Borzage and Tchaikovsky are assuredly the models, I mean Man’s
Castle and The Nutcracker, for the Depression-era clown on stilts
and the grand entertainment of an international meet. Chaplin and Keaton also
figure in New York, Cops is shown in an erudite and fleeting reference
as Dubois flees over a wall.
There’s not any ounce of dullness in it, rather you have pirates
and fight schools, Leone’s New York, Blake Edwards’ girl reporter, a trip to
the Orient and the grand vengeance match over a dead Siamese fighter as the
giant Mongol steps out of the ring for a bout with the Yankee scrapper.
And in the midst of it all, while nation battles nation for the
Golden Dragon, a small zeppelin is used to lift it, criminally speaking.
Tarzan’s Three Challenges is a typical example of the great
Saturday matinee the critics missed in their dreary and unending childhoods.