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Post by almuric on Nov 11, 2016 22:11:32 GMT -5
Well, on the heels of The Legend of Tarzan, my local library finally picked up the TCM collection of the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies. You know what that means . . . That's right! I'm going to watch them all and write down my impressions of each, Almuric style! It's a tough job, but dang it, somebody's got to do it! And anyone else who wants to talk about Tarzan movies is free to chime in.
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Post by thedarkman on Nov 11, 2016 22:20:19 GMT -5
Of those early pictures, I love Tarzan and his Mate. Loaded with action and adventure, naked Jane(!) and cool Mangani. Beware of some blatant racism and horrible mistreatment of black Africans; typical of Hollywood in that era...
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Post by themirrorthief on Nov 12, 2016 10:00:17 GMT -5
nothing will ever thrill me the way the old Wesimuller Tarzans used to thrill me when I was a little tyke. Tarzan, Shirley Temple, Frankenstein, the Three Stooges, Lost in Space...then came Batman. It was great to be a little fellow back then. and I almost forgot the awesome Spider man and Fantastic Four toons...great stuff,
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Post by deuce on Nov 12, 2016 19:03:17 GMT -5
Well, on the heels of The Legend of Tarzan, my local library finally picked up the TCM collection of the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies. You know what that means . . . That's right! I'm going to watch them all and write down my impressions of each, Almuric style! It's a tough job, but dang it, somebody's got to do it! And anyone else who wants to talk about Tarzan movies is free to chime in. Sounds like a worthy project! There are, what, 70+ Tarzan flicks filmed since the silent days?
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Post by moonlightshadow on Nov 13, 2016 9:59:26 GMT -5
"Tarzan and His Mate" is my favourite Tarzan movie. Haven't watched the new one yet though.
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Post by almuric on Nov 13, 2016 11:01:29 GMT -5
Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) - Normally I'd say this is where it all began, but there had already been several silent Tarzans before this one. Burroughs sold the rights to MGM on the condition that the story they used was original. So there's not much ERB here and instead we have a safari to find the legendary "elephant's graveyard". Jane is British, not American. Jane's last name is even changed from Porter to Parker, and there's no real backstory on Tarzan. The apes aren't called mangani, and their language is largely reduced to "umgawa".Speaking of apes, the older apes are people in costumes (which aren't too bad, as these things go) and the younger ones are chimps. There's some stock footage from 1931's Trader Horn which is utilized in a very clumsy fashion, in a scene where Jane and her father stand in front of an incredibly obvious rear projection screen.
And yes, there is racism. The natives are treated very poorly, being whipped when they're too tired to keep going and when they die, none of the whites are overly concerned. The pygmy tribe are depicted by white dwarfs in blackface. So be warned.
Weissmuller's Tarzan is often criticised for not being very articulate, but in these early films at least, it's justified. He's just learning English so of course he can't speak it well. And "Me Tarzan, you Jane" never happens. It's "Tarzan, Jane, Tarzan, Jane". It's easy to see how Weissmuller's Tarzan made such a huge impact. His athletic acrobatics are breathtaking and when he fights wild animals, it looks convincing. Look closely during some of the swinging scenes and you'll see that Weissmuller (or his stunt double) is using a disguised trapeeze. O'Sullivan's Jane is surprisingly sexy. This was made pre-Code, but it's very tame compared to the sequel, though we do get a brief scene of Jane in her undies and a bit of blood in some of the fight scenes. While the pacing is inconsistent and the production is sometimes crude (Indian elephants with fake ears), it builds to a great climax, with Tarzan summoning a stampede of elephants to trample the pygmy village.
This was a box office hit, and soon there would be sequels, lots of them. It would also be remade twice, 1959's version starring Denny Miller, and 1981's dismal one starring Bo Derek and Miles O'Keefe.
Next time: The Return of Tarzan
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Post by almuric on Nov 15, 2016 10:24:09 GMT -5
Tarzan and His Mate (1934) - It's always a joy when a sequel surpasses the original. Such is the case here. A second expedition to the Mutia Escarpment arrives to raid the elephant's graveyard and convince Jane to return to civilization. But Jane will have nothing of it. She's happy running around in a very revealing leather bikini and she even has her own yodelling cry to match Tarzan's.
The underwater ballet scene is remarkable, and something that couldn't have been done just a few years later. Jane's nakedness (it's not O'Sullivan but her double) was cut in some regions and while ERB was not happy with a lot of things in the MGM series, he had no problem with this. Also, Jane may call Tarzan her husband, but there's nobody on the Escarpment qualified to perform a wedding, so they ain't married. Modern audiences don't expect that kind of frankness from movies made the better part of a century ago. It's a shame that the Production Code would soon put an end to such fun.
I have to wonder: if the Escarpment is so difficult to climb, just how do the elephants get up there to the graveyard? Hmmm. The original Cheta has grown up to be a man in an ape suit and dies, with Cheta's daughter, also named Cheta, taking their place.
This cost over a million, huge money in those days, and it shows. There's less stock footage and more extras and animals. Tarzan fights hippos, lions, crocs and leopards. In the climax, there's rampaging natives and lions jumping on elephants. A wild and uninhibited spirit drives the proceedings and whatever problems there are with Tarzan's depiction, it still manages to be one of Tarzans greatest screen outings.
Box office was huge, and Tarzan would return again, though with middling results.
Next time: Tarzan the Mediocre
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Post by jmbroberts on Nov 15, 2016 16:28:25 GMT -5
Fun trivia about these movies: One of the producers of the Weismuller films said that a problem with Jane's early, skimpier costumes and her need for a body double was that O'Sullivan was a good Catholic girl and she was pregnant much of the time during those years. They had to shoot around her a lot of the time, or only from the shoulders up, and with a double in long shots. Her later costumes were never again as revealing as they were in Tarzan and his Mate.
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Post by thedarkman on Nov 15, 2016 16:39:19 GMT -5
Mmm...naked Jane. Anyway, tons of action in this one. Adventurous safaris back in the day sure were tough on the local hires; the final body count for black Africans was enormous...and the whites are remarkably unperturbed! Hollywood of the 30's.
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Post by themirrorthief on Nov 16, 2016 9:17:22 GMT -5
I recall one scene where the safari was climbing a mountain and some apes threw rocks and knocked several of the african bearers off the cliff. One Englishman said "blast, there go most of our supplies"
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Post by thedarkman on Nov 16, 2016 13:42:14 GMT -5
I recall one scene where the safari was climbing a mountain and some apes threw rocks and knocked several of the african bearers off the cliff. One Englishman said "blast, there go most of our supplies" And once Tarzan calls off his Mangani security and the safari reaches the top of the escarpment, no mention is made about the attack and the subsequent fatalities!
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Post by almuric on Nov 16, 2016 19:43:16 GMT -5
WANTED: Native bearers needed for dangerous expedition into taboo territory. Must be willing to endure offhand racism, beatings, attacks by wild animals and casual murder by your employer. Poor English and superstitious attitudes a must.
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Post by themirrorthief on Nov 17, 2016 9:21:56 GMT -5
yeah the Black Safari bearers were kinda the first version of the guys with red shirts from Star Trek...mostly there to get killed, tortured to death, etc...you could honestly draw a lot of parallels between Tarzan and Star Trek, guess that is why I love them both dearly Maybe it wasnt so much racism it was just that somebody had to die...and usually horribly. I remember reading a quote from a star trek extra. Everytime somebody had to get killed he would hide in the toilet so they could use him the next shoot...he made it through the entire series
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Post by almuric on Nov 18, 2016 21:14:28 GMT -5
Tarzan Escapes (1936) - And here we falter a bit. It would be hard to recapture the dizzying heights of Tarzan and His Mate, but this one seems to have been cursed from the start. From a revolving door of directors and scenes getting cut and recycled, its a definite step down.
The first thing we notice is a lot of stock footage from the previous two movies. We get a third expedition up the Mutia Escarpment and some more native-whipping, but this time someone actually objects to it. Progress, I suppose. BTW, one of the natives is named . . . Bomba! The second thing we notice is how much more clothing Jane is wearing. Sigh, it was nice while it lasted. This is the first appearance of Tarzan and Jane's tree house and it's quite amazing even if it doesn't add much to the film. I have to wonder, does the elephant who pulls the elevator stay in the area all the time? What happens if it wanders off? And did Tarzan make all that using only his knife as his tool?
There's a crocodile attack, but it's recycled from the second movie. I guess you could get away with that back then, but can you imagine now if lets say an Avengers movie had a whole scene taken from an earlier movie and plopped in as if it were part of that film? People would be rioting in the theatres. It's glaringly obvious when you're watching these all over the span of a week.
The swamp sequence at the end originally featured giant vampire bats which were too terrifying for the kids and were subsequently cut out and lost forever. Instead of vampire bats (in reality, native to the New World) we get . . . flesh-eating iguanas (also from the New World). They dub in some loud roars, but honestly, they're iguanas. Not very threatening. If they had gotten some Komodo dragons or something, but I suppose those might be too dangerous and rare. If they had kept the bat scene (or had been able to find and restore it) the film would be given a much-needed boost. We do get one really unexpected scene, where the comic relief character is shot in the back in cold blood. Not something you see every day. And there's a really strange "gooney bird", which was in reality played by Johnny Eck, a legless actor best known for his role in Todd Browning's Freaks.
Weissmuller gets a bit more to do with Tarzan's performance this time. He really gets to show Tarzan in the depths of despair when he thinks Jane is leaving him. Sadly, Tarzan's English wouldn't improve much from here on. If they had kept his character arc going, he might have been speaking properly by the next movie.
No matter the problems, Tarzan was still Lord of Hollywood, and he would be back again with an installment that introduced the last major element of MGM's Tarzan mythos.
Next time: The Son of Tarzan
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Post by johnnypt on Nov 18, 2016 21:57:02 GMT -5
The lost footage gives a whole new meaning to checking your attic for bats! Somebody check South America, if they found Metropolis there...unfortunately it's probably sitting next to London After Midnight, the spider pit scene from King Kong and all that Magnificent Ambersons footage in film heaven.
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