Tarzan, the Ape Man

Rather than go to the unnecessary trouble and expense of hiring actors nd shooting lots of new footage to make his film, producer Al Zimbalist cast Denny Miller , a UCLA basketball star with no acting experience, as Tarzan....then,larded the film with as much stock jungle footage from the 1950 film "king solomans mines" as he could. And when that ran out, he used footage from the original 1932 classic "tarzan the ape man" starring Johnny Weissmuller.

of course there was the small problem that Zimbalist's film was filmed in color and weissmullers was in black and white...but zimbaslist got around that by having the black and white footage tinted to make it appear as if it had been filmed in Technicolor, like the rest of the movie. but it didn't. it didn't even look like denny miller. in one scene you can actually see johnny weissmullers face clearly as he fights a crocodile.

What little footage zimbalist did bother to flm was awful.in one important action sequence, real footage of an animal trainer dressed as Tarzan wrestling with a live leapard was combined with shots of miller wrestling with a large stuffed animal complete with close ups of its face, plastic fangs, button eyes and all!

bad bad bad bad bad

I remember seeing this in the theater when it was first released and being appalled at its lousiness. So strong was that impression that I remembered now, 45 years later, that I could find it by searching IMDb for "Denny Miller". I talked for days, weeks, months and now years afterward about the miserable "borrowing" of scenes from the original Weissmuller films and color-tinting them in a vain attempt to blend in with the new footage. One example: a burning pygmy village features brown tinted film with flames overprinted. The pygmies calmly go about their quiet life while their huts supposedly burn around them. This is undoubtedly the WORST Tarzan movie ever made. Even Elmo Lincoln is better.

WE'VE NOTICED FOR some time how the Hollywood crowd loves revisionism. Take for example: in FRANKENSTEIN (1818), author Mary Wollstonecroft Shelley named the main character Victor Frankenstein; yet for some unknown reason, UNIVERSAL PICTURES made his given name "Henry". To further complicate matters, they gave him a friend named "Victor !" In the 1942 Serial SPY SMASHER, Republic Studios gave the alter ego Alan Armstrong a twin brother "Jack" , that he never had in the Fawcett publication's WHIZ COMICS. In 1937, the same studio did a real number of revision in the DICK TRACY Serial by making him a G Man, making a "Gwen" his girlfriend and disposing of Tracy's comic page partner, Pat Patton for a "Mike Mc Gurk comic relief.

AS FOR OUR indictment of Metro Goldwyn Mayer, we call your attention to Tarzan's mate, Jane. In the original stories, author Edgar Rice Burroughs gave us Jane Porter, an American from Baltimore. The MGM version made her "Jane Parker", an English woman of Noble blood. Co figure. (and thanks for letting me get this gripe off my chest!)

AS FOR THIS 1959 remake of the 1932 Johnny Weissmuller/Maureen O'Sullivan original, all we can say is thumbs down. The limited budget shows, regardless of Techincolor; which no Johnny Weissmuller vehicle had. In a way it may have been an indicator of how the mighty Metro Goldwyn Mayer had fallen from its high perch in tinsel town.

TO ITS CREDIT, this film stuck very close to the original story, albeit in a somewhat updated version. The characterization of African Natives was somewhat upgraded, giving so many much more personality than the thin, shallow portrayals in the past. The movie starred newcomer Denny Miller and Joanna Barnes; who had enough talent for the roles. But we needn't remind you that they were no Weissmuller/O'Sullivan combo.

ANY POSITIVES THAT one may find are all too quickly undermined by the extensive use of now tinted, old footage from thr '32 original. In some scenes (particularly when Tarzan fights and kills the giant Crocodile, it is obvious that it's really Weissmuller or a very close double.

After watching this I had to write a comment about it. So many actors played Tarzan, so many directors directed Tarzan, so many actresses played Jane but this one is one of the worst acted and directed Tarzan Movie. Tarzan swings on the Liane to one place to another and then back to the former place. The Movie begins with a hilarious scene about a Watusi on a board of a steamer. We'll never found out what he was doing on the ship and why some wounded leave the ship. I've not seen a Tarzan Movie for a while and of course not all were masterpieces but at least somehow entertaining. This is entertaining but on another way. So bad that's funny and annoying too. There are some bad footage taken from an old BW Tarzan Movie. What did they thought the audience wouldn't recognize black & white scenes in a color movie? There are also other footages taken from other movies. Most of the scenes are terrible hilarious. BTW what is a spider doing on the top of a mountain? Aren't Pygmies people of short stature? Please watch out the attack of the natives. Interesting Tarzan cannot doesn't say many words only the scream in that. The scream is clearly taken from Johnny Weissmuller but I don't think that he would like this movie. Next to the Bo Derek Tarzan this is the worst. Better you don't watch it.

From 1959 until 1981 this film reigned as champion of the "Bad" Tarzan films. It then relinquished it's title to the 1981 movie of the same name with Bo Derek swinging on the vine. Denny Miller is Tarzan and borrows the yell from the Johnny Weissmuller films. Of course a must see for any Tarzan film fan. AMC ran it during their Tarzanathon a while back. Miller was not the worst Tarzan ever he just happened to be in a bad picture about the legendary ape man. Take a look if you want but it helps if your a real Tarzan fan.