Tarzan, the Ape Man

From 1959 until 1981 this film reigned as champion of the "Bad" Tarzan films. It then relinquished it's title to the 1981 movie of the same name with Bo Derek swinging on the vine. Denny Miller is Tarzan and borrows the yell from the Johnny Weissmuller films. Of course a must see for any Tarzan film fan. AMC ran it during their Tarzanathon a while back. Miller was not the worst Tarzan ever he just happened to be in a bad picture about the legendary ape man. Take a look if you want but it helps if your a real Tarzan fan.

This 1959 Tarzan film is a real curio on several levels. For one thing, it is far and away the lowest-budget Tarzan film ever made, and therefore contains some irresistibly silly footage and special effects. Secondly, it marks the one and only occasion that the ape man was played by ex-basketballer Denny Miller. In spite of the massive critical mauling the film received, Miller is not really as awful in the role as people have always maintained. Given a better film in which to appear, it's conceivable that he may have made more appearances as Tarzan and enjoyed a measure of success in the part. Thirdly, the film has one of the most bizarrely ill-fitting scores ever... provided by jazz supremo Shorty Rogers. These mismatched ingredients actually lend the film a sort of innocent charm. It's definitely bad cinema, but there have been much worse films over the years (heck, there have been worse Tarzan films – anyone seen the 1981 Bo Derek debacle?)

English explorer James Parker (James Parker) heads into the heart of Africa in search of a legendary elephant's graveyard. Among his travelling companions are his daughter Jane (Joanna Barnes) and her fiancée Harry Holt (Cesare Danova). Their journey is fraught with danger, what with hostile landscapes, jungle tribes and savage animal attacks. Eventually, however, the party successfully negotiate their way deeper into uncharted territory. Jane is separated from her friends and winds up in the company of a primitive man-of-the-jungle, the ape man of the title, Tarzan (Denny Miller). Her father is determined to find his daughter and save her from this half-animal jungle man, but it is not long before Jane has begun to fall in love with her captor….

There are some pretty embarrassing moments during the course of this movie, of that there can be no argument. The fire sequence in the pygmy village is so fake and cheap that it is nothing short of terrible. The scene in which Tarzan fights against a leopard contains some absolutely hilarious close-ups of Miller tussling with what appears to be a stuffed toy. And worst of all is the frequent tinted footage stolen from the 1932 Johnny Weismuller film of the same title – even the smallest of children will be able to tell that these scenes are not shot in Technicolor like the rest of the film (hell, occasionally Weismuller's face can be seen as plain as day!) Having said all that, I can't bring myself to be as derogatory about this film as some of the previous reviewers have been. For me, Barnes, Douglas and Danova do a passable enough job with their roles, and the film's brief 82 minute duration is crammed with incident. One needs to remember that when director Joseph M. Newman and producer Al Zimbalist actually set out to make this film, they weren't trying to re-do Shakespeare. A simple jungle adventure is what they had in mind, and to some extent a simple jungle adventure is precisely what they've given us. Tarzan The Ape Man (1959) is an enjoyably bad time filler – if nothing else, it has enough innocent charm and unintentional laughs to bring a smile to our faces in these weary and cynical times.

I had heard about this turkey for decades, but finally caught it on TCM in the interest of completeness (I've seen every other sound Tarzan movie, and most of the silents). This one is definitely at the bottom of the heap. What were they thinking?

About the only redeeming feature is Shorty Rogers' musical tracks, but even they sound like they were written for something else (and probably were). Many have commented on the borrowed footage and cheesy effects, with the fight with a toy stuffed tiger probably being the most laughable of all. Denny Miller looks like the original Muscle Beach boy, with his blond searchlight of a brylcreamed ducktail haircut (who does his hair in the jungle?). He says a few more words than Miles O'Keefe did in the 1981 version (zero, in that case), but not many. I think "kill?" and "money?" were his most memorable lines.

Oh, and I do think this is worse than the 1981 film - that one at least had Bo Derek naked. The Jane in this one is probably the least sexy Jane in the entire filmed Tarzan corpus - she remains prim and proper throughout and we never see her our of her ankle-length safari dress. Her impulsive decision to run off with Tarzan at the end is completely unconvincing. As for the villain, he somehow morphs into a nice guy at the end. Well, why wouldn't he be, since he is going to make off with the entire ivory stash from the elephants' graveyard?

For completists only. You have been warned.

(Trivia note: Interestingly, neither Denny Miller nor Joanna Barnes faded into deserved obscurity after this film, but both went on to reasonably long careers playing supporting roles on various television series of the 1960s to 1980s. They even appeared together again at least once, on an episode of "McCloud" - S4,E2.)

This Tarzan movie is not the worst ever, I prefer among the less interesting ones. It is a millions Miles below TARZAN'S GREATEST ADVENTURE, for instance, and for any movie goer, this movie remains a Joseph newman's film too. It is bearable, despite the lame, bland Dennis Miller's performance. He, and not the film, is the most awful Tarzan in the history. On this point, I totally agree. He resumed most of his career in the TV industry anyway. So, you can try this one, it won't hurt you.

I remember seeing this in the theater when it was first released and being appalled at its lousiness. So strong was that impression that I remembered now, 45 years later, that I could find it by searching IMDb for "Denny Miller". I talked for days, weeks, months and now years afterward about the miserable "borrowing" of scenes from the original Weissmuller films and color-tinting them in a vain attempt to blend in with the new footage. One example: a burning pygmy village features brown tinted film with flames overprinted. The pygmies calmly go about their quiet life while their huts supposedly burn around them. This is undoubtedly the WORST Tarzan movie ever made. Even Elmo Lincoln is better.