A Century Of Tarzan Movies

[white avenger]

Just a bit of movie trivia for anyone who might be interested:

January 2020 marks the 100 year anniversary of the release of "Tarzan Of The Apes," starring Elmo Lincoln, making Tarzan the oldest movie franchise, the latest installment of which was 2018's "The Legend Of Tarzan,"

Eat your heart out, James Bond.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

Makes you wonder why he keeps swinging about on the same old vines, but James Bond drives new cars. Boring old Tarzan?

 

[white avenger]

Makes you wonder why he keeps swinging about on the same old vines, but James Bond drives new cars. Boring old Tarzan?

And speaking of Bond...

Did you know that Sean Connery was supposed to take over the role as the next Tarzan when Gordon Scott retired? If "Dr No" hadn't been such an unexpected hit, he might have been the star of "Tarzan Goes To India" instead of Jock Mahoney (both Sean and Jock played the bad guy in Gordon's last 2 Tarzan movies, and they had both expressed interest to the director in assuming the role after Scott announced that he was hanging up his loincloth)

 

[ILLYRIAN]

Lucky us he didn't take on the role, imagine Tarzan's battle cry with more than just a hint of the Scottish accent. Or when Tarzan hit a baddie Tarzan would say, cop that Jimmy!

 

[white avenger]

Lucky us he didn't take on the role, imagine Tarzan's battle cry with more than just a hint of the Scottish accent. Or when Tarzan hit a baddie Tarzan would say, cop that Jimmy!

Actually, it wouldn't be all that far from Burroughs' original image of Tarzan to have a Scotsman play the part, considering the fact that John Clayton, Tarzan's father, was the British Lord Greystoke (hence the double meaning of the title "lord of the jungle) Of course, to be absolutely faithful to the original, he should probably speak with a French accent, since that was the first human language Tarzan ever learned.

 

[HowiMetdaSlayer]

d'oh, d'oh, d'oh, d'oh, d'oh, d'oh, d'oh, d'oh, d'oh, d'oh, d'oh!

😀

 

[ILLYRIAN]

What's this a century of Tarzan movies, any relation to the Phantom is he?

 

[white avenger]

What's this a century of Tarzan movies, any relation to the Phantom is he?

Tarzan was originally published in 1912, predating the Phantom by about 24 years. Both started out as pulp fiction characters whose main base of operation was a jungle. Whether Lee Falk got any real inspiration from Edgar Rice Burroughs has been argued by pulp fiction historians ever since. Tarzan did have several direct copies, such as Bomba the Jungle Boy, Ka-Zar, and Sheenah Queen of the Jungle, among them.The Phantom has some similarities, certainly, but I don't personally think of him as a direct copy.