Where Is Tarzan

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pvitari
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Re: Where Is Tarzan

Post by pvitari »

Ha ha! Let me guess....
Well, yes, you're right about that but I posted it because you like those shots of people riding way off in the distance and it's already on my image hosting site so I was able to post it while I'm, er, not at home. ;) :)
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Uncle Stevie
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Re: Where Is Tarzan

Post by Uncle Stevie »

Tonight I saw three more Tazan movies. The first two were boring usual Tarzan style. Tarzan and the green goddess was an upscale version. Tarzan wears clothes and speaks English and rides in cars.

Tarzan of the Apes is a silent movie that starts out telling the story of the Greystoke family being marooned in Africa after a band of pirates attacked their ship. Parents died and left an in infant who was raised by apes. They show a portion of the movie with Tarzan as a small boy and then suddenly he is a man. Elmo Lincoln is that man he remained in the movie. Elmo is a large man in girth who appears to be a wrestler. He is not very tall and fought a lot but almost no vine swinging. He did mange to defend himself by killing a few animals and a few natives. He courted Jane and the movie ended as they were falling in love. It takes some patience to view this movie but it was worth it.
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Uncle Stevie
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Re: Where Is Tarzan

Post by Uncle Stevie »

Here is a list of Tarzans:

Name, height, birth and death dates, as well as real name if known in parentheses

1. Elmo Lincoln (Otto Elmo Linkenhelt) 5'11-1/2" 2/06/1889-6/27/1952 (Young Tarzan in the first film played by Gordon Griffith 5' 9-1/2" 7/04/1907-10/12/1958, so technically he's the first Tarzan)
2. Gene Pollard (Joseph Pohler) 6' 2-1/2" 9/16/1892-10/20/1971
3. P(erce) Dempsey Tabler 6' 11/23/1876-6/07/1956
4. James Pierce 6'4" 8/08/1900-12/11/1983
5. Frank Merrill 6' 3/21/1893-2/12/1966
6. Johnny Weissmuler (Jonas Weissmuller) 6'3" 6/02/1904-1/21/1984
7. Buster Crabbe (Clarence Linden Crabbe) 6'1" 2/07/1907-4/23/1983
8. Herman Brix (a.k.a. Bruce Bennett) 6'3" 5/19/1906-
9. Glenn Morris 6'2" 6/18/1912-1/31/1974
10. Lex Barker (Alexander Crichlow Barker, Jr.) 6'4" 5/08/1919-5/11/1973
11. Gordon Scott (Gordon Werschkul) 6'3" 8/03/1927-
12. Denny (Dennis) Miller 6'4" 4/25/1934
13. Jock Mahoney (Jacques O'Mahoney 6'4" 2/07/1919-12/14/1989
14. Mike Henry 6'3" 1937
15. Ron Ely (Ronald Pierce, TV Tarzan) 6'4" 6/21/1938


Tarzan of the Apes (1918)
The Romance of Tarzan (1918)
Adventures of Tarzan (1918)
The Revenge of Tarzan (1920)
The Son of Tarzan (1920)
The Adventures of Tarzan (1921)
Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1927)
Tarzan the Mighty (1928)
Tarzan the Tiger (1929)
Tarzan, the Ape Man (1932)
Tarzan the Fearless (1933)
Tarzan and His Mate (1934)
The New Adventures of Tarzan (1935)
Tarzan Escapes (1936)
Tarzan and the Green Goddess (1938)
Tarzan's Revenge (1938)
Tarzan Finds a Son! (1939)
Tarzan's Secret Treasure (1941)
Tarzan's New York Adventure (1942)
Tarzan Triumphs (1943)
Tarzan's Desert Mystery (1943)
Tarzan and the Amazons (1945)
Tarzan and the Leopard Woman (1946)
Tarzan and the Huntress (1947)
Tarzan and the Mermaids (1948)
Tarzan's Magic Fountain (1949)
Tarzan and the Slave Girl (1950)
Tarzan's Peril (1951)
Tarzan's Savage Fury (1952)
Tarzan and the She-Devil (1953)
Tarzan's Hidden Jungle (1955)
Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957)
Tarzan and the Trappers (1958)
Tarzan's Fight for Life (1958)
Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959)
Tarzan, the Ape Man (1959)
Tarzan the Magnificent (1960)
Tarzan Goes to India (1962)
Tarzan's Three Challenges (1963)
Tarzan's Jungle Rebellion (1965)
Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (1966)
Tarzan and the Great River (1967)
Tarzan and the Perils of Charity Jones (1967)
Tarzan and the Four O'Clock Army (1968)
Tarzan and the Jungle Boy (1968)
Tarzan's Deadly Silence (1970)
Tarzan, the Ape Man (1981)
Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984)
Tarzan and the Lost City (1998)
Tarzan (animated) (1998)



One might also count

16. Miles O'Keefe6'3" 1954- (one time only)
17. Christopher Lambert 6' 3/29/1957- (one time only)
18. Casper van Dien 5'9-1/2" 12/18/1968- (one time only)
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Uncle Stevie
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Re: Where Is Tarzan

Post by Uncle Stevie »

I have decided I do not like Tarzan wearing clothes. My image of him is as a real jungle boy. I like the loin cloth and the swinging through trees. I do not like to see him dressed like a Boy Scout and riding in cars and speaking like he went to college. "Me Tarzan you Jane" is forever pressed in my mind. I lose all respect for Tarzan in a more modern environment. It ruins the image. Would you like to see Superman in Bermuda shorts getting a tan somewhere? Not me. I like the facade that all super heroes have with their uniforms. Tarzan is really another super hero.
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Fossy
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Re: Where Is Tarzan

Post by Fossy »

According to Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan was taught to speak English by a Frenchman, but somehow in the movies he lost his French accent.
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Re: Where Is Tarzan

Post by feaito »

During the weekend I had a Tarzan marathon….

I had long ago wanted to revisit the first entries of MGM’s Tarzan and to watch “Tarzan Escapes”, and during the Easter WE I watched the three first films of the MGM series almost back to back:

Tarzan the Ape Man” (1932) The dialogue (credited to Ivor Novello) is above the average expected from such kind of film –I mean the exchanges between the characters played by Neil Hamilton, C. Aubrey Smith and Maureen O’Sullivan, not Johnny Weissmüller of course :wink:- In terms of archive footage the film benefits from the material filmed for “Trader Horn” (1931), although the contrast between this footage and the portions filmed at the studio lot or on location in California is huge. The landscapes of scenes featuring tribes from parts of northern Africa (with less vegetation and a more steppe-like look) do not match the scenes with a more savanna-like look filmed in MGM’s backlot.

Also, why everywhere I have read that Neil Hamilton’s character was Jane’s (O’Sullivan) fiancé? She never was engaged to him, she met him when she arrived to Africa to meet his father and she never was even romantically involved with him. He was fond of her, but nothing more.

Maureen O’Sullivan looks gorgeous and is a very appealing and sexy Jane…and Johnny Weissmüller is the ideal, clean-cut Tarzan of the day. They have great sensual chemistry.

The outfits they wear and their interaction benefit from the Pre-Code Era in which the film was made and the story is amusing. My second favorite MGM Tarzan.

Tarzan and His Mate” (1934) For me this is the best entry of the series: Super sexy scenes, interesting characters (Paul Cavanagh’s womanizer is a plus), a most amusing storyline and the most Pre-Code of all the MGM Tarzans.

This film contains the famous underwater nude diving scene in which a body double of Maureen O’Sullivan appears completely naked for a long time. There’s also less archive footage and more especially filmed sequences for the film.

Were the action sequences of many films made during the thirties filmed without sound like a Silent movie and then played on a regular Sound camera thus looking as if “fast-forwarded”? This happens quite a lot here.

Tarzan Escapes” (1936) From what I read this entry could have well been the most violent and gruesome of all Tarzans, but due to censorship it was considerably toned down, although some hints of brutality remain in some portions. I read that if it hadn’t been censored, this could have been the best Tarzan of the series.

What I disliked about this film was the constant repetition of action scenes from Tarzan and His Mate, which watched back to back made it quite obvious for me. Benita Hume (Ronald Colman’s wife) appears as Jane’s cousin; Enjoyable.
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intothenitrate
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Re: Where Is Tarzan

Post by intothenitrate »

feaito wrote:During the weekend I had a Tarzan marathon….

...Were the action sequences of many films made during the thirties filmed without sound like a Silent movie and then played on a regular Sound camera thus looking as if “fast-forwarded”? This happens quite a lot here.

Tarzan Escapes” (1936) From what I read this entry could have well been the most violent and gruesome of all Tarzans, but due to censorship it was considerably toned down, although some hints of brutality remain in some portions. I read that if it hadn’t been censored, this could have been the best Tarzan of the series.
Easter and Tarzan--two great institutions that go great together!

For years I've been wondering about those little spells of speeded-up action in early thirties films. You see it here and there for fights and flights. I've heard it called "under-cranking," where you record the action with slower hand cranking (or change the speed of the electric motor), so when the action is played back at normal speed, it happens faster. I always figured that this was a deliberate special effect that was discarded as time went on.

[My kids have seen examples of this when they've watched an old film with me and asked, "Why did everybody speed up just then?" Obviously this generation isn't buying it.]

Did you read the interviews with Kevin Brownlow over on Ann Harding's site? I love the part where he is talking about the different projection speeds of all the films he's handled. I wonder if, when a film cobbles together "new" sound-synched 30's footage with older silent stock footage, you get these different playback speeds [inadvertently].

Oh, the other point is, I've been wanting to see Tarzan Escapes for some time. It's mentioned in a William A. Wellman documentary. (As he tells it) He jumped in to help with the project when the production went off the rails, and had such a great time working on it, he went to Mayer and begged him to let him do the next one. Mayer refused, saying it would be beneath him as an artist.
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Re: Where Is Tarzan

Post by feaito »

Easter and Tarzan--two great institutions that go great together!
Yes it was a winning combination! :D
For years I've been wondering about those little spells of speeded-up action in early thirties films. You see it here and there for fights and flights. I've heard it called "under-cranking," where you record the action with slower hand cranking (or change the speed of the electric motor), so when the action is played back at normal speed, it happens faster. I always figured that this was a deliberate special effect that was discarded as time went on.

[My kids have seen examples of this when they've watched an old film with me and asked, "Why did everybody speed up just then?" Obviously this generation isn't buying it.]

Did you read the interviews with Kevin Brownlow over on Ann Harding's site? I love the part where he is talking about the different projection speeds of all the films he's handled. I wonder if, when a film cobbles together "new" sound-synched 30's footage with older silent stock footage, you get these different playback speeds [inadvertently].
Speeded-up, that was the right word, thanks! Yes I've often wondered too about that and it's very apparent in early talkies. I've always thought it has to do with the use of Silent film for the action scenes...I don't know if it was made on purpose or what; but to see a film with speeded-up action scenes is kind of distractive and annoying to audiencies -IMO- I can't see it as deliberate special effect (My wife also wondered about that). Weren't they aware of that back then? Or there wasn't any other way of filming action scenes?
Oh, the other point is, I've been wanting to see Tarzan Escapes for some time. It's mentioned in a William A. Wellman documentary. (As he tells it) He jumped in to help with the project when the production went off the rails, and had such a great time working on it, he went to Mayer and begged him to let him do the next one. Mayer refused, saying it would be beneath him as an artist.
Thank you for this piece of information!
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Richard--W
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Re: Where Is Tarzan

Post by Richard--W »

Random thoughts:
Modern times with modern technology undermines the conditions that make Tarzan possible, and believable.
Vast distances, unexplored regions, isolated cultures and backward civilizations, the delay in communications -- Tarzan needs these things to be Tarzan. The late 19th century and the turn into the 20th century are basically the time frame in which Tarzan can work, but it is a period that audiences are finding harder to imagine, understand, and believe in because it's receded too far out of their experience.

Tarzan films set in contemporary times only work for me when they ignore technology and telephones etc.

Tarzan only works as a period piece, and as a period piece, the storytelling possibilities are endless.

The Hollywood studio-Tarzan is a very different beast from the literary Tarzan created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. But it's just as much fun. The silent Tarzan films are essential. The chapter serial produced by Burroughs himself, with Herman Brix, may not always be the most professional filmmaking, but it is pure grade-A Tarzan and very sophisticated storytelling. The two Warner Brothers box-sets collecting the Weissmuller films are essential.

Of the contemporary Tarzans, only Gordon Scott convinces me. He was an underestimated actor, and an underestimated Tarzan. Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959) and Tarzan the Magnificent (1960) are suspenseful action films that are designed more like westerns than like jungle survival tales. Maybe that's why I prefer them over other Tarzans. Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957) is pretty good, too.

I always thought Jock Mahoney was the wrong choice to play Tarzan. He got the part, I understand, because Sean Connery turned it down; he received a better offer from another, riskier franchise at the same time. I wish the producer had stuck with Gordon Scott, although there is too much of the primitive mixed up with the technological in the Mahoney films for my taste.

Everyone points out the problems in Greystoke (1984?), and true it's a problematic film, but at least it aims high and spends sufficient money to do the jungle upbringing of Tarzan right. It's an elegantly produced Tarzan drama and required viewing if you're interested in this character.

I have zero tolerance for Disney's animated and politically corrected Tarzan. I hated it.

Richard
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Bob Dylan, 1965
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Re: Where Is Tarzan

Post by feaito »

Very interesting opinions Richard and welcome to the forums!

I recall that the 1959 remake of "Tarzan the Ape Man" (1932) is rather awful. I did like Gordon Scott and Lex Barker in Tarzan films when I was a kid, and I agree with you Re. Gordon Scott.

On the other hand, don't you think that the hairy actor Mike Henry had a more close physical resemblance to an "ape man"?

And what about George of the Jungle with Brendan Fraser? Awful, isn't it?
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pvitari
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Re: Where Is Tarzan

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And what about George of the Jungle with Brendan Fraser? Awful, isn't it?
Er, I love that movie. :)
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Re: Where Is Tarzan

Post by feaito »

I enjoyed the first one as a guilty pleasure -I think there's a sequel which is worse-, but one has to admit objectively Paula that it's not really good, just plainly enjoyable....like "Illegaly Blonde" and the sort...broad comedies with no subtleties, sophistication or elegance which one can enjoy and watch many times nevertheless.....but which are zillions of light years behind a good Lubitsch or Hawks i.e.....Good comedic scripts & witty dialogue died decades ago...I also enjoy contemporary films like "Zoolander" for instance, but when compared with the Classics (The More the Merrier, Midnight, Bringing Up Baby, Arsenic and Old Lace, Harvey et al) or even lesser know comedies like "The Mad Miss Manton" .....there is just no such comparison

BTW, I also have the VHS of George of the Jungle, Paula :wink:
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Re: Where Is Tarzan

Post by moira finnie »

I thought that George of the Jungle (both cartoon and movie) was a wonderful bit of nonsense. Brendan Fraser can play not very bright silly-hearts with a zest that few other contemporary actors seem to be able to muster. I even laughed at Encino Man and Dudley Do-right, but don't tell anyone.
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movieman1957
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Re: Where Is Tarzan

Post by movieman1957 »

I think I picked up in one of the Tarzan movies that they used Asian elephants and put big ears on them to look like African elephants. At least they made the effort. I have seen some other films where they didn't even try to conceal they were using the wrong animal.
Chris

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Re: Where Is Tarzan

Post by feaito »

Moira, It's a fun movie indeed and Brendan Fraser has charisma....scripts are another matter....Whenever I compare contemporary films in general, especially comedies, with Hollywood films from the 1920s to the 1960s, there's just no comparison! (IMO)

Besides Greystoke (1984) I don't think that another "contemporary" Tarzan adaptation has been made and I agree with Richard that it only works as a period piece... George of the Jungle's main element is a crazy, nonsensical comedy...very different from the Tarzan films...

Chris, Thanks for bringing that up!! (Asian Elephants with huge "African" ears) I wanted to mention it because it was very apparent in the three Tarzan films that I saw during the WE. They did the effort indeed and it must not have been an easy task!!
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