Blucher One of the worst movies I've ever seen

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

JLRVancouver In a story with which most people are familiar, Jane goes to the Dark Continent, meets the legendary jungle swinger, faces numerous threats, is rescued multiple times, and falls in love with Man at his most primitive. The movie is not the first celluloid adaptation of E.R. Burroughs's famous story, but is likely the best known and, although conflicting with current sensibilities (e.g. shooting pesky animals, heroic ivory hunters, dwarfs in black-face playing villainous pygmies), remains a classic 'pre-code' adventure film and predecessor to multiple sequels, series, and TV shows. Considering the film is based on what was essentially a boy's adventure book, it is very sensual (almost soft-erotic) at times. Jane spends much of the middle part of story soaking wet in a clingy (but opaque), strategically disintegrating, outfit as she and the Lord of the Jungle engage in a long bout of 'getting to know you' flirting. Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller, the titular Ape-man, is perfect as the very fit, very European looking, Lord of the African jungle, as is Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane Parker, the lovely British girl destined to be his mate. C. Aubrey Smith plays Jane's father, James, an old 'African hand' and Neil Hamilton (familiar to boomers as Commissioner Gordon in the '60s campy "Batman" series) is Harry Holt who, as a 'civilized' gentleman, is no match for Tarzan when it comes to attracting Jane's affections. The movie is an excellent blend of location footage and 'Hollywood Africa', and if some of the great apes look like costumed stuntmen and the elephants have prosthetic ears - that just adds to the charm. There are some incredible interactions between the actors and the animals (or seamless switches to wranglers, I couldn't tell) and chimp-star 'Cheeta' has some of the best scenes, both with the humans and when being chased by lions while carrying the news of Jane's current peril to Tarzan. Followed by sequel ("Tarzan and his Mate", 1934) in which Jane wears even less (and sometimes nothing at all) before the Hay's Code clamp down on cinematic naughtiness forced Maureen O'Sullivan to don a (relatively speaking) frumpy jungle skirt for the rest of the series. Great fun from another era.

gorf Tarzan the Ape Man isn't as bad as the overrated porno movie "Tarzan and his Mate", but it's still trash. The worst thing about this movie is the racism. Black people are treated as beasts. It's really hard to watch Tarzan randomly kill innocent Africans, and the movie actually says that white people are worth more than black people. The treatment of animals is also pretty disturbing...are those real arrows and spears sticking out of the elephants? It's hard to tell. The fight scene at the end where Tarzan kills the guy in a gorilla suit is unnecessarily cruel. The way Tarzan treats Jane is also cruel, like she's a ragdoll. This version of Tarzan acts like a stereotypical caveman.There's no real nudity in Tarzan the Ape Man, but sex is implied. The whole movie is kind of sleazy and crude. It feels like you're walking through a dirty back alley with prostitutes and drug dealers.Fortunately, the Tarzan movies improved during the Hollywood production code (or Hays code). Tarzan became a gentleman, Jane kept her clothes on and even the portrayal of black people improved. It wasn't perfect, you couldn't show mixed marriages etc, but hateful trash like "Birth of a Nation" could never have been made during the production code. Watch a good Tarzan movie instead, like Tarzan's Secret Treasure.

Ben Larson Is this the first case of recycling? MGM spent a fortune making Trader Horn, and was able to reuse some footage for this film. Smart thinking. Of course the footage was not integrated well. It looks as if some of the characters are walking in front of a movie screen.Johnny Weismuller was an Olympic Gold Medalist with no acting experience, and MGM really didn't want him, but they used him for this and four sequels to great effect. Weismuller went on to make more Tarzan films for other producers.It is always a pleasure to watch old films like this and see how far we have come.

bkoganbing I hadn't seen Johnny Weissmuller's debut film Tarzan The Ape Man for many years so I was struck by the fact that Neil Hamilton and Maureen O'Sullivan got first billing with Weissmuller down the opening credits in an 'introducing' category. As if no one in America, let alone the movie going public didn't know who Johnny Weissmuller was.The fuss over swimming champion Michael Phelps is nothing compared to what Johnny Weissmuller's celebrity was like. In the Roaring Twenties when each sport seemed to have an icon that became a legend, Weissmuller was that for swimming. The records he set in the Olympics stood for many years, with today's athlete conditioning methods I can only speculate what he could do today if he were alive and in his prime.Still Louis B. Mayer was nothing if not cautious in protecting an investment in a non-actor to be a lead in a major film. He kept Weissmuller's dialog to grunts, guttural jungle utterings, and a few choice words that Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane teaches her new jungle man toy.With tons of footage left over from MGM's African location film of Trader Horn, Tarzan The Ape Man had all the background needed to make the film look good. It's fairly obvious that when you see shots of Neil Hamilton and Maureen O'Sullivan they're shot against a background of real natives. They never got further to Africa than Toluca Lake in the shooting.It's also obvious that Weissmuller couldn't act at all which was why he was only given grunts and dialog of one and two words. Later on he did become a competent enough actor. But quite frankly who cared when they saw him in a loin cloth.Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane Parker comes to Africa to visit her father C. Aubrey Smith and she finds that Smith and his partner Neil Hamilton are planning an expedition into some unexplored territory in search of the fabled elephant's graveyard. A lot of loose ivory to be picked up there without the danger of actually trying to kill the beasts. Hamilton's interested in her, but when white jungle man Tarzan rescues O'Sullivan, Hamilton doesn't have a prayer.Tarzan The Ape Man is still an exciting adventure film even to today's more sophisticated eyes. And Weissmuller and O'Sullivan's appeal as a romantic couple is timeless.All right so they haven't got the dialog from Romeo and Juliet, who cares?