I liked the Tarzan books, but the movies were usually lacking in his portrayal.

I think the best was Christopher Lambert in, "Greystoke: the Legend of Tarzan of the Apes." (But the girl who played Jane was a total loss in that role.)

Johnny Weissmuller was an irritant. I didn't like his hoarse voice or his pidgin English or general lack of culture. The Tarzan of the books spoke perfect French, later English. He was, after, Lord Greystoke, a wealthy nobleman! He would have been that man, with the savage nature beneath. Burroughs was very clear about that, and about his physique, wiry and strong, not musclebound like a bodybuilder.

His knife intrigued me, especially after I studied English knives that his marooned father might have had. Based on the books, I settled on a dagger with stag handle and about an eight-inch blade, by I*XL or Joseph Rodgers. Nickle guard. Keep in mind that his parents were marooned in French West Africa or nearby in the 1880's. I once published an article on the probable Tarzan knife, so some good came of my speculation.

I think Tarzan (if real) would probably have had that knife of his father's restored by the maker and surely bought others. But none would have resembled those in the movies.

Herman Brix was a pretty good Tarzan in the 1939 film, "The Green Goddess." Lex Barker was okay, but blond and obviously American. The same for Buster Crabbe, who I otherwise liked in the role.

I never saw a Jane that I really liked.

Hi Tex,
I liked them all for different reasons.
Including "Me Tarzan, you Jane" Weissmuller.
Even as a little kid I would laugh as Tarzan would ride the rhino and stab it to death with his rubber knife.
I enjoyed Greystroke and would look forward to a new movie.
I can't remember most of their names. I liked some more than others
On a side note, I saw where Cheetah passed away about a year ago.
I never saw a Jane I would kick out of my tree house.
Girls were hard to come by for Tarzan.
I'll have to check out The Green Goddess. Thanks for the tip.
Thanks
Mike

Johnny Weissmuller spoke and acted just dumb enough to be acceptable on screen as a jungle man. It's probably not likely that many people seeing those old movies had read the books,so they got away with it.

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Blessed be the Lord,my Rock

I will have to admit I never read the boks but I did watch the movies. So I guess I really liked Johnny Weismuller the best. Since I am not a Tarzan reader.

Jim Thorpe.

Me, in my head.

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and what his trumpet saith

Johnny W. and if you don't like Maureen O'Sullivan (and her outfit) you don't know class. Ungawa!
Bwana Juju

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Wayne
Torn & Frayed

The lady in "Greystroke" was Andie McDowall who is from South Carolina. I had heard that she could not overcome her Southern accent so her entire movie dialog was spoken by Glenn Close faking a cultured English accent.

In 1974 I was stationed at MCAS Yuma and living off-base. The older single lady across the street was visiting with us one night and told us about her "date" with Johnny Weismuller at the height of his Hollywood career.

"He was an animal." She said. They went on a double date to a nice restuarant and at the very beginning of being seated he started feeling for her legs and playing "grabby" underneath the table. She excused herself, went to the Lady's room and crawled out the window, abandoning her lady friend to the table and two men. She said he was such an animal she was truly afraid to be around him.

I watched all of the Johnny Weismuller "Tarzans" and my favorite was when he was fighting the Nazis in Africa. He'd call out, "Hey Nazi" and when one came after him he'd ambush them. Now, when I watch them in re-run I realize that my biggest mistake was not realizing how beautiful Maureen O'Sullivan was. As for Ole Johnny...he was lucky for the venue of "Tarzan" and "Jungle Jim". Real lucky.

"Boy" was constantly getting himself in trouble, like the kid in "Shane" he needed a serious thumping.

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Have guns...will shoot'em.

I swear Weissmuller says, "Tarzan hate Nazis," in one of his movies, but I've gone through them and counldn't find it.

Maureen O'Sullivan is one of those women who would look beautiful in any era, in any outfit, hair style or make-up.

Brendan Fraser in George of the Jungle. I laught my socks of.

Ron Ely in the series, Tarzan. Used to watch it on Saturday mornings.

If John Wayne had played a "Tarzan" then he would have been my favorite.

All I know about those old Tarzan movies is that there was always some bad Juju up on the escarpment and once the natives found out from the witch doctor that was where they were going they always panicked, dropped the boxes they were carrying on their heads and ran away.

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Forum consigliere

I have some great Tarzan jokes. I just do not want to get banned for posting them.

Elmo Lincoln; but you have to be really old to have even heard of him.

I say Ron Ely was the best with jahi the boy .

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God save the SOUTH

Remember how the hostile natives would have that trick with the crossed trees? Man, I'd like to see that done now with all the computer graphic stuff.

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Wayne
Torn & Frayed

Mike Henry at Brian's Drive-In Theater

Mike from St Pete's favorite Tarzan.

Crabbe was good, also as Flash Gordon and as Capt. Gallant of the Foreign Legion.


Joe Lara was in the TV series filmed in South Africa after the political changes there, and that PC stuff precluded making Tarzan films as they should be. Now, the natives have to be major characters and hardly the "gomangani" of the Burroughs books. Also, they had too much special effects in that brief series, as with the one starring Gena Lee Nolin as Sheena.

Maureen O' Sulllivan was okay, but if you compare her to, say, Grace Kelly...

Most people seem to forget that Jane was American, from Maryland, I think, in the books. Having Andie McDowell's accent dubbed wasn't needed. Jane wasn't British!

I think a young Rachel Blakely would make a good Jane. I loved her as Marguerite on, "The Lost World." She could probably fake a US accent. (She's half American, although she's never lived here; just visits her US father and sister. She's Australian.) But Rachel is over 40 now. If you liked Maureen O'Sullivan, you'd adore Rachel. She resembles a witty, droll Nancy Kerrigan. And she can really smolder.

I think almost all of the movies and the TV series just assumed that few viewers read the books, and they played to the lowest common denominator. I detested Jai with Ron Ely. Why would this Mexican kid replace Boy? BTW, Boy had a name in the books, and was a fine son of Tarzan. I think his name was Jack. Tarzan's actual name was John Clayton. Greystoke was his estate and part of England. A parallel on, "The Lost World" is that Lord John Roxton, VC, was the Earl of Avebury.

Mike Henry was once a Pittsburgh Steeler. Played football way better than his thespian skills.

Dino from PGH.PA.

I was amazed at the video of Jane swimming. I positively cannot believe that the scenes were actually shown in theaters back then. I can only imagine the "hurrah" in places like the Bible Belt of Texas in the 1930s.

Not sayin' it wasn't shown but amazed that it was.

For years I saw "Cheyenne Social Club" on T.V. Then I watched it for the first time on VHS (uncut). I was bowled over by the one scene with Jimmy Stewart and the "hostess" alone in the bedroom. Could not believe that scene was shown in theaters and drive-ins when the movie was released.

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Have guns...will shoot'em.

Surely the best athlete among the many Tarzan acors, and I say that knowing Weissmuller was an Olympic swimmer. Heck. Buster Crabbe was one helluva an athlete in his own right...

Thorpe was incredible.

I'm only 54 years old and was never a Tarzan guy. I called my mother and step dad, they said they both vote for Johnny Weismuller. Mom is 77 and my step father, who by the way is one of the last living original Navy Sea-Bees is 88.

You're kidding aren't you? Johnny Weissmuller was the only Tarzan that wasn't "juju".


Tarzan's New York Adventure is my favorite, when he gets in the cab with Jane in the middle of New York City and asks Jane about the cab driver............."Man know trail?"

Or when Cheetah picks up the phone and talks to the guy at Club Moonbeam. Not very politically correct.

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LIVE FROM THE DAWGHOUSE

I read the unabridged ER Burroughs Tarzan and agree that it should be remade as a movie that is true to the book. But just as Connery was the only Bond, Weissmuller was the only Tarzan. Christopher Lambert is cross eyed or something, he was terrible in my opinion.
I have two Weismuller Tarzan DVD box sets and just love them ! The later movies were kind of cheesy, but that was part of the fun.

In many places, they weren't shown.

Maureen O'Sullivan does not appear as Jane during the film's famous nude swimming sequence. O'Sullivan is instead doubled by Josephine McKim, a member of the 1924 and 1928 U.S. Womens' Olympic Swim Teams and one of the four U.S. swimmers on that team to win the 1928 gold medal in the 400-Meter Freestyle Relay.

The infamous nude swimming scene was originally filmed in three different versions: with Jane wearing her traditional costume, with Jane topless and with Jane fully nude. US states were empowered at that time to enact individual censorship laws, and three different versions of the scene were filmed in order to allow individual states to select the version of the scene which best conformed to its laws. All three versions were eventually removed from the film due to protests from conservative religious groups, particularly the powerful Catholic Legion of Decency. The nude version of the scene was discovered in the vaults of Turner Entertainment during the late 1990s following its purchase of the MGM film library, and was restored to most subsequent versions of the film on the direct orders of Turner Entertainment chairman Ted Turner. In the restored version of the scene, Tarzan is depicted wearing his traditional loincloth while Jane appears fully nude, her costume having been torn off when Tarzan playfully tosses her from a tree to the water below. The scene as it exists today is approximately four minutes in duration.

Thanks for posting. I thought a double must have been used for the swimming scene.

Wow. Great info Cowart. Thanks for that.

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Have guns...will shoot'em.

I loved it when Johnny W. grabed a vine and crossed the creek swinging on it and the Nazis tried to wade across with the creek chock full of Piranhas. Johnny W. was da man.

Didn't know they had Piranhas in Africa.

Rule 303

They DON'T have piranhas in Africa. Artistic licence, I guess.

They do have "tiger fish", but they are very different, although you wouldn't like to be bitten by one. Google them and look for pics of them with open mouths. And I think they can reach 100 pounds in large lakes. They resemble striped bass with teeth from a nightmare.

But crocs and hippos are the real threats to human life in African waterways, although there are such things as water cobras, too.

The Tarzan books even had Tarzan killing deer instead of antelope! Really sloppy research! And the friendly Waziri tribe was silly. The actual Waziri are really Pathans, from around the Khyber Pass near Pakistan/ Afghanistan.

Burroughs did, though, know that a .45 was better for protection than smaller guns. His books mentioned that a few times.