"Tarzan and the Elephant Men" (with trained 'attack lions')
From BLUE BOOK, where it appeared in three installments from November 1937 through January 1938, this follow-up to "Tarzan and the Magic Men" doesn't really match the fresh touches of telepathic mind control and controversial miscegenation issues that made the earlier tale interesting. Although it continues the stories of the characters Gonfala, Stanley Wood, Spike and Troll, mostly it goes back to the familiar territory of the opposed twin cities of Athne and Cathne which our boy visited in TARZAN AND THE CITY OF GOLD a few books earlier. Even here, since the ferocious Queen Nemone is slightly dead, she can't bring any of that strong sexual tension between the Apeman and herself that gave CITY OF GOLD its strange oppressive atmosphere. Instead, we get a lot more of the same old running back and forth, being thrown in the dungeon and sentenced to the arena, counterplots and scheming, checking back on the Waziri racing to the rescue... nothing we haven't seen before, although it's presented in a solid workmanlike way.
There are some very effective moments that just jump out at you. This second half of what would become the book TARZAN THE MAGNIFICENT is written with more energy and craftsmanship than some of the slack entries in the later part of the series. In one sequence, Tarzan is running for his life from a squad of five trained Cathnean hunting lions and even the cocky Apeman is not sure he's going to make it to the safety of the trees when he abruptly sees a stray wild lion right in his way. By now, we have come to accept that Tarzan can blithely knife a lion to death without getting a scratch on him, but five thoroughbred hunting lions is a bit much, and this situation really looks desperate. For those few pages, the story crackles with the old vitality and tension that made the early books so great and which started the legend.
There is also the impressive battle between the armies of the two cities. The warriors of Athne attack riding in howdahs on the backs of bull elephants, while the Cathneans s rely on their trained lions. You might think, well heck, the elephants will just stomp on those cats but instead "....a moment later, the war lions of Cathne were among them. They did not attack the elephants, but leaped to the howdahs and mauled the warriors. Two or three lions would attack a single elephant at a time, and at least two of them succeeding in reaching the howdah." Quite an image! Just imagine seeing this brought to the movies like that scene with the Oliphants in RETURN OF THE KING. Even late in his career, Edgar Rice Burroughs would usually pull one more trick to remind me how imaginative and powerful a writer he could be.
This battle could have benefitted from being expanded by a few more pages; the ending does seem rushed, and some of the forgettable Athnean stiffs could be edited out with little loss.
Burroughs is still happily slapping on coincidence in great big slabs. Despite all those speeches about admiring animals, Tarzan doesn't actually socialize with them except when he's trying to eat one or one is trying to eat him. Except for elephants, with whom he has always had a steadfast friendship. At one point, he pauses to laboriously rescue a huge bull elephant from a pit. The mighty beast has one dark tusk and later on in the story, the Apeman is sentenced to be trampled in the arena by a rogue elephant the Athneans have captured. Wait a minute... you don't think... what are the odds that this rogue will have a dark tusk?!
Although Jane doesn't appear on stage, she is mentioned obliquely (better than nothing). Expecting to be killed in the arena, Stanley Wood asks Tarzan if there is no message he would like to send home and the Apeman sakes his head, "Thank you, no. She will know, as she always has." It's also comforting to know that noble old Muviro is still on hand, with his Waziris, still as stoic and bushido-like as ever (six of the Waziri are ready to storm the city of Athne, even though Wood prudently points out they couldn't possibly win. "We could try," Waranji says, "we are not afraid."
One thing I enjoyed is that for once someone actually dares to contradict Tarzan's (and the author's) one-sided speeches about how awful civilization and how wonderful living naked in the woods would be. The Apeman refers to "the perfect peace and security of automobile accidents, railroad wrecks, aeroplane crashes, robbers, kidnappers, war and pestilence." With a laugh, Woods replies, "But no lions, leopards, buffaloes, wild elephants, snakes, nor tsetse flies, not to mention shiftas and cannibals." It's about time someone spoke up in counterpoint, and Tarzan does not blow up but just lets it pass good-naturedly.