Main Cast: Elmo Lincoln, Gordon Griffith, True Boardman, Sr., Colin Kenny, Enid Markey
Release Year: 1918
Country: US
Run Time: 63 minutes
Plot
Elmo Lincoln became the first actor to play Edgar Rice Burrough's "Lord of the Jungle" on the screen when he replaced the now-forgotten Winslow Wilson in the 1918 8-reeler Tarzan of the Apes. During the first portion of the film, Tarzan -- aka Lord Greystoke -- is portrayed by juvenile actor Gordon Griffith. The earlier reels detail the deaths of Greystoke's British parents in the jungle, and how the boy was raised by female ape Kala. Years pass: a rescue party, including high-born Jane Porter (Enid Markey), arrives in the jungle, in search of the long-lost Lord Greystoke. When Jane gets lost in the foliage, it is Tarzan who rescues her from predatory beasts. He then tries to put the make on Jane, as any good ape would, whereupon she stops him with the gentle remonstration "Tarzan is a man, and men do not force their attentions upon women." His aristocratic breeding thus invoked, Tarzan is at last tamed. By any standards, Elmo Lincoln was an awful actor; in addition, he looked about twenty years too old and fifty pounds too fat for the role of Tarzan. Nonetheless, he had great presence, and Tarzan of the Apes made him a star (at least until the talkies came around). Though crudely directed, the film has a lot of energy, especially in the famous scene wherein Lincoln actually kills an attacking lion with his knife. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Scott Sidney - Director, Don Kinnier - Composer (Music Score), Harry Vallejo - Cinematographer, Harry Fowler - Cinematographer, Fred Miller - Screenwriter, Lois Weber - Screenwriter, William E. Wing - Screenwriter
Tarzan of the Apes (1918) is a silent, black and white action adventure film directed by Scott Sidney starring Elmo Lincoln, Enid Markey, George B. French and Gordon Griffith. The movie was the first Tarzan movie ever made, and is based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' original novel Tarzan of the Apes. The movie was filmed in 1917 in Morgan City, Louisiana utilizing Louisiana swamps as stand ins for African jungles. The movie adapts only the first part of the novel, the remainder becoming the basis for the sequel, The Romance of Tarzan. The film is considered the most faithful to the novel of all the film adaptations. Its most notable plot change being the introduction of the character Binns and his role in bringing the Porters to Africa; the novel brought them there through the improbable coincidence of a second mutiny.
Plot
John and Alice Clayton, Lord and Lady Greystoke (True Boardman and Kathleen Kirkham), are passengers on the Fuwalda, a ship bound for Africa. When the vessel is taken over by mutineers the sailor Binns (George B. French) saves them from being murdered, but they are marooned on the tropical coast. After their deaths their infant son is adopted by Kala, an ape, who raises him as her own. The young Tarzan (Gordon Griffith) grows to maturity among the apes, becoming their king. Binns, returning to find the Claytons after ten years’ captivity among the Arabs, discovers the ape man and travels to England to report his survival to his family. An expedition led by scientist Professor Porter (Thomas Jefferson), a scientist, is launched to investigate. Meanwhile, Kala has been killed by a native, who is killed in turn by the now-adult Tarzan (Elmo Lincoln). The villagers kidnap Porter’s daughter Jane (Enid Markey); Tarzan rescues and romances her, and she comes to accept his love.
Actor notes
While Elmo Lincoln is generally credited as the first movie Tarzan, that distinction actually belongs to Gordon Griffith, who plays the character as a boy. In any case, he was technically the first to play the adult Tarzan.
Lincoln, a powerful but beefy actor, does not conform to the modern expectation of an athletic Tarzan. Nonetheless, he came closer to the ideal in one respect, killing a lion that went berserk on screen. The lion, an aged specimen, was also somewhat handicapped in the struggle by having been drugged for its screen appearance.
