Themes: Air Disasters, Survival in the Wilderness, Stranded
Main Cast: Lex Barker, Brenda Joyce, Albert Dekker, Evelyn Ankers, Charles Drake
Release Year: 1949
Country: US
Run Time: 73 minutes
Plot
Lex Barker first stepped into the loincloth of the Lord of the Jungle in Tarzan's Magic Fountain. The story gets under way when Tarzan rescues a long-lost aviatrix named Gloria (Evelyn Ankers), who has been kept youthful by the magic fountain of the title. Bad guys Trask (Albert Dekker) and Dodd (Charles Drake) try to exploit the recuperative waters for mercenary purposes. They accompany the rapidly aging Gloria on an expedition back to the secluded valley where the magic waters flow. When the villains make their evil intentions known, Tarzan swings into action. Brenda Joyce plays Jane, just as she had in the last of the Johnny Weissmuller "Tarzan" entries. Tarzan's Magic Fountain was co-scripted by horror-film vet Curt Siodmak. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
McClure Capps - Art Director, Lee Sholem - Director, Merrill White - Editor, Karl Struss - Cinematographer, Sol Lesser - Producer, Harry Chandlee - Screenwriter, Curt Siodmak - Screenwriter
This was Barker's first appearance as Edgar Rice Burroughs' ape-man, while Joyce had played Jane opposite Johnny Weismuller as Tarzan in four previous films. She was one of only two actresses to portray Jane in movies with two different actors as Tarzan. (The other was Karla Schramm in the silent era.) Tarzan's Magic Fountain was Joyce's final turn in the role, and different actresses played Jane in each of Barker's four subsequent Tarzan movies: (Vanessa Brown, Virginia Huston, Dorothy Hart, and Joyce MacKenzie). Elmo Lincoln, who had been the first screen Tarzan three decades earlier, appears uncredited as a fisherman repairing his nets.
Plot
Horror film "scream queen" Ankers portrays an aviatrix who walks out of the jungle looking decades younger than her chronological age due to a secret fountain of youth but gradually begins a terrifying accelerated aging process. Against Tarzan's wishes, she and Jane begin a desperate search for the fountain.
