I’ve always been a fan of the Tarzan films; what gay boy doesn’t dream of swinging through trees with a muscled man in a loincloth? Lately, Cinemax has been showing old Tarzan movies on the weekends, from Johnny Weissmuller’s original role (yes, I know, Elmo Lincoln in 1918 was the first film Tarzan, but he’s just a Trivia Pursuit answer; JW was the first real Tarzan) to Mike Henry’s more articulate 60’s version.
So are there any Tarzan fans put there, and who’s your favorite?
For sheer masculine pulchritude, I gotta go with Mike Henry. The man couldn’t act, but that hairy chest and those ripped abs just make me melt. The best actor who portrayed Tarzan would probably, IMO, be Ron Ely, another hot man who could fill out a loincloth. His Tarzan could speak fluent English and had a more urbane demeanor more in keeping with the Lord Greystoke of Edgar Rice Burrough’s novels.
In addition, has anyone read ERB’s Tarzan novels? I haven’t read them since I was a pup, but I used to devour the books, which enriched my vocabulary even as thjey warped my libido (I am such a muscle queen.)
I think the best version of Tarzan I’ve seen (or at least closest to ERB’s books) was a cartoon that came on during the 1970’s. Of course, that doesn’t count as an actor.
Adult: Gordon Scott; he was a fairly good actor and his two final Tarzan films – Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure and Tarzan The Magnificent – are universally acknowledged as the two finest, bar perhaps Wissmuller’s first two (“Apeman” and “Mate”).
Plus, Gordon Scott is a helluva nice guy. I met him at a film festival back in '95; low-key, affable, a very unpretentious, have-a-beer-with-ya type of fellow. That thick mane of brylcreemed hair is now gray, but he looked well and healthier than men younger than he (he just turned 75, btw, and is the second-oldest living Tarzan actor after 90-odd-year-old Bruce Bennett (Herman Brix).
gobear, I must disgree that Weissmuller was the first “real” Tarzan. I own copies of all extant Tarzan films and I must say that both Elmo Lincoln and Frank Merrill were excellent in the role in the silent era. But I know what you mean by “real.” Weissmuller, like Rathbone as Holmes, made a character stick in the public eye.
Enjoyed the first ten or so of the Tarzan novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, but loved all of the John Carter books more.
Disney’s.
Yeah, he’s two dimensional, and the movie isn’t really good, but I always hated Tarzan movies until that one. And he’s the best Disney hero in a while.
(Plus, is Tarzan ever not two dimensional? At least that one has an excuse)
Burroughs lover checking in here. (Obviously) Ron Ely came the closest to projecting the image that I had developed in my mind from the books.
Everybody’s mileage may vary using that standard. Do any two people “see” the exact same images when reading? Anyway, my vote goes to Ron Ely.
What about Jane? I can’t think of Jane as anyone other than Maureen O’Sullivan. She nailed the role so well in those old movies.
Does anyone think that a Tarzan movie will ever be made that portrays him just as ERB did? In this PC world I doubt it. Really, before he was “humanized” he killed human beings for pleasure.
He had an inferiority complex because his features were so different from the apes(he felt he was ugly)
Does anyone think that a Tarzan movie will ever be made that portrays him just as ERB did? In this PC world I doubt it. Really, before he was “humanized” he killed human beings for pleasure.
He had an inferiority complex because his features were so different from the apes(he felt he was ugly)
Gotta agree with Elmo Lincoln. He starred in the very fist Tarzan movie, which actually played it amzingly straight – inda like Greysoke, only not as dull. I’ve got a copy of it on VHS. Lincol did one or two more Tarzan films, but I haven’t seen them.
Lincoln did not look like the Disney version – he had an unbelievable barrel chest, making him look more like Tarzan of the Bears.
I’ve read all the Tarzan books. I tried reading them all in one summer, but it was like trying to live on a diet of creampuffs – there’s just ot enough of substance there. It actually took me quite a while to recover rom the first dozen or so, but I finally read them all (including, a couple of years ago, Tarzan, the ost Advnture, cobbled together from notes Burroughs left behind and just finished recently). For what it’s worth, the best Tarzan books are the first one (Tarzan of the Apes, natch) and, I think, the sixth, Jungle Tales of Tarzan. When Burroughs was t his best, as in these, Tarzan comes off as truly an ape in human form, with a simian love of mischief and a simian’s curiousity (rather than just a human running around the jungle in a loincloth). At his worst, the novels can be patchworks of unsuccessful rape scenes an highly improbable lost civilizations.
