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Post by RedKing on Jan 29, 2008 9:19:40 GMT -8
I just finished transferring the Tarzan movies over to dvd-r, well the Lex Barker-Mike Henry ones anyways, I managed to get the 2 Weismuller dvd sets. From 1982-about 1985 one of our local UHF channels used to have Tarzan theater on ever Sunday morning(along with Abbott and Costello and Charlie Chan movies) and I probably saw most of these movies 3 or 4 times. Also, the Tarzan series was one of the longest running both in number of films and years in production running from 1932 straight through to 1969 or 1970 if you count the Ron Ely TV series and it's compilation movies, as that was done by the movie series producers. Anyhoo, David wanted me to start a thread where we can discuss all the Tarzan movies, both from the regular series and the few competing films from independent producers in the 30s-on, and maybe even the mostly stupid post 1969 Tarzan movies! Let's hear not only your opinions of the movies, but your memories of seeing them as well!
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Post by RedKing on Jan 29, 2008 11:03:54 GMT -8
Here's a list of the sound Tarzan movies and TV series: Franchise films
With Johnny Weissmuller 1 Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) 2 Tarzan and His Mate (1934) 3 Tarzan Escapes (1936) 4 Tarzan Finds a Son! (1939) 5 Tarzan's Secret Treasure (1941) 6 Tarzan's New York Adventure (1942) 7 Tarzan Triumphs (1943) 8 Tarzan’s Desert Mystery (1943) 9 Tarzan and the Amazons (1945) 10 Tarzan and the Leopard Woman (1946) 11 Tarzan and the Huntress (1947) 12 Tarzan and the Mermaids (1948) With Lex Barker 13 Tarzan's Magic Fountain (1949) 14 Tarzan and the Slave Girl (1950) 15 Tarzan's Peril (1951) 16 Tarzan's Savage Fury (1952) 17 Tarzan and the She-Devil (1953) With Gordon Scott 18 Tarzan's Hidden Jungle (1955) 19 Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957) 20 Tarzan and the Trappers (1958) 21 Tarzan's Fight for Life (1958) 22 Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959) 23 Tarzan the Magnificent (1960) – not based on the Burroughs novel of that title With other actors 24 Tarzan Goes to India (1962) (Jock Mahoney) 25 Tarzan's Three Challenges (1963) (Jock Mahoney) 26 Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (1966) (Mike Henry) – novelization by Fritz Lieber 27 Tarzan and the Great River (1967) (Mike Henry) 28 Tarzan and the Jungle Boy (1968) (Mike Henry) 29 Tarzan's Deadly Silence (a compilation of television episodes released to theaters) (1970) (Ron Ely) Competing films 1 Tarzan the Fearless (1933) (Buster Crabbe) - released as a serial and as an edited feature film 2 The New Adventures of Tarzan (1935) (Herman Brix) – released as a serial and as a feature film 3 Tarzan and the Green Goddess (1938) (Herman Brix) - second feature film version of the serial The New Adventures of Tarzan 4 Tarzan’s Revenge (1938) (Glenn Morris) 5 Tarzan, the Ape Man (1959) (Denny Miller) Later films 1 Tarzan, the Ape Man (1981) (Miles O’Keeffe) 2 Greystoke - The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) (Christopher Lambert) 3 Tarzan and the Lost City (1998) (Casper Van Dien) 4 Tarzan (1999) – animated feature 5 Tarzan & Jane (2002) – direct to video animated feature 6 Tarzan II (2005) – direct to video animated feature Television 1 Tarzan and The Trappers (filmed 1958, aired 1966) - three episodes filmed as pilots for a series that never materialized, edited into a television feature, starring Gordon Scott 2 Tarzan (1966–1968) — NBC series starring Ron Ely 3 Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle (1976–1977) — Filmation animated series (season one) o Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour (1977–1978) — (season two) o Tarzan and the Super 7 (1978–1980) — (seasons three and four) o The Tarzan/Lone Ranger Adventure Hour (1980–1981) — (season five, repeats only) o The Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour (1981–1982) — (season six, repeats only) 4 Tarzan in Manhattan (1989) — CBS TV movie starring Joe Lara 5 Tarzán (1991–1994) — syndicated series starring Wolf Larson 6 Tarzan: The Epic Adventures (1996) — syndicated series starring Joe Lara 7 The Legend of Tarzan (2001–2003) — Disney animated series 8 Tarzan (2003) — WB series starring Travis Fimmel
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Post by RedKing on Jan 29, 2008 11:22:10 GMT -8
Directed by W.S. Van Dyke Written by Cyril Hume Starring Johnny Weissmuller Neil Hamilton Maureen O'Sullivan C. Aubrey Smith Distributed by MGM Release date(s) March 25, 1932 (New York City premiere) Running time 99 min. Budget $652,675 (estimated)
This is the first full sound Tarzan movie and the first in the long running though loosely connected continuity wise franchise series( as the years went by, they kind of just ignored past films, like they do in the James Bond series). Johnny Weismuller was an Olympic swimmer and set several world records, and certainly looks almost exactly as Burroughs describes Tarzan in the books. He's also great in the role, even though Burroughs didn't like that tarzan never became educated as he was in his books. Weismuller's Tarzan wouldn't have been the same if he was. Weismuller has a natural presence and body language that works perfectly for the apeman. Maureen O'Sullivan is very beautiful as Jane, and yes that is Commisioner Gordon from the Adam West Batman TV series as the young hero!! Cheeta the chimp was created for this movie and, contrary to poular belief, is not from the novels at all! Jiggs, the chimp that played Cheeta is still alive, at 75 and lives in a retirement community for chimps called Casa del Cheeta in Florida! In this movie, though, Cheeta is actually played by an older chimp, Jiggs plays a baby chimp here, but graduated to the Cheeta role in the next film and continued all through the Weismuller years. Jiggs has also outlived both Weismuller and Maureen O'Sullivan. The movie itself is very good and boasts some nice African location footage left over from an earlier MGM epic TRADER HORN. The sound is a little tinny as is apt in many early 30s film when sound recording technology hadn't yet matured, but the action is good and the camera moves about alot unlike many other early talkies. MGM, being the huge star factory it was, makes an effort to disguise the Indian elephants by giving them prosthetic ears and tusks so they look more like African elephants. There are also some impressive shots of miniature moving elephants. This set the stage for 10 years of high quality MGM Tarzans. Even some of the later 40s MGMs, while being B pictures, still have very high production values, as an MGM B picture often looked better than many studios A pictures! The 2004 dvd set of all the MGM Tarzans features an stunningly good print of this movie and I highly recomend this and the second dvd set with the rest of the Weismuller Tarzans. Warner Brothers is probably the best dvd company today as all of the releases of older films9the weismuller Tarzans, King Kong,etc) are all fantastic and they have been releasing huge box sets of their own Looney tunes as well as cartoons from MGM, Fleischers(the first Popeye box set came out late last year, and they are going to release every theatrical popeye cartoon in 4 sets all chronologically ordered!) and Hanna Barbera and they all look better than they probably did on original release!
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Jan 29, 2008 14:08:31 GMT -8
great list and reviews, Mike. i'm looking forward to your review of TARZAN AND HIS MATE, which is usually the highest regarded of the Weissmuller series. it's probably my favorite of the bunch!
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Post by Lunkhead on Jan 29, 2008 15:30:05 GMT -8
Yes, great job Mike! I hope to get the Tarzan DVD sets myself eventually. (Man, I could spend a mint on DVDs)
When I was a kid, the Johnny Weissmuller films were on the afternoon movie a lot. We always loved them. I remember especially liking TARZAN'S NEW YORK ADVENTURE.
Looking forward to your reviews!
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Post by Shonokin on Jan 29, 2008 16:19:07 GMT -8
Some memories of Tarzan:
I saw most of the Weismuller Tarzans on Saturday afternoons in the early 70's. I remember them being pretty neat at the time. The production values, set and cinematography were above par to the regular adventure type movies. Weismuller did definitely have a real presence about him and I will probably always think of him when I think of a cinematic Tarzan.
I had an Aunt in St. Louis whom we'd visit on occasion and their tv channels regularly showed the Ron Ely Tarzans. I have a lot of specific burned in memories from those visits. The claw/clubs of the Leopard Men always stuck with me for some reason and will always associate that with my Aunts house.
Looking back I find most of the Tarzan adaptations to be pretty mundane compared to the books. The only exceptions I've already mentioned in the past couple of weeks, such as the silent 1928 serial TARZAN THE TIGER and the newer TV series TARZAN: THE EPIC ADVENTURES. This is because they carry over the exotic pulpiness of the ERB books pretty well. Although the 1998 TARZAN AND THE LOST CITY takes a good stab at it, it just didn't hold up very well.
I keep feeling tempted by that new-ish DVD set of the Weismuller movies, but have been waiting for a good deal.
My top actors for the Lord of the Jungle would be (in no particular order): Johnny Weismuller Frank Merrill Herman Brix (Bruce Bennett) Joe Lara
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Jan 29, 2008 16:48:02 GMT -8
i like NEW YORK ADVENTURE quite a bit as well, and also TARZAN'S DESERT MYSTERY. they got Jane's hair color right in that one!
i have a friend that says there's never been a truly great Tarzan movie or series made, which in a sense is true. Weissmuller was a great Tarzan, but not the one of the books.
Channel 2 showed the first two or three Tarzan movies quite a bit when i was growing up.
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Post by Lunkhead on Jan 30, 2008 18:29:00 GMT -8
Concerning the '80s films, I liked GREYSTOKE quite a bit, but that Bo Derek version - phew!
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Post by Shonokin on Jan 31, 2008 13:37:57 GMT -8
I liked Greystoke too, from what I remember of it. Have to watch that one again. Lambert's forehead is HUUUGE though and it always distracted me when his hair was pulled back. On a Burroughs related note I just came across ERB's grandson's site: www.dantonburroughs.com/It must be someones full time job to scan stuff out of their archives because there is a TON of ERB-Tarzan-John Carter ephemera on there. There are scans of hundreds newspaper strips, etc. Pretty neat.
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Jan 31, 2008 16:13:31 GMT -8
i liked GREYSTOKE at first, but then i read or heard that they don't call him "Tarzan" once in the movie. and that strikes me as just plain wrong.
www.imdb.com/title/tt0087365/trivia
so while it looks nice enough, i don't care for it much these days.
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Post by RedKing on Feb 11, 2008 5:42:07 GMT -8
Tarzan and His Mate Directed by Cedric Gibbons Jack Conway (uncredited co-director) James C. McKay (uncredited) Produced by Bernard H. Hyman Written by Edgar Rice Burroughs (characters) Starring Johnny Weissmuller Maureen O'Sullivan Neil Hamilton Paul Cavanagh Distributed by MGM Release date(s) April 16, 1934 (premiere) Running time 104 min. Country United States Language English Budget $1,279,142 (estimated
This is generally considered the best Tarzan movie, and rightly so. This is also the most sexually charged Tarzan movie, even more than the awful 1981 version with frequently naked Bo Derek. Made just before the infamous Hayes Code went into effect, this movie feautures Maureen O'Sullivan's Jane wearing a very skimpy top and a loincloth that is cut very high on her hip. She and Weismuller's Tarzan have several scenes together where you can almost see the electricity of their passion, and of course there is the famous nude swimming scene. Maureen O'Sullivan didn't do the nude scene however, it was Olympic swimmer Josephine Mc Kimm. As for the plot, ivory hunters invade the jungle wanting Tarzan to lead them to the elephant's graveyard of the previous film. Shot and left for dead, Cheta nurses Tarzan back to health and he saves Jane and the elephant's graveyard from the plundering white men. Tarzan rides a rhino in one scene in this movie, and Weismuller did the stunt himself. This was one of several of the MGM Tarzans to go through several directors, though there was not much revision done to the film itself, as was the sace in the other films. I'm not positive, but it's either this film or the next that features Tarzan battling a giant crocodile, which is an excellent scene done with miniatures and Weismuller wrestling a life size mechanical monster. This scene would go on to be used in every other MGM Tarzan except maybe TARZAN IN NY! I remember when these movies used to be on every week my family and I would always chuckle everytime the scene came on because they used it so much!
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Post by RedKing on Feb 11, 2008 5:52:33 GMT -8
Tarzan Escapes Directed by Richard Thorpe John Farrow (uncredited) James C. McKay (uncredited) George B. Seitz William A. Wellman Written by Edgar Rice Burroughs (characters) Cyril Hume (screenplay) Starring Johnny Weissmuller Maureen O'Sullivan John Buckler Benita Hume Distributed by MGM Release date(s) November 6, 1936 Running time 89 min. Budget $1,058,000 (estimated)
Again we have umpteen directors working on a Tarzan film! This film introduced MGM's Tarzan theme music which opened this and all subsequent MGM Tarzans. It's a cool somewhat ominous jungle dirge that is as closely linked to tarzan to me as his famous call from seeing these movies repeatedly on TV as a kid. This one features a villianous hunter that comes to the jungle with Jane's 2 cousins. Obstensibly he's just their guide, as Jane has inherited a fortune back in England. However, his true intent is to capture Tarzan and take him back to civilization as sideshow style display. Obviously this guy didn't see King Kong! Tarzan does get caged but manages to break free with the help of the elephants and Cheeta, and then get's his revenge by forcing the hunter through the jungle where he is eaten by some nasty large lizards! Serves him right! One of the multiple directors shot a scene involving Tarzan battling giant vampire bats which was later deemed too "gruesome" which is unfortunate as it seems to be lost now!
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Jan 17, 2009 22:28:59 GMT -8
well, i got a set of the Filmation cartoons of Tarzan, and dang if they hold up really well. i didn't like them as much when i first watched them, N'Kima bothered me (didn't know he was actually part of the books). these are really the most faithful, if toned down violence wise, adaptions i've seen.
the animation is a step up from Filmation's usual stuff. you can tell they used some rotoscoping. the voice acting is pretty good.
alas, it's still the same music and sound effects Filmation has used for a thousand years. you would think they'd change some of it at sometime, but there are cues from the 60s here. and the animals all sound familiar.
this should be out on DVD.
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Post by Shonokin on Jan 19, 2009 9:05:39 GMT -8
Yeah the main things I remember about this is the same ol music from all the other shows and the rotoscoping. I should probably look this up again now that I've read a lot more Burroughs' Tarzan books.
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