Tarzan of the Apes
About Tarzan of the Apes
John and Alice Clayton, Lord and Lady Greystoke, are aboard the Fuwalda for Africa. Mutineers take the ship. The sailor Binns keeps them from being killed, and they are marooned. After they die, the ape Kala raises their infant. The boy grows up as Tarzan and becomes king of the apes. Binns, ten years a captive among Arabs, finds the ape-man and goes to England with the news. Professor Porter’s expedition follows. A native kills Kala; the adult Tarzan kills him. Villagers kidnap Porter’s daughter Jane. Tarzan takes her back, and she accepts him.
Cast & crew
More about Tarzan of the Apes
Scott Sidney directed. Fred Miller and Lois Weber adapted Edgar Rice Burroughs’s 1912 novel. William Parsons produced. Isadore Bernstein edited. First National released it. The Broadway opening was 27 January 1918. Louisiana swamps at Morgan City stood in for the African coast. Gordon Griffith plays the boy and Elmo Lincoln the grown Tarzan. Enid Markey is the first screen Jane. The original ran over 120 minutes. Circulating prints are shorter; one published figure is 61 minutes and another 73.
Themes
In film history
It is the first Tarzan film. Markey is the first Jane, and Lincoln and Griffith split the role between the man and the boy.
Making
Sidney shot the jungle in Morgan City, not in Africa. The ape mother, the mutiny, and Jane’s kidnapping are staged in those swamps. Binns is the plot change that replaces Burroughs’s second mutiny.
Look
The African coast and the ape scenes were photographed in the swamps around Morgan City, Louisiana.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
The 1918 release ran past two hours. What circulates is shorter, with published timings of 61 and 73 minutes. An Internet Archive copy is one of those abbreviated prints.
Notes
- Only the first half of the novel is used. The rest became The Romance of Tarzan (1918).
- The novel gets the Porters to Africa by a second mutiny. This film sends Binns to fetch them.
- The filmography calls this the Tarzan picture closest to the 1912 book, apart from Binns.
- George B. French, Eugene Pallette, Rex Ingram, Colin Kenny, and Thomas Jefferson are in the cast.
- Lincoln and Griffith went on to other Tarzan titles, including The Son of Tarzan (1920) and The Adventures of Tarzan (1921).
Scenes
- Mutineers seize the Fuwalda, and Binns saves the Claytons from murder.
- Kala takes the orphaned baby.
- Binns, after ten years, recognizes the ape-man and sails for England.
- Tarzan kills the man who killed Kala.
- He pulls Jane away from the villagers who seized her.
Influenced by
- Tarzan of the Apes (Edgar Rice Burroughs, 1912)
Influenced
- The Romance of Tarzan (1918)
Also available
- Internet Archive (TarzanoftheApes1918AndyDivx)
- Wikimedia Commons (Tarzan of the Apes (1918).webm)
