Tarzan The Ape Man (1932) Director: W.S. Van Dyke
“Tarzan! Don’t go! Come with us. We’ll all go back together. Tarzan! Tarzan! Tarzan!”
★★★☆☆
Neither the first nor the last of the Tarzan films, 1932’s Tarzan The Ape Man represents the start of a string of six MGM films (and later six more films for RKO) starring Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan. Maureen O’Sullivan played his counterpart, Jane Parker, in the first six Tarzan movies from 1932-1942. Based on the famous novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan The Ape Man is a an odd, but amusingly dated –at times awkward– film, but it is nevertheless a fun little adventure, a reminder of how adventure movies were made in 1932.
A pair of British adventurers –James Parker (C. Aubrey Smith) and Harry Holt (Neil Hamilton)– are traveling to Africa in search of mysterious elephant burial grounds, hoping they can bring home precious ivory. En route, they encounter a band of natives in Africa, which features a somewhat racially insensitive portrayal of the group, as well as other countless trials in the jungles, like wild elephants and rivers filled with crocodiles and hippopotamuses. The expedition leader, James Parker is joined by his daughter, Jane (played by Maureen O’Sullivan), who is then abducted by a strange jungle dweller and his ape friends. While initially resistant to this bestial figure, she quickly develops a strong romantic affinity for this man known only as “Tarzan” (played by Austro-Hungarian athlete Johnny Weissmuller). In the end, when Jane is finally reunited with her father, she longs for Tarzan to return home to London with her, but instead he returns to the jungle. As Jane and her party make their way out of the jungle, they are suddenly captured by a group of native dwarves and taken to a tribal encampment. At the final moment, Tarzan swoops in with a herd of elephants and rescues the expedition. Unfortunately Jane’s father dies in the scuffle. With little reason to return home, Jane decides to remain in the jungle with her beloved Tarzan. The film closes with an inspiring scene of the two lovers standing together on a rock overlooking the jungle.
Tarzan The Ape Man was mostly shot on set at MGM, and in the regions surrounding Los Angeles, CA. It was an extraordinary box office success in its heyday, hence why it presumably wound up on my list of films to watch and review. This was actually the film that popularized the famous Tarzan “yodel” which was created by MGM’s sound department. I found Tarzan The Ape Man to be a fun little blast from Hollywood’s past, albeit far too lengthy and at times awkward and clumsy. At least a few scenes are worth a good watch, such as the first interactions between Tarzan and Jane or the scenes of wild “African” animals which offer a glimpse into what 1930s Hollywood considered “foreign” and “exotic’ at the time. The next sequel in the Tarzan saga was Tarzan And His Mate (1934), an unexpected box office disappointment.
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Credits:
- Directed by: John Derek
- Written by: Tom Rowe, Gary Goddard
- Based on: Tarzan of the Apes, a 1912 novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs
- Produced by: Bo Derek
- Starring:
- Bo Derek…..Jane Parker
- Richard Harris…..James Parker, Jane’s father.
- John Phillip Law…..Harry Holt
- Miles O’Keeffe…..Tarzan, Jane’s lover.
- Cinematography: John Derek, Wolfgang Dickmann
- Production Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer