the suspense and the ambiance of the movie.

The byplay between Tarzan and Angie is quite good as well (with their eventual attraction to each other proving that Jane does not exist in this particular universe). Angie gets believable character growth, becoming more self-reliant and more compassionate towards those around her as she treks through the jungle with Tarzan.

The writer is Les Crutchfield, who's credits include being one of the important writers for both the radio and television versions of Gunsmoke. So its not surprising that Tarzan's Greatest Adventure gives us a strong story with strong characters.