"Tarzan the Ape Man"

I am thrilled to report that Tarzan is back! You are excited too, of course. This development came about because, while in the midst of viewing all of the RKO Tarzans that were included in the Volume Two collection, I though ahead and ordered Volume One from The Libe. I knew that we were hooked on the Tarzan series and therefore had to see the six original MGM films, beginning with the very first "talking" Tarzan movie, "Tarzan the Ape Man" (1932). Yes, there were Tarzans before Johnny Weissmuller, in several Silent movies of unknown (to me) box office success. But for all intents and purposes, the blockbuster franchise that is Tarzan began in 1932 with the film seen tonight and mentioned above.

We were used to the RKO Tarzan films produced in the mid-40s, and so this debut - made 15 years earlier than some of the RKOs - comes as a shock with the various differences in style. Hey, I watched the films out of order, what can I say. But yeah, Weissmuller at 28 looks like a kid in this flick, with shorter hair and still retaining his Olympian physique. In the later films he remained in phenomenal shape, but had moved past 40, so changes were inevitable. The main thing, however, is that "Tarzan the Ape Man" is much more of an adventure film than are the later sequels. It was made very early in the Talking Picture era, at the height of Universal's Monster Movie success, and just a year before "King Kong", a similar story of an expedition to mysterious Africa. Adventure into unknown lands was a popular theme in early Hollywood. In this way, "Tarzan the Ape Man" feels more like an Indiana Jones movie than do the more laid back sequels of the 40s, which I have reported on with their Saturday Matinee family-values and general good vibes. And you know I love those Tarzans.

"Ape Man", though, is a whole different ballgame, as raw as it's title.

Celebrated early actor C. Aubrey Smith (he of the Carved In Stone visage) is a hunter and explorer in search of a hidden landform called the Mutia Escarpment. The country is unspecified, but we are in Africa and the escarpment is reputed to be an elephant graveyard, where the behemoths wander off to die. The natives won't speak of this place. It is taboo for all the tribes, but C. Aubrey foresees a fortune in ivory, if only he can find it.

Near the beginning, his daughter Jane Parker (the legendary Maureen O'Sullivan) shows up in camp. Hey Tarzan fans! All you newbies like me, now we know the origin of Jane. She was the daughter of the hunter who discovered Tarzan.

I did not know that, or if I did, I knew it peripherally as a kid and then forgot it post haste. But know I know it again. So we have a backstory on Jane.

C. Aubrey tries to talk his daughter out of coming along on the expedition, but once you see her onscreen, you know his cause is lost. She is a spirited fireball. Soon the team - accompanied by native gear carriers - is crossing the deep jungle. In contrast to the sequels, the perils faced here feel tense and very realistic. Long scenes are spent showing a dangerous rafting journey, on a river filled with huge hippos and crocodiles. Lions crowd the shore, waiting for anyone who might panic and swim for safety. This is real stuff, and it looks like it. Keep in mind that this movie was also pre-code, and that designation does not, in retrospect, mean only sexy movies. Many adventure films were also made pre-code that had dialogue and scenes that were decidedly un-PC and would not have passed muster today.

The river scene with the hippos is harrowing. One hopes no animals were harmed.

Much of the middle of the film involves the hunting group's discovery of Tarzan as they near the escarpment.

He makes off with Jane, carries her up into a very high tree, and a tenuous relationship begins, brought on by Tarzan's curiosity and her fear and compliance.

By the time the plot kicks back in, a tribe of violent dwarves (not Pygmies) have captured the hunting group. The last twenty minutes of the film have all the tension of a monster movie. Gruesome torture of the captives is depicted, though not gratuitously. Everything is well-edited to maintain discretion, but the entire sequence has the feel of the "deepest darkest dangers of Africa" vibe of the early 20th century. As I say, there is a lot of non-PC stuff in this movie.

Me, I don't care about political correctness (barring extreme examples, of course). Mostly, "Tarzan the Ape Man" is a wholesome story about a barbarian's discovery of a woman, the first he has ever seen, and the way in which they slowly fall in love. The subtheme of the hunting expedition is just that, a subplot, and the semi-racist stuff and questionable animal tactics are just products of a bygone age. They aren't bad, really. It's just a portrayal of the way things were. Hunters really did requisition tribesmen to accompany them on expeditions, and they really did whip them into compliance. So in this respect, the movie is presenting the truth.

All of these critiques are made in hindsight by a viewer from 2019. In 1932, none of these things would have been an issue, and they aren't really for me, either, because they happened at a different time.

I shant boycott an otherwise tremendous film just because of a few questionable (non overt) scenes and situations, none of which are over the top anyway. I only report on all of this in the name of doing a thorough job.

"Tarzan the Ape Man" gets Two Gigantic Thumbs Up, for the performances of Maureen O'Sullivan and Johnny Weissmuller, and for the logistics involved in putting such a film together, i.e simulating a jungle environment and co-ordinating all of the involved animals, etc.

This is a hard-core Tarzan as opposed to the later films. See it and judge for yourself.  ////

This morning the rain was coming down sideways. They say we've got more to come tomorrow, but hopefully we will see you in church because we've got good singing to do.

And then after that we're gonna win a Super Bowl.

Go Rams!

See you in the morning with much love sent in between, falling on you like cats and dogs.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)