screenshots / Tarzan and the Jungle Boy / 1968 Paramount Pictures

The third and final screen appearance of former football linebacker Mike Henry in the role of Tarzan.

All three of the Tarzan films starring Mike Henry were completed before the first (Tarzan and the Valley of Gold) was released in 1966.

The story has Tarzan helping a photojournalist and her assistant in their search for a boy who has been missing for six years in the jungle after the death of his father, a geologist. Hindering the search is the tribal power struggle between Buhara and his evil brother, Nagambi.

In the conclusion of the film, Tarzan convinces the jungle boy to leave the jungle for civilization so as to get a proper education and then afterwards make the decision to return.

The roles of the opposing brothers Nagambi and Buhara were played by real life brothers Rafer and Ed Johnson.

Though the story is set in Africa the filming locations are in Brazil along the Amazon River.

The jungle boy Erik (whom the natives call Jukaro) is played by Steve Bond, who would go on to find fame in the 1980's on TV's General Hospital and as a male stripper for Chippendales.

Later films featuring Steve Bond include Massacre at Central High (1976), Gas Pump Girls (1979) and Picasso Trigger (1988).

Olympic gold medalist Rafer Johnson (Nagambi) had previously appeared as the villian Barcuma in Tarzan and the Great River (1967).

In 1968, Rafer Johnson was one of three people who tackled Sirhan Sirhan moments after he shot Robert F. Kennedy.

After filming his Tarzan trilogy back-to-back in 1965, Mike Henry turned down the lead in the upcoming television series giving exhaustion as one of his reasons.

Perhaps to those not familiar with his Tarzan movies, Henry may be remembered for his appearances in three Smokey and the Bandit films as Junior Justice, the dim-witted son of Sheriff Buford T. Justice (played by Jackie Gleason)..

Mike Henry passed in 2021 at the age of 84.

Rafer Johnson passed in 2020 at the age of 86.