James Parker (C. Aubrey Smith) and Harry Holt (Neil Hamilton) are ivory merchants. They are in Africa looking for a legendary place referred to as the elephant graveyard. According to legend, when an elephant is sick, they travel to a secret place to die. Parker believes the graveyard is on top of an escarpment. They plan on finding it so they can collect and sell the ivory. Before they leave, they are joined by Parker’s daughter, Jane (Maureen O’Sullivan).
The expedition is fraught with danger. While crossing a river they combat Hippos and Crocodiles. Eventually they reach the escarpment. After climbing the cliff face, they make camp and rest before heading out to look for the burial ground. This is when they first see a young white man in the treetops swinging on vines from branch to branch. When they’re not looking, the man kidnaps Jane.
At first Jane is terrified, but she soon learns that the man is not dangerous. Jane learns that his name is Tarzan. When Tarzan goes off to look for food, Jane is rescued by her father and Holt. While doing so, they kill Tarzan’s gorilla friend. By now Jane firmly believes that Tarzan is a gentle person who means no harm. Holt attempts to shoot Tarzan and manages to wound him. While everyone is after Tarzan, his gorilla friends kidnap Jane. Tarzan is attacked by, and kills, two lions before he is rescued by an elephant. Tarzan’s gorilla friends take Jane to where Tarzan lies unconscious, to help him. As she spends time with him, Jane begins to fall in love with the jungle man.
Eventually, Jane is reunited with her father. When the expedition is captured by pygmies, Tarzan rushes to try to save them.
“Tarzan the Ape Man” was released in 1932 and was directed by W. S. Van Dyke. It is an American pre-code action-adventure film. The movie was based on the Tarzan book series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Burroughs either wrote or co-wrote 24 books in the Tarzan series. There are twelve books in the Tarzan film series that featured Johnny Weissmuller. Six of the films were produced by MGM and the six by RKO.
Weissmuller is the first Tarzan I was exposed to, mostly on Saturday afternoon syndicated films. The movie boasts a lot of stock footage and back-lot fake jungles. I love that stuff, especially in adventure films from the 30’s.
There have been many “Tarzan Yells” over the years. The best known of these is the one cultivated by Johnny Weissmuller. The yell was described by author Edgar Rice Burroughs in his Tarzan series of books, as “the victory cry of the bull ape”. The original Tarzan yell would again be used in the 1981 Bo Derek remake “Tarzan the Ape Man”. The yell is trademarked by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. There are variations as to where the yell came from, there are entire websites devoted to it, but the most prominent belief is that it was an actual yell performed by Weissmuller and was based on a yodel he learned in German beer halls when he was younger.
The men sharing duty in the ape costume are Ray Corrigan and Jack Leonard. The chimp, Cheetah, was played by a chimpanzee named Jiggs. He played Tarzan’s pet in three films with Weissmuller. The pygmies in the film were played by white, little people in blackface. Among them were Billy Curtis and Angelo Rossitto.