In her
only genre role,
Dorothy Dandridge played
Melmendi, Queen of the Ashuba in 1951's
Tarzan's Peril.
An original story, not based on
any of Edgar Rice Burroughs' stories, the film was the third of five movies starring Lex Barker as
Tarzan and it was directed by Byron Haskin, who went on to A-list genre films like 1953's
War of the Worlds.
It was also the
first Tarzan film to have scenes shot on location in Africa.
(Previous films used existing stock footage from other movies.)
One of the scenes from the film is recreated in the biopic
Introducing Dorothy Dandridge starring
Fantastic Femme Halle Berry as Dorothy playing
Melmendi.
Here's a comparison between a scene in the original film and the biopic's version of it.
Melmendi, nor her tribe, the Ashuba, have appeared in
any Tarzan story (in
any media) since...
Note: technically, this is a
Pix Post, but it's also a
Hero(ine) History and
Fantastic Femme entry!