"Tarzan, the Ape Man" is an incredibly cheap and cheesy movie. You would think that coming from MGM it would be a big-budgeted picture but instead it's filled with recycled footage as well as children posing as adult Pygmies. It's one of the saddest looking Tarzan films you can find. You can read the IMDB trivia for specifics on all the cost-cutting moves the filmmakers used...and there are many cheesy short-cuts! Here are a few I thought were funny: To hide the fact that old footage (mostly taken from the Johnny Weissmuller films), the filmmakers 'cleverly' tinted old black & white shots and hoped the audience was too stupid to notice....which you can't help but notice! This happens repeatedly and is not only cheap but annoying. But it gets worse--such as the leopard attack where the animal's face is clearly a plastic mask! Another time, Tarzan stops an elephant...and if you look closely, you can see it's an Indian elephant wearing prostetic ears to make it look like an African one! But the funniest portion was the recreation of the famous swimming scene from "Tarzan and His Mate"...using a crappy green screen! It was about the worst and dumbest thing in the film and made me chuckle.
Overall, this schlocky mess is just terrible and is among the dumbest Tarzan pic ever. I can't say dumbest because I haven't seen them all It's even worse than the many B-movies of the 40s and 50s set in the African jungles....and that's saying a lot!
Overall, this schlocky mess is just terrible and is among the dumbest Tarzan pic ever. I can't say dumbest because I haven't seen them all It's even worse than the many B-movies of the 40s and 50s set in the African jungles....and that's saying a lot!