It seems like everyone and everything was recruited to fight in one form or another. America's entry into WWII was a whole-hearted affair, and after December 7th, 1941 no holds were barred. The movie industry was no exception and Hollywood went to war to fight those pesky Germans on the silver screen. No one in the movie industry sat this one out and even Tarzan of the Apes got in on the action. Two feature length movies have Tarzan taking on the Germans and fighting the Nazis in Africa. He was no stranger to war. Edgar Rice Burroughs's character, interestingly enough, was a veteran of WWI as well, fighting the Kaiser's Army in Africa during The Great War (Tarzan the Untamed, 1919).
Portrayed by Johnny Weissmuller throughout 12 films spanning from 1932 to 1948, only two of these films deal with the War, both of which were released in 1943. Tarzan Triumphs and Tarzan's Desert Mystery. When the first film was released, it was a big hit with the public, and why not, who wouldn't want to see Tarzan taking out the enemy, fighting for democracy against fascist evil...and calling them..."nancies".
The second movie was rushed into production to capitalize on the theme. Strangely enough, Tarzan doesn't appear on screen all that much in Tarzan's Desert Mystery. You would think that in a Tarzan film, Tarzan would be featured throughout the film. You would be wrong. The studio, RKO, thought the character Jane, Tarzan's love interest, should have more of a screen presence in this film. Given that is was late 1943, and most men were off fighting, Women were the predominate paying customers, so the film was made to cater to a female audience, or so RKO executives theorized. All in all, the second was not as great as the first, probably because audiences want to see Tarzan killing off Nazis, and not some weird espionage thriller, which Tarzan's Desert Mystery was.
*****
Lombardi, F. (1996). Tarzan's Bad Movie Mystery. ERBzine. https://www.erbzine.com/mag5/0553.html