Sequel to MGM’s Tarzan, The Ape Man begins with Harry Holt (Neil Hamilton) preparing a return to the elephant graveyard of the first film. Bankrolling the expedition is his lecherous friend Martin (Paul Cavanaugh), hoping to make a fortune in ivory. Harry doesn’t have riches on his mind; he’s more interested in locating Jane and convincing her to return to London with him.

After overcoming the swamp, the Juju tribe and mountain gorillas, Harry reaches the domain of Jane Parker (top-billed Maureen O’Sullivan) and Tarzan, the ape man, played by Johnny Weismuller, five time Olympic gold medalist in men’s swimming and widely considered the best Tarzan in film history.

Once he gets a look at Jane, Martin forgets all about his ivory, and joins Harry in wooing her with a phonograph, dresses, silk stockings and perfume they brought along. Jane humors the men by trying it all on, but never entertains the notion of leaving the jungle or her man.

With Tarzan’s help, the expedition reaches the elephant graveyard, but the lord of the apes objects when he learns the men want to haul the ivory away. Martin later shoots Tarzan, and led to believe he’s been eaten by a crocodile, Jane agrees to return home. Can Cheeta and Tarzan’s ape friends revive him in time to rescue Jane from the clutches of cannibals and man-eating lions?

With direction credited to legendary MGM art director Cedric Gibbons, and a screenplay by James Kevin McGuiness and adaptation by Leon Gordon and Howard Emmett Rogers from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ characters, the critical consensus is that Tarzan and His Mate is the best of the Weismuller-O’Sullivan series that consisted of six Tarzan pictures between 1932 and 1942.

At the time, Daily Variety labeled the film “a wild, disgraceful, highly entertaining orgy of comic, sensual and sadistic nonsense.” I had a ball watching it. The over-the-top action, primitive production value and political incorrectness (Cheeta smokes a cigarette, outrage at 11) are fun, but what stands out most is the pairing of Weismuller & O’Sullivan. Their physical attributes and screen chemistry are rivaled only by Pitt & Jolie for this kind of movie.

Weismuller does everything the script asks of him and is believable in his character moments. These are outshined by his scenes rassling with every creature in the jungle: jaguar, lion, rhino and most memorably, a giant crocodile.

It’s Maureen O’Sullivan who carries this film, and she’s beyond peer as an action heroine. Jane does everything Tarzan does – swing from the trees, yodel, swim, and contend with beasts – while fending off the advances of other men and keeping her cool during the rousing siege that ends the film.

Another highlight is a four minute skinnydipping sequence. Originally shot in three versions – with Olympic swimmer Josephine McKim doubling for O’Sullivan – Jane was clothed, topless or nude, but all three versions ended up being censored under the Hays Code. The nude version was discovered in the vaults of Turner Entertainment in the late ’90s and restored to the film.

As fine as this ballet of bodies, light and water is, my favorite scene occurs before Tarzan and Jane are even introduced. After escaping the Jujus by scaling a sacred mountain, Martin comments, “Well, I hope we’ve got the worst behind us.” “We have,” is Harry’s reply. Not a moment later, a boulder flies out of nowhere and knocks a native laborer to his screaming death. More dummies are thrown from a great height in his scene alone than any other in film I can recall. Lots of fun.