The New Adventures of Tarzan is a 12 Chapter serial starring Bruce Bennett, who early in his career also went by his real name Heman Brix. Many might remember Bennett for his roles in Before I Hang, Mildred Pierce, Dark Passage and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

Shot in 1935, the same time when the MGM Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan film series was also being filmed, this serial with Herman Brix/Bruce Bennett as Tarzan is truer to what the character was in the Edgar Rice Burroughs novels. Tarzan, referred to as Lord Greystoke at times in the 12-chapter adventure serial, is by far a much more intelligent character than Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan. Tarzan also appears fully clothed when he is in Greystoke mode in some chapters and also, we see his home, Greystoke Manor!

In this serial, Tarzan, who originally was looking for his lost friend, D’Arnot, winds up assisting a team to locate a Guatemalan totem in the Mayan ruins called The Green Goddess. With him are Frank Baker (A Chump at Oxford, Donovan’s Reef) as Major Francis Martling, and his assistant George (Lewis Sargent, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves) who is basically there for comic relief.  Of course, there is a companion animal with Tarzan. There is Nikima, the chimp, played by Jiggs. Lastly, we have Ula Holt as Ula Vale. She is the lead female character as there’s no Jane to be found in this serial. The main nemesis for Tarzan is Ashton Dearholt (Western Yesterdays) as P.B. Raglan, who is out to kill Tarzan and company as he wants the statue for himself.

I enjoyed The New Adventures of Tarzan, which had a lot of cool cliffhangers and lots of 30s style action throughout. I could have done without some of the comedy but overall, the serial was a lot of fun to watch. The first chapter runs for about an hour which is a first that I can recall having a chapter go that long. The remaining chapters are the usual 16-20 minutes long.

One of the more interesting behind the scenes information about this serial is in the original plot there was to be more Government agents, including Ula Holt’s character being an agent called Operator 17. This serial had some rewrites from what I have gathered.

Film Masters has released The New Adventures of Tarzan as part of their Archive Collection on a single BDr disc. Advertised as ‘newly restored’ the image is clear and generally pleasing with strong black and white levels along with a nice balanced grey scale, but due to source materials there are speckles and vertical lines throughout the chapters. Some of the chapters do look better than others in terms of fewer vertical lines and speckles. I thought the last two chapters had the poorest picture quality, again due to film elements of this rare serial. Labels can only do so much with these movies to make them look as sharp as possible, and many chapters to me look as sharp as they possibly could be.

The English DTS-HD 2.0 soundtrack is clear with easy-to-follow dialogue and action sounds, Mischa Bakaleinikoff’s score comes in strong as well, with none of the audio being overly dominant. I did detect some wheezing/ buzzing in the first chapter that was a little bit distracting. Optional English subtitles are offered for this release.

There are no extras for this serial.

For those who do like the Tarzan movies and classic serials, I most definitely will say to give this one a try.  For this that will pick this up, keep in mind that this will not look as excellent as other Film Masters special edition releases, but you will have a good time watching The New Adventures of Tarzan!

The New Adventures of Tarzan

Director –Edward Kull and Wilbur F. McGaugh

Cast- Herman Brix (aka Bruce Bennett), Ula Holt, Frank Baker, Ashton Dearholt

Country of Origin-USA

Distributor – Film Masters

Number of Discs –1

Reviewed by – David Steigman

Date –3/2/2025