Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes **** (1984, Christopher Lambert, Ralph Richardson) – Classic Movie Review 1451

Hugh Hudson makes a lovely job of directing the exhilarating 1984 film Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes. It is exciting that Christopher Lambert is an Ape Man hero obviously with a brain and sex appeal. 

British co-producer/director Hugh Hudson, fresh from his four-Oscar-winning 1981 triumph Chariots of Fire, makes a lovely job of this exhilarating 1984 retelling of the Ape Man story from the Edgar Rice Burroughs’s 1912 novel Tarzan of the Apes.

Hudson also makes an offbeat but inspired choice for his star in myopic Frenchman Christopher Lambert as John Clayton/ Lord of the Apes/ Lord Greystoke. It is exciting that Lambert is not the usual dumb hunk of muscle normally cast in the role, but a hero obviously with a brain and sex appeal.

Tarzan may be in the film’s over-complicated title, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, but it is never mentioned in the movie.

Unusually and satisfyingly, Greystoke goes back to Burroughs’s novel for much of its plot, though the film’s second half departs radically from Burroughs’s story. After a shipping disaster in the 19th century, a female ape takes a tiny orphaned boy as a replacement for her own dead infant, and raises him as her son.

Twenty years later, Captaine Phillippe D’Arnot (Ian Holm) discovers the grown-up man who thinks he is an ape. But evidence in his tree house suggests that he is the descendant of the Earl of Greystoke, so D’Arnot decides to return the man to civilisation.

Hudson recut the movie on Ralph Richardson’s death shortly after filming ended to make full use of his lovely farewell appearance as Tarzan’s grandfather, the Sixth Earl of Greystoke, and his good-humoured performance is a great asset, successfully balancing the somewhat over-serious and reverential tone of the rest. The film is dedicated to his memory.

Thanks to John Alcott‘s cinematography and Stuart Craig‘s production designs, it is a great-looking movie, and there are stupendous jungle scenes, with remarkable monkey makeup by special effects wizard Rick Baker. Tarzan’s love interest Miss Jane Porter is played by a forlorn young Andie MacDowell, who suffers the ignominy of being vocally dubbed by Glenn Close in post-production because of MacDowell’s southern US accent.

Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes is a very fine film indeed though, arguably Hudson’s best.

Co-screenwriter Robert Towne (the Oscar-winning writer of Chinatown) was to direct the film from his script, but he was fired after the box-office failure of his directorial debut Personal Best and retaliated by taking his name off the screenplay and crediting himself to his dog P H Vazak, who was nominated for an Oscar. Towne’s real name is Robert Bertram Schwartz.

The film was awarded with three Oscar nominations for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Richardson; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Robert Towne, Michael Austin); and Best Makeup (Rick Baker, Paul Engelen). 

It had to be content with minor wins: British Academy Film Awards Best Makeup and Hair (Paul Engelen, Peter Frampton, Rick Baker, Joan Hills); the British Film Institute Technical Achievement Award; and the New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Supporting Actor (Ralph Richardson).

But it was a success with critics and at the box office, grossing $45.9 million on release, as the 15th most popular film at the box office in 1984, though the cost was high, estimated between $27 million and $30 million.

The stalwart cast includes Chariots of Fire stars Ian Holm, Nigel Davenport, Ian Charleson, Richard Griffiths, Nicholas Farrell and Cheryl Campbell, as well as James Fox, Paul Geoffrey, John Wells, Paul Brooke, Colin Charles and David Suchet.

The film was shot in Korup National Park in western Cameroon and in Scotland, using Floors Castle near Kelso in Roxburghshire for the exterior and ballroom scenes, but also in England with Hatfield House in Hertfordshire for its entrance hall and grand staircase and Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.

The release version is 129 minutes and the extended edition runs 143 minutes.

Ralph Richardson was the first actor of his generation to be knighted. He became Sir Ralph in 1947, followed by Laurence Olivier in 1948 and John Gielgud in 1953. Co-stars and friends, the three theatrical knights were deemed the greatest English actors of their generation. He died of a stroke on October 10 1983, aged 80.

The 1981 film Chariots of Fire is Hugh Hudson’s first and most commercially successful film. It won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture; Hudson earned a nomination for Best Director.

Hugh Hudson died at Charing Cross Hospital in London on 10 February 2023, aged 86.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1451

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