Greatest classic Films Collection: Tarzan - Volume one (Tarzan the Ape Man / Tarzan Escapes / Tarzan Finds a Son! / Tarzan and His Mate)

I was a little worried about re-visiting these Tarzan films. I loved cathing them on our local UHF stations when I was a kid, but wasn't sure how well these films would hold up when viewed as an adult. I'm happy to say that Johnny Weissmuller is still the definitive Tarzan; Maureen O'Sullivan is the Jane I loved best and just a total knock-out in her jungle attire; and I still laugh at Cheeta's antics. Tarzan the Ape Man - (1932) I was amazed watching this first film as it hits the ground running. We meet Jane Parker who is joining her father on an expedition in Africa looking for the fabled Elephant Graveyard. Accompanied by Holt, a great hunter the safari sets off into the jungle and meets a variety of dangers, from hostile natives to dangerous wildlife. The group soon stumble across Tarzan, and Tarzan immediately kidnaps Jane. Afraid at first, Jane soon begins to fall for Tarzan. All of the series trademarks are here; Tarzan's distinctive yell, Weissmuller's swimming, swining from vines...everything you could want in a Tarzan film. Tarzan Escapes- (1936) The second film on the first disk skips ahead by a couple films. Two of Jane's relatives arrive and try to convince Jane to return to England. Jane must sign some documents regarding an inheritance she's received. Jane's relatives secretly hope that Jane will want to return and stay in England. Also on the safari is Captain Fry, who only wants to cage wild animals as zoo attractions, and he also hopes to capture Tarzan for display as well. Somewhat low budget entry as quite a few scenes are reused from earlier films, but a fun entry in the series. This film actually gave me nightmares when I was a kid! Wait until you see the evil native tribe's way of executing prisoners!! Tarzan and His Mate - (1934) The first film on the second disk is the sequel to the first film in the series. Not sure why they are packaged this way, but it's fine. With this film the great hunter Holt returns to Tarzan's land. He's brought along a safari and business partner named Martin who hopes to relocate the elephant graveyard from the first film and to take away all of the ivory there. Holt is hoping to win Jane's affection and to take her back to England. Tarzan refuses to help the safari so Martin shoots an elephant so that they can track her to the elephant graveyard. Knowing that Tarzan will try to stop him, Martin comes up with a plan to kill the Lord of the Jungle. ***One thing to note with this film*** I've been re-watching these movies, and watching them with my kids. It should be noted that this film does contain quite a bit of nudity. When the safari first arrives, there are several topless natives seen at the dock, and about halfway through the film there is a scene where Jane goes for dip in the buff. The scene is done well, and while not done in an exploitive manner, it was kind of shock to see what would today be considered hard "R" rated nudity in a film from the 1930's. Tarzan Finds a Son - (1939) - A plane flying over Tarzan's land crashes killing everyone on board except for a little baby. Cheeta rescues the baby from the wreckage and brings it home to Tarzan and Jane who decide to adopt the baby and name him Boy. Flash forward five years and a safari shows up looking for the people who perished in the plane crash. They secretly hope to find proof that everyone on board had died as they stand to inherit quite a fortune if no one survived. They soon learn that Boy is the only survivor of the crash, and they decide that since he is a minor, they can bring him back to England and take control of the inheritance as his guardians. They convince Jane that they only want what's best for Boy, and she agrees to help them return the child England despite Tarzan's protests. Each film is a fun little escape. If you loved these films as a child, you will still enjoy them today. Highly recommended.

These are great! Johnny Weismuller is not a good actor, but he really doesnt have to be in these. This collection are by far the best of the Tarzan films. Maureen O'sullivan is the best Jane. There are two more Weismuller/O'sullivan films that are not on here, and are also good. My wife doesnt like them, but I love them. They are well done, and fun to watch. I've seen each of them several times and never get tired of them. Ok, so he swings on vines that if you look closely, are like the ones trapeze artists use, and he swings freely without hitting anything, kills lions and hippos with his knife....but hey, he's Tarzan after all! They are fun and pretty well done actually. (and you've gotta love Maureen O'sullivan).

Truly great movies, Tarzan is a favorite of mine, these movies are of excellent quality, the sound is great, the picture is fantastic, they do recycle some native action scenes, they probably didn't notice in the 1930's , Johnny is in top form, they showed these movies on wttv channel 4 out of Indianapolis when I was a youngster I was transfixed, I felt like I was in Africa, these movies are pure fun ,

I bought this set for the first two movies. They are probably the most iconic Tarzan movies every made. If you have read any of the Tarzan books you know that this Tarzan is nothing like the one envisioned by Burroughs. They are still fun to watch and remind me of watching them on TV when I was young.

I used to watch these as a kid, and in spite of these stories' simplicity, I still get a kick out of them as an adult. I wasn't disappointed in watching these old classics in spite of their flaws. I can easily notice a lot of fake shots of wild animals running amok, the repetition of Tarzan killing a rhino and an alligator in two of these films, and the many other production flaws. But none of this matters to me. I can easily suspend my disbelief with these stories. Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan played their roles of Tarzan and Jane pretty well and Johnny Sheffield also did his part well as Boy. You do get to see a little bit of nakedness in Tarzan and His Mate, a film done in 1933, before the Hays Code, but it isn't any big deal compared to nowadays. In each of the stories I always saw some greedy Englishmen trying to take wealth from the jungle and getting killed at the end, while Tarzan and Jane always defended the simplicity of their lifestyle against the encroachments of civilization. A caveat for the lack of "political correctness" is that the image of the tribes in these films are anachronistic and stereotypical of what white people expected from them at the time, which is perhaps the only drawback from these films. In these Tarzan movies, the greediness of the white people is as evil as the savagery of the tribes portrayed here. Nevertheless, I found these films enjoyable for their simplicity.

I bought this collection mainly out of nostalgia. The young Johnny Weissmuller was a favorite of mine and of my young friends in the late 1940s and early '50s; we didn't know he couldn't act. In later movies, of course, our hero got heavier and kind of dissipated looking, but we still went to see each as it showed up at a local theater. Watching the four movies in this collection refreshed my memory of the numerous animal scenes that the studio kept reusing to save production money. But it was all good fun and the quality of several of the films was very good.

I used to watch these movies back in the 60's when I was a tiny tot. These are classics . I am glad I found them on Amazon at a very reasonable price. A great addition to my collection. Thanks

My only complaint is that the movies are in black and white. The cover of the DVD's are in color, so I assumed the movies would be too. However, that was my fault. I should have read the description closer. All of the movies were wonderful, as expected and from what I remember when seeing them on TV so long ago!

good present for a fan

These old movies take me back to when I was very, very young and that's a nice way to spend a rainy or snowy day.

Great movie from the golden age of cinema, they don't make classics like this anymore. Good price.

great

This collection of Tarzan movies reminds me of my childhood when I used to watch them on the BBC in the evening. Bought back wonderful memories. The picture quality is ok considering these movies were made long time ago. The quality of the sound is a problem for me and i struggled to hear some of the dialogue. So I switched on the subtitle to help me.