Weissmuller makes a memorable entrance in his first Tarzan picture.
TARZAN OF THE APES (1918), still the most faithful filmic account of the original novel. In it, Lord and Lady Greystoke (True Boardman and Kathleen Kirkham) are marooned on a wild stretch of West African coastline and eventu- ally die, but not before bringing into the world a baby boy who is adopted by the she-ape Kala and reared in the jungle as Tarzan of the Apes. Years later an expedition arrives, bearing the kindly Professor Porter (Thomas Jefferson) and his adventurous daughter Jane (Enid Markey). The now-grown Tarzan (Lincoln) saves the group from various perils, including a hungry lion, before professing his love for Jane and agree- ing to return to England with her. The film was a huge success, raking in an unprecedented $1,000,000 for its producers, and spawned a rushed sequel that disappointed nearly every- one but was successful enough to inspire other filmmakers to launch their own Tarzan produc- tions throughout the Twenties. Wanting to make use of leftover location foot- age from their groundbreaking African-adventure
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film TRADER HORN, MGM approached Burroughs in 1931 with a desire to produce the first syn- chronous-sound Tarzan picture. However, the author was so soured by this time over the lib- erties filmmakers had taken with his novels that he denied the studio rights to anything but the character name. On his own for a plot, screen- writer Cyril Hume borrowed heavily from the al- ready proven TRADER HORN—only this time, instead of a safari discovering a white jungle god- dess in Darkest Africa, the scenario would be about a safari’s encounter with a white jungle god. Directed without an ounce of artistic pre-
tense by W.S. Van Dyke, who had already proven his affinity for the genre with TRADER HORN, TARZAN THE APE MAN (1932) begins with the arrival of Englishwoman Jane Parker (O’Sullivan, her character’s name and origin changed from the novel’s American Jane Porter) to a village along the Congo, where her father runs a trad- ing post. Unlike the doddering old man of the novel, James Parker (C. Aubrey Smith) is quick- witted, physically fit and determined to locate
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