Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)

In the Hollywood Golden Age board game, Johnny Weissmuller is worth -1 point. I figured I owed it to the maligned Weissmuller to check out his most famous role. It is not without its problems. African locals are either treated as savages or spectacles. There is a lot of black face, including an entire race of people comprised of little people in black face. The entire reason Jane and her white compatriots are on the continent is to amass huge amounts of ivory from elephants and they, particularly her father played by C. Aubrey Smith, are willing to kill anything that even sort of gets in their way. Other than all that, it’s a fine, albeit a bit long, adventure film with loads of footage of real life jungle animals, including real Indian elephants with unfortunate attached ears and tusks. It also celebrates the advent of the iconic Tarzan call. That said, the film came in a set with three other Tarzan films and I don’t feel a desire to continue visiting the character.