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.
When I was a kid I thought Ron Ely was hot, but Lex Barker rules. That be a face. And who said they saw him in person and thought he was too muscled?! Yikes, imho, there ain’t no such thing as too muscled!
Baker: If you want to see a “true to Burroughs” film, try The New Adventures of Tarzan an old serial (sometimes edited down to a 2-hour movie under the title Tarzan and the Green Goddess ). Burroughs co-produced and co-wrote it, and personally chose Herman Brix to play the lead. Some of the later movies of the silent era were made with input from ERB as well.
Be warned though. When ERB had Creative Control over a movie, he usually chose actors for their looks, rather than their acting ability. Also, he never really had the budget to really do things properly.
I was thinking of the face rather than the figure when I said Elmo Lincoln looked like the Disney version. (Also, it’s been a long time since I saw Lincoln play Tarzan.)
Johnny Weissmuller by a long shot. However, I was much more keyed in to Maureen O’Sullivan and those skimpy little animal skins she wore in the earlier films. Man, she was hot! I’m sure I experienced lust for the first time because of her. Yow!