Tarzan of the Apes (Silent) (B&W)

Tarzan of the Apes (Silent) (B&W)
Instead of Jane, what this Tarzan really needed was the Jenny Craig of 1918 to come into his life. Elmo Lincoln was one overweight, overexposed fella as film's first Tarzan. It makes you wonder whether Jane (Enid Markey, looking like a young Bernadette Peters) could really see. You might wonder if you need glasses, too, because the footage is grainy and filled with the herky-jerky movement associated with silent films. Overacted (in the broad, silent-film way), the movie serves as a sketchy introduction to the Greystoke myth. As there's no dialogue and you need to read titles to follow the story, you might have trouble convincing the kids to pay attention. (Tempt them instead with the first Tarzan talkie, and a classic, Tarzan, the Ape Man.) Still, the scenes of a young Tarzan playing gently with the monkeys and discovering his human form in the water's reflection are early inklings of more sophisticated storytelling that would follow. --Valerie J. Nelson
Customer Review: So-so print of a must-see film
Being an Edgar Rice Burroughs fan, I've always wanted to see the first film version of Tarzan. Who knows when it will come out on DVD (although 20 minutes of this are included as a sort of prologue in the DVD Adventures of Tarzan - Serial). So I bought this tape. Bad points - a typical Madacy video - blurry picture with a totally inappropriate soundtrack. Since it's a silent picture anyway, I just turned the sound off. Although it's listed here as 73 minutes, the box itself says 63 minutes, and The End actually came up at 60 minutes. The scene(s) in England with a barmaid played by Bessie Toner are missing, for example. The American Film Institute Catalog says that after its Jan 27, 1918 premiere, the film was cut from 10 reels to 8 reels, so maybe 63 minutes is all we have now. Good points - faithful to many points of Burroughs' novel. Rather than Tarzan implausibly teaching himself reading and writing, the film introduces a sailor who teaches young Tarzan those skills, and then makes his way to England. Unlike the book, the party with Professor and Jane Porter, and the presumed Greystoke heir, is actually looking for the wild Greystoke son. It was interesting seeing the wildlife in the beginning, clearly filmed on location in Africa, although maybe it was footage taken from some early documentary. I like Gordon Griffith's performance as the boy Tarzan. Elmo Lincoln wasn't bad, even though he's not the type of filmic Tarzan we've become used to. Enid Markey wasn't particularly appealing to me. The film still has the exaggerated pantomines of ealier silent films. The acting in silent films in general got a lot better in the 1920's. Overall, I thought it was OK for a Tarzan film. Later films had better acting (some of them), and more appealing Jane's, and in recent years gorgeous jungle scenery. But I appreciate that this was the first, and that it stayed so close to Burroughs' story.
Customer Review: classic!
This version of Tarzan was filmed in and around my hometown of Morgan City, LA and that is how I initially became interested in it. I have to admit that using the swamps of South Louisiana is NOT an accurate representation of a jungle, but it suits the film. Actually there are a lot of elements to this version of the film that may seem "odd" or "unusual," but that is one of its main beauties. Instead, there is an awesome story-line that follows the book quite well (better than any other version I am told.) Indeed, the movie is crude (it was made almost 70 years before I was even born!) but the strong story-line appears more fluid and noticeable because of this. If you are a purist or an afficianado, you would do well to see this classic! For the rest of us, however, there are other versions that offer more "Hollywood sheen." But, of course for the purists, you cannot pass up the chance to see the book "come to life!"