Cinema: The New Pictures: Aug. 21, 1933

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Tarzan the Fearless was originally intended to be the first four installments of a long Tarzan serial. Producer Sol Lesser thought so highly of his first chapters that he decided to release them at once. The picture shows Mary Brooks being kidnapped in the jungle, carried to a sordid cave where her father has already been incarcerated by a tribe of lecherous Arabians. A little ape tells Tarzan about this dastardly development. He rescues Mary first, then goes to aid her father and two other members of the party. The picture leaves Dr. Brooks (E. Alyn Warren) in danger on the ground. Tarzan, blubbering to Mary in his tree house, will have to save him in the next installment.

Voltaire (Warner) is an historical picture in the grand manner, with powdered wigs, conversations behind curtains, a package of letters from the King of Prussia and George Arliss in unbecoming knee breeches. Count de Sarnac (Alan Mowbray) is the greedy Minister of Finance to Louis XV (Reginald Owen). Because Voltaire (George Arliss) writes tracts denouncing his heavy taxes, the Count tries to bring him into disfavor with the King— unsuccessfully because the King enjoys Voltaire's conversation and Mme Pompadour (Doris Kenyon) finds him entertaining.

When Count de Sarnac executes a rich bourgeois and confiscates his property, Voltaire has his daughter, Nanette (Margaret Lindsay), rescued and brought to his house by a captain of dragoons (Theodore Newton). This infuriates de Sarnac. He gets his chance for revenge when Voltaire writes a play based upon court doings and containing a last act in which Louis XV is executed by his subjects. The King orders Voltaire to the Bastille, dismisses Pompadour for having made him her acquaintance. Voltaire's situation looks serious until he learns from his secretary that de Sarnac has been selling state secrets to Frederick of Prussia. When de Sarnac comes to arrest him, Voltaire shows him a packet of verses which King Frederick has sent him for corrections, pretends that they contain damaging evidence against de Sarnac. When the King arrives to reclaim Pompadour, de Sarnac admits enough to cause the King to arrest him, pardon Voltaire, restore Pompadour, release Nanette and her captain.

Based partly upon the case of a Huguenot. Jean Galas, who was executed for murder in Toulouse and partly upon the case of an army officer who was beheaded for treason. Voltaire does not adhere to history at the expense of drama. George Arliss, who likes to be a kind, romantic, dignified old gentleman, makes Voltaire more whimsical than embittered but he gives a dextrously intelligent performance.