Tarzan, the Ape Man **** (1932, Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O’Sullivan, Neil Hamilton, C Aubrey Smith) – Classic Movie Review 2,236

‘Sensational 1932 M G M Picture Tarzan, the Ape Man with Johnny Weissmuller the swimming Adonis as Tarzan’. 

Director W S Van Dyke’s exciting classic 1932 MGM version Tarzan, the Ape Man finds the right star in Olympic aquatic star Johnny Weissmuller, who swings thrillingly into action as the definitive Tarzan in the first of MGM’s long line of Ape Man movies (though the first ever Tarzan movie was in 1918 with Elmo Lincoln in Tarzan of the Apes).

The young Weissmuller is wonderfully handsome and athletic in his acting feature debut – a fresh and vital revelation in the role. MGM beefed up the star’s sex and pecs appeal in their advertising: ‘With Johnny Weissmuller the swimming Adonis, as Tarzan’. And they didn’t feel they needed to be modest about the movie either: ‘Sensational M G M Picture!’

Irish-born Maureen O’Sullivan makes a charming Jane Parker of London, with a convincing accent, though the character was Jane Porter of Baltimore in the original. She teaches the wild man raised by apes Tarzan how to speak and he responds with ‘Tarzan…Jane’ (not ‘Me Tarzan, you Jane’ as it is usually misquoted).

The tale is entertaining and smartly directed and, with its lyrical beauty and dramatic excitement, it can still capture the imagination of audiences as it did when freshly minted nine decades ago. There is plenty of action, a top support cast (C Aubrey Smith as James Parker, Neil Hamilton as Harry Holt, Doris Lloyd, Forrester Harvey, Ivory Williams) and a classy Hollywood production under the supervision of production designer Cedric Gibbons.

The screenplay by adapter Cyril Hume and dialogue-writer Ivor Novello is based of course on the famous characters created by Edgar Rice Burroughs in his 1912 novel Tarzan of the Apes and loosely based on the novel.

It led to a multitude of sequels (with Tarzan and His Mate in 1934 as the first) and derivatives and to the signing up of other Olympic heroes such as Larry Buster Crabbe in Tarzan the Fearless (1933). It is Weissmuller’s first of 12 Tarzan films. O’Sullivan played Jane in six features between 1932 and 1942 opposite Weissmuller before she asked MGM to end her contract.

It was remade as Tarzan, the Ape Man in 1959 in a version with Dennis Miller that is known as the worst Tarzan movie ever and again as Tarzan, the Ape Man in 1981 with Bo Derek, Richard Harris and Miles O’Keefe as Tarzan in a version that gives it competition as the worst Tarzan movie ever made. MGM released both remakes, each a different adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s novel.

Burroughs sent O’Sullivan copies of his books when he heard she hadn’t read them. ‘He was a nice guy,’ said O’Sullivan, ‘and thought Johnny and I were the perfect Tarzan and Jane, which is lovely.’ She’s right.

The first ever version of Tarzan’s jungle call yell is in the part-sound serial Tarzan the Tiger (1929) as a Nee-Yah! noise, but Tarzan’s distinctive, ululating yell started with Johnny Weissmuller in Tarzan, the Ape Man. Though some speculate that an opera singer named Lloyd Thomas Leech was the voice behind the MGM Tarzan yell, Weissmuller claimed that the yell was his own voice, a claim supported by his son and by Maureen O’Sullivan.

The cast are Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan, Maureen O’Sullivan as Jane Parker, Neil Hamilton as Harry Holt, C Aubrey Smith as James Parker Doris Lloyd as Mrs Cutten, Forrester Harvey as Beamish, Ivory Williams as Riano, Ray Corrigan as Ape, Johnny Eck as Bird Creature, and Angelo Rossitto as Evil Dwarf.

Tarzan’s ape friend Cheeta is played by Jiggs (1929 – February 28, 1938) was owned and trained by Tony and Jacqueline Gentry. He was he first chimpanzee to play the character Cheeta and had a seven-year film career.

Jiggs appeared as Cheeta in Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), Tarzan and His Mate (1934) and Tarzan Escapes (1936). He also appeared in the rival Buster Crabbe serial Tarzan the Fearless (1933) and as Nkima in the Herman Brix serial The New Adventures of Tarzan (1935, also released as the 1938 feature Tarzan and the Green Goddess).

MGM released its big money-spinner on 2  April 1932, earning $2.8 million on a budget of $652,675.

MGM signed up Weissmuller, who had five gold medals in the 1924 and 1928 Olympics, plus 67 world and 52 US titles, but only after freeing him from his contract to model BVD underwear by agreeing to have their star actresses like Greta Garbo and Marie Dressler to feature on BVD’s adverts.

It was shot on Lot One of MGM studios in Culver City, California; at the Lake Sherwood area north of Los Angeles; and Silver Springs in Florida. Lions were borrowed from nearby Goebel’s Lion Farm in Thousand Oaks, California. Footage shot in Africa for W S Van Dyke’s 1931 film Trader Horn was added.

As the elephants used are Indian, large fake ears and tusks were fitted onto them to try to make them look African. The tribe of aggressive African dwarfs is played by white midgets wearing blackface.

Tarzan, the Ape Man runs 99 minutes, is made by MGM, is distributed by Loew’s Inc, is written by Cyril Hume,  is shot by Clyde De Vinna, is produced by Irving Thalberg, and is scored by George Richelarie.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,236

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