Tarzan's Manhattan Madness
To put it bluntly you don't watch "Tarzan in Manhattan" with expectations of it being good in fact you watch it because you know it is going to be bad and hopefully so bad it's entertaining. Thankfully it is, this is a movie which will delight lovers of bad movies from a whole lot of corny to Tony Curtis delivering wise cracks and a lot of bad 80s outfits. Ironically it is said that "Tarzan in Manhattan" was going to be a start of a TV series, thank goodness they didn't because even though it is unintentionally hilarious there is no way a TV series would have worked.
After receiving a visit from his friendly store owner with a couple of books for him to read Tarzan (Joe Lara) hears gun fire and discovers that not only has the ape which raised him been shot dead but Cheetah is missing. With just a cigar stub and a book of matches as clues Tarzan heads to the city where he bumps into friend cab driver Jane Porter (Kim Crosby) who seeing him in his loin cloth agrees to help. Along with Jane's father Archimedes (Tony Curtis) they follow the clues to a fancy dress party and the evil Brightmore (Jan-Michael Vincent) who has been capturing animals for his experiments.
To be honest there isn't much you can say about "Tarzan in Manhattan" because it is terrible on so many levels that you begin to question why those in charge of protecting Edgar Rice Burroughs' creation would give permission for this TV movie to be made. But it is one of those movies which is so bad that is entertaining from one corny scene after another, be it Tarzan looking like a Chippendale in jeans and vest top or Tony Curtis as Archimedes intentionally camping it up and thank goodness he does. I could go on because from a scene which mentions Cinderella to Jan-Michael Vincent in a smart suit with what looks like white plimsolls on his feet it is basically one hilariously bad thing after another.
What this all boils down to is that if you are a fan of Tarzan movies stay well clear of "Tarzan in Manhattan" but if you take perverse pleasure in watching hilariously bad movies then definitely watch it.
