It's not E.R. Boroughs, the ne'er-do-well story teller whose wife told him to get off his butt and write some of these fantastic tales down. He did and Tarzan became an icon of American literature. for better or worse. The story is classic. Feral child is imbued with all the goodies of apes and still retains his human faculties. Good work when you can get it, but, hey. In fiction, you can do it. Well, ERB did and the early films made movies out of the popular escapist books with the wonderful Elmo Lincoln and started a dynasty of superheroes that has only recently degenerated into TV crapola and, ugh, Disney pablum. Interesting enough, old ERB, never a businessman, sold rights to Columbia and RKO, so each came out with Tarzan in the 30s with olympic stars, Weismuller and Crabbe. Weismuller's version won out and Crabbe went on to the Flash Gordon serials which bring us back to this film. What has this story which focuses on the return of Greystroke to his "place" as a gentleman, to do with the fantasy tale of EFB's Tarzan? Not much, apparently, as the name Tarzan is mentioned only once or twice. The feral origins which bind him and bring him back to his primeval beginnings seem to be stronger than his love for the woman whom he woos with primate (albeit neither authentic or believable) aplomb. All in all, this is a very confusing version of the Tarzan story, one which likely would have left old ERB shaking his head. But, who knows, the old man might have liked it as much as I did. ERB's daughter married one of the early Hollywood Tarzans, named MacLean and the estate that ERB bought with his earnings from the novels, movie rights, etc., became known as Tarzana which is the present name of the town in Southern California. This movie was old Sir Ralph's last. In an odd sense, it is kind of a paean to this fine character actor who was as big as character in life as the ones he portrayed in films and on stage.
