Tarzan's Desert Mystery

During the Second World War, Jane is nursing wounded soldiers in England when she writes to Tarzan asking for help. She needs a malaria medicine that can only be obtained from plants growing in a jungle oasis on the far side of the desert. Tarzan sets out with his son Boy and their chimpanzee, Cheetah, leaving their familiar jungle behind and crossing the desert in search of the plants. On the way they meet Connie Bryce, an American magician who has been entertaining troops and who now carries a secret mission of her own. Their journey brings them to a desert city ruled by Sheik Abdul El Khim, where the schemes of the power-hungry Paul Hendrix put the travellers in danger.

Johnny Weissmüller plays Tarzan for the sixth time, with Johnny Sheffield as Boy, Nancy Kelly as Connie Bryce, Otto Kruger as Hendrix and Joe Sawyer as Karl Straeder. Wilhelm Thiele directed the film, his second credited feature after Adieu Mascotte in 1929, from a screenplay by Edward T. Lowe Jr.; Sol Lesser produced. The film runs seventy minutes.

Released in December 1943, the film is rated 6.1 out of 10 on IMDb from around 2,400 votes and also 6.1 out of 10 on TMDB, though from only about fifty ratings there. Both figures point to a modest, settled reception rather than a widely celebrated one.