Tarzan the Ape Man (1932 film)
Tarzan the Ape Man is a 1932 pre-Code American action adventure film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer featuring Edgar Rice Burroughs' famous jungle hero Tarzan and starring Johnny Weissmuller, Neil Hamilton, C. Aubrey Smith and Maureen O'Sullivan. It was Weissmuller's first of 12 Tarzan films. O'Sullivan played Jane in six features between 1932 and 1942. The film is loosely based on Burroughs' 1912 novel Tarzan of the Apes, with the dialogue written by Ivor Novello. The film was directed by W.S. Van Dyke. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released two remakes of Tarzan, the Ape Man in 1959 and in 1981, but each was a different adaptation of Rice Burroughs' novel. It is also the first appearance of Tarzan's famous yell.
Theatrical poster
O'Sullivan and Weissmuller
Little people wearing blackface acted as pygmies
Tarzan is a fictional character, a feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer.
Tarzan's first appearance, in the October 1912 issue of The All-Story
Illustration by James Allen St. John for Tarzan and the Golden Lion
Tarzan in a display at an Ankara amusement park
Tarzan's agility, speed, and strength allow him to kill a leopard in 1921's The Adventures of Tarzan.