Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Not even Tarzan could defeat Benji and his interminable songs, however! What is there to be said about Tarzan and the Mermaids that hasn't already been said by the other fine reviewers on this site? Probably not a lot, but having caught this on TCM just this week the film is certainly a bizarre adventure. Given that the running time just tips the 60 minute mark there is substantial amount of padding on show (which never bodes well), from the long narrated intro (which also gives the villains' game away from the off), the various aqua pursuits of the island folk (although the cliff diving is thrilling, it must be said) and then the exploits of Benji. If Benji's full-length songs don't eat up enough screen time, then there is Benji preparing for and then engaging in a sea joust. Of the songs, it's interesting to note the pained but humouring faces of Jane et al when Benji treats them to his ditties - a bit like visitors enduring a friend's insistence that they sit through their 'talented' child's piano recital and who act all polite when all they really want to do is scream "ENOUGH!". Anyway, Cheetah has the right idea and nicks Benji's guitar early on, but sadly he is ordered by Tarzan to return it.Oh, and Benji is supposed to be a river postman, but he can't even get that right and forgets the only letter that he has to deliver to Tarzan Towers. Luckily, he has no qualms about invading privacy and having read it previously conveys, in the form of verse (cue five more minutes of Benji action), its contents from a now England-based Boy. Although, given the sketchy information Benji communicates, Boy is clearly living student life to the max and not missing the jungle one bit.Anyway, aside from no mermaids, we get the lovely Linda Christian as Mara, a crook pretending to be a God (who wants to marry Mara, which would rathar give the non-God game away on the wedding night, I'd have thought), George Zucco walking around an Aztec pyramid a lot (with some cool star-shaped shell necklace bling), and a secret island that curiously leads directly to Tarzan and Jane's gaff by river and only takes 10 minutes to get there by canoe (as Tiko, Mara's true love, also demonstrates when he randomly shows up at Tarzan/Jane's tree-top manor). So, a guilty pleasure, for sure, if you can survive Benji and his songs. But that is a big 'if'.

Watching Tarzan And The Mermaids I was thinking this looks a whole lot like Acapulco rather than Africa. Even the 'natives' look Latino. And sure enough I found that RKO had shot a good deal of this in Acapulco. It was good for Johnny Weissmuller because in this film more than most of the Tarzan films he got to do what he did best, swim and dive.Wherever Tarzan was from exactly in Africa in the Forties he kept running into more Africans who weren't black than those who were. In this film he's found himself a culture who worships the God, Baloo. Baloo in fact is a pearl trader Fernando Wagner who puts on a Baloo suit and with high priest George Zucco keeps the natives in line. Wagner wants pearls, but Zucco's got an eye for Linda Christian and Baloo says to her to marry with Zucco. But she likes Gustavo Rojo and in the end Tarzan has to straighten everyone out in his usual manner.Brenda Joyce was Jane again, but Johnny Sheffield as Boy had departed the series going off to England for a neglected education. God only knows what that was like for the kid in an English public school. But Sheffield at least managed to miss some of the nonsense rampant in Tarzan And The Mermaids.Don't get me wrong, it's great fun if you don't take it seriously.

Johnny Weissmuller's swan song as Tarzan, the Ape Man. Looking winded and overweight, it's almost painful seeing Weissmuller running, diving, and climbing rocky terrain--he no longer has the grace of an athletic jungle man, and close-ups of his grizzled face reveal both an actor's rebellion and perhaps a bit of embarrassment. Down the river from Tarzan and Jane's abode on the African coast lies a taboo island ruled by a false god, whom the natives shower with treasures from the sea. Promised a maiden bride, the costumed ruler and his power-hungry potentate are furious when the beautiful girl selected escapes (how she fits into their pearl-trading scheme isn't made clear, nor is the fact she realizes the god Balu is a fake but her people do not). Filmed in Mexico City, the picture is padded with local atmospherics and asides (some of which, such as the breathtaking cliff-side high-dives, are truly marvelous). Dimitri Tiomkin's lush scoring and the shimmering black-and-white cinematography by Jack Draper and Gabriel Figueroa almost make the movie worth-seeing; however, Brenda Joyce is a lackluster Jane, a subplot regarding government officials is confusingly integrated, and there isn't enough humor. ** from ****

Last of the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films and a good thing too, as this is easily the worst of the 12 films he made over a period of 16 years. No mermaids are featured here either as a beautiful island woman tries to escape the clutches of her people, who worship a god and try to force her to be its bride. She finds Tarzan and Jane, who try to protect her. George Zucco is present as a potentially villainous High Priest but isn't used to his full advantage. Also on hand and worthy of mention is a hugely annoying guitar player/singer who goes into song every so often. Even the "great" Robert Florey can't aid this one.*1/2 out of ****