Very well executed

How sad is this?

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Johnny Weissmuller's physique was incredible in this film. The 41 year old Weissmuller had trained and worked out his body to it's best since the MGM days. His pecs are huge and his abs nicely cut and defined. RKO obviously noticed as they cut his loincloth down to it's scimpiest in years. Johnny's newfound athletic prowess found him getting into more physical scenes such as wrestling Tongolo, fighting the leopard men and being heavily scarred by their claws and being tied to a post with his awesome body on display to the luscious Lea (Acquanetta). Equally lovely is Brenda Joyce as Jane. The scene where Lea confronts Tarzan with her claw is very erotic and chilling. Tarzan has never faced such evil torture before in a film. Johnny is up for the challenge,however with his spectacular torso. Easily the best of the RKO Tarzans.

Tarzan and the Leopard Woman (Kurt Neumann, 1946) - This is a touch better than Amazons, with plenty of action (quite well done) and a lively performance by Weissmuller, who'd looked a bit out of sorts in the previous entry. The plot, by now following a path through the jungle wilds so well-trodden it resembles a motorway, sees the Ape Man battling a weird cult with silly leopard costumes that's really into robbery and human sacrifice. Considering the movies were aimed at kids, their marketing is curiously sexualised, with the poster art invariably flagging up the boobs of whichever minor character was most well-endowed. Here it's Acquanetta, who gets shared billing. Her leopard bikini is at least a bit better thought-out than those ridiculous capes the other cult members are wearing.I rather enjoyed the film, particularly its adherence to near wall-to-wall action, but it provides quite a bit of unintentional hilarity. That comes partly from its incredibly low opinion of natives (who are all duplicitous, hateful savages) and partly from the barely-choreographed dance the leopard men do around the fire. They look like drunk clubbers wearing their wives' coats. One interesting element of the film is "half-native" Edgar Barrier, a Western-educated cultist who denounces the decadence of the imperialists and leads the fight against them. All the RKO series regulars return here: Brenda Joyce is still somewhat one-note as Jane, Boy is entering puberty (giving him an all-new voice and face) and Cheeta hogs the limelight once more. I'm going to be an old cynic and suggest that it's not really him playing that music on the trumpet, though.

Johnny Weissmuller made a name for himself as Tarzan at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio. However, and I am not sure why, Weissmuller and 'Boy' (Johnny Sheffield) jumped from this prestige studio to the less than stellar RKO--where the budgets shrank considerably as did the quality. The scripts got a lot more weird and the films became chock full of poorly integrated stock footage and animals that often weren't even African. Additionally, 'Jane' (Maureen O'Sullivan) remained at MGM and a new leading lady needed to be found. After having the character be 'off on vacation in England' or 'helping with the war effort' in a couple films, RKO decided to re-cast this character with Brenda Joyce--who bore little similarity to O'Sullivan.This film about a silly cult of the Leopard. Its followers don't want civilization to encroach on their part of the jungle and so they kill people in caravans who cross nearby. But to hide that people are responsible, they make it look like leopards did this. Now here is the funny part--these guys dress up like these big cats--complete with metal claws and silly leopard costumes. It's even sillier when they dance about back at their lair--as if it was choreographed by a monkey! Early on Tarzan tells everyone that it is NOT leopards that have been doing the killing. Despite this King of the Jungle ALWAYS being right in the past, he is quickly ignored and the idiots in charge just go out and shoot a lot of poor old leopards. Eventually, this leads to more attacks--including one where four hot school teachers are kidnapped. When they kidnap Tarzan, who's to save him?! Tune in and see the surprising answer (hint: it is neither Jane nor Boy).This is fun to watch (Cheeta is in rare form) but ultimately a pretty dumb outing for the series. While not nearly as lame as "Tarzan and the Mermaid" (by far the worst of the Weissmuller films for RKO), its plot is so silly that it can never be taken very seriously. Worth seeing for fans of the series, but if you are a novice to them DON'T start with this one--you'll assume the others are all equally silly--which they aren't.By the way, in the summary I say that this film signals that the series had 'jumped the shark'. In other words, it arrives AFTER the series has gone into serious decline and the writers are trying desperately to find some way to convince viewers to watch (such as the Leopard angle). Likewise, by this film RKO completely gave up on having extras that looked African in any way. There are no black extras and the leopard cult look as if they are from Central America. In fact, in the final film of this series just a couple years later, the movie was filmed in Mexico--with lots of Mexicans and even Aztec sets!!

TARZAN AND THE LEOPARD WOMAN (RKO Radio, 1946), directed by Kurt Neumann, brings forth Tarzan, the jungle lord, in another Saturday afternoon matinée adventure story.The story opens with Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller), Jane (Brenda Joyce) and Boy (Johnny Sheffield), along with Cheetah, strolling through the village doing some afternoon shopping. Tarzan is seen having fun by wrestling with a strong man named Tall Bull the Terrible (Tor Johnson), while Cheetah watches a snake charmer and nearly getting bitten by one of the snakes. Then comes a wounded man riding on an elephant who soon succumbs from wound scars acquired by a leopard. Tarzan examines the dead man and tells the authorities that the man's death was not caused by a leopard, but by people dressed in leopard skins and iron claws. Aside from solving the mystery, Tarzan and his family find themselves in danger after taking in Kimba, a native boy (Tommy Cook), who not only happens to be the brother of the evil high priestess (Acquanetta) of the leopard tribe, but trouble to all those around him.The supporting cast includes Edgar Barrier as Lazar; Dennis Hoey as The Commissioner; Anthony Caruso as Mongo; and Doris Lloyd as the Superintendress. Acquanetta, best known for her role as Paula, the Ape Woman in Universal's CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN (1943) and JUNGLE WOMAN (1944), makes a fine tribe leader this time around.With the Tarzan movies being distributed in theaters on an annual basis, the writers attempt to come up with new and fresh ideas surrounding the old, familiar characters, headed by Weissmuller. Brenda Joyce returns as Jane for the second time, while the teenage Johnny Sheffield, outgrowing his part, appears to be a bit too old now to be called Boy. One scene in the shopping village finds young native girls giving Boy the eye, but Boy becomes bashful and passes up on them. The native tribes from the MGM movie days seem to have moved to another part of town, thus, being substituted by a jungle shopping mall. Another noticeable change finds Tarzan acquiring neighbors with each passing film, this time a Leopard tribe who don't seem to be the sorts to be calling on Tarzan and Jane at their treehouse for a cup of sugar this time around. For the first time since TARZAN'S SECRET TREASURE (MGM, 1941), Boy is able to bond with another lad close to his own age, but with friends like Kimba, who needs enemies? One highlight finds Boy in a fight to the finish with Kimba attempting to endanger Jane with a knife, with Boy subduing Kimba, having his hands tied behind his back and placing the little demon in a cage like a wild animal. As for Tarzan, he's captured by the leopard tribe and held captive by the priestess.Not bad entry in the long running series, but by this time, the yarns are becoming routine and still quite watchable by fans of the series. Aside from commercial television revivals during the 1960s to 1980s, this and the other Tarzan adventures did enjoy frequent reruns on American Movie Classics (1997-2000) before moving to Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: June 11, 2011). TARZAN AND THE LEOPARD WOMAN has been distributed to video cassette but did become part of the Tarzan/RKO package on DVD around 2009. Next in line: TARZAN AND THE HUNTRESS (1947). (**1/2)