Tarzan, the Ape Man (1981)

Director:

John Derek

Writers:

Tom Rowe (screenplay) and
Edgar Rice Burroughs (characters)
(more)

Release Date:

24 September 1981 (West Germany)

Genre:

Action | Adventure

Tagline:

The most beautiful woman of our time in the most erotic adventure of all time.

Plot:

The Tarzan story from Jane's point of view. Jane Parker visits her father in Africa where she joins him on an expedition...

Plot Keywords:

Tarzan | Sexploitation | Bare Chested Male | Female Nudity | Gorilla

Awards:

1 win & 5 nominations

Cast

Bo Derek	...	Jane Parker
Richard Harris	...	James Parker
John Phillip Law	...	Harry Holt
Miles O'Keeffe	...	Tarzan
Akushula Selayah	...	Africa
Steve Strong	...	Ivory King
Maxime Philoe	...	Riano
Leonard Bailey	...	Feathers
Wilfrid Hyde-White	...	Club Member
Laurie Main	...	Club Member
Harold Ayer	...	Club Member

Directed by
John Derek

Writing credits
Tom Rowe		(screenplay)
Edgar Rice Burroughs		characters
Gary Goddard		writer

Produced by
Bo Derek	....	producer

Original Music by
Perry Botkin Jr.		(as Perry Botkin)

Cinematography by
John Derek

Film Editing by
Jimmy Ling		(as James B. Ling)

Art Direction by
Alan Roderick-Jones

Costume Design by
Patricia Edwards

Makeup Department
Norma Collins	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Eva Chun	....	production manager
Jack Oliver	....	unit production manager
Tom Shaw	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Michael Lally	....	first assistant director
Jack Oliver	....	first assistant director
D.B. 'Warner' Warnasiri	....	assistant director: Sri Lanka (as Warner Warnasiri)

Art Department
Tommy 'Tom' Tomlinson	....	property master
J.A. Vincent	....	assistant art director: Sri Lanka

Sound Department
Pamela Bentkowski	....	sound editor
Alan Bromberg	....	sound editor
Jack Cheap	....	sound editor
David B. Cohn	....	sound editor (as David S. Cohn)
Virginia Cook-McGowan	....	sound editor (as Gini Cook)
Ken Dufva	....	foley artist
David Lee Fein	....	foley artist (as David Fein)
Robert Glass	....	sound re-recording mixer
Robert Knudson	....	sound re-recording mixer (as Robert 'Buzz' Knudson)
Don MacDougall	....	sound re-recording mixer
Keith Olson	....	foley artist
Charles Randall	....	boom operator
William Randall	....	sound mixer
Norman B. Schwartz	....	supervising dialogue editor
Donald L. Warner Jr.	....	supervising sound editor (as Don Warner)
Robert Waxman	....	sound editor

Visual Effects by
Bobbie Johnson	....	optical supervisor

Stunts
Jock Mahoney	....	stunt coordinator (as Jack O'Mahoney)

Camera and Electrical Department
Mike Bartlett	....	first assistant camera
Armando Contreras	....	key grip
Somapala Dharmapriya	....	camera operator: Sri Lanka
Wolfgang Dickmann	....	camera associate
Allan Goodchild	....	second assistant camera
John Harnish	....	gaffer

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Errol Kelly	....	costumer

Editorial Department
John A. Amicarella	....	assistant editor
Kevin Krasny	....	assistant editor (as Kevin A. Kresny)
Edward A. Warschilka	....	supervising assistant editor (as Edward A. Warchilka Jr.)
Janet Barbara Weiss	....	assistant editor
Randee Lynne Jensen	....	post-production coordinator (uncredited)

Music Department
Daniel Allan Carlin	....	music consultant (as Dan Carlin Jr.)
James Harbert	....	orchestrator
Harry V. Lojewski	....	music supervisor
Curt Sobel	....	music editor
Bill Stafford	....	orchestrator
Armin Steiner	....	music recording engineer

Other crew
Eva Chun	....	production executive
Linda Kemp	....	script supervisor
Burke Mattsson	....	title designer
James L. Michaelson	....	title art
Allan Placko	....	technical advisor: mountain climbing
Paul 'Sled' Reynolds	....	head animal trainer

Production Companies

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (presents)
• Svengali Productions

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1981) (USA) (theatrical)
• CBS Television Network (1983) (USA) (TV)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1984) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Veronica (2004) (Netherlands) (TV)
• Vídeo Arte (19??) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (19??) (Netherlands) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Gentle Jungle  animals provided by
• La Da Productions  music editing
• Lipssync Inc.  dialogue replacement
• Modern Film Effects  opticals

Runtime:

107 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:PG (Manitoba) | Canada:R (Ontario) | Australia:M | Finland:K-12 (cut) (1981) | Iceland:L | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Netherlands:12 | Norway:12 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Seychelles

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

The stunt coordinator on this film was Jock Mahoney, who actually played Tarzan in two early 1960s films.

Goofs:

Factual errors: There are no wild Ourang-utans in Africa.

Quotes:

Parker: Jane, do you know what he wants? What this ape wants?
Jane: He's not an ape!
Parker: He is an ape. He lives like an ape, he kills like an ape. But do you understand what he wants?
Jane: You know everything...
Parker: Well, this ape son of a bitch wants you.
Parker: I'm gonna catch that animal son of a bitch, Mr Holt!

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Great British Sunday (2008) (TV)

TARZAN, THE APE MAN (John Derek, 1981) *1/2

Surely one of the most ill-advised remakes of a classic in film history – especially since the promise of its tag-line, “The most beautiful woman of our time in the most erotic adventure of all time”, isn’t even properly exploited! Although this film was regularly shown on TV in my neck of the woods since my childhood days, its notoriety (for awfulness not erotic content, mind you) kept me away from it until now – and I only relented because I have recently enjoyed Bo Derek’s previous film, 10 (1979), and have been watching a lot of fantasy stuff as well over the Christmas period.

Lead actress/producer Bo Derek is rather ridiculous playing the schoolgirl-ish sexual innocent (witness the inept banana scene) and, as was to be expected, she is made to get her clothes off a few times but, as welcome as these scenes were, she came off as far more sensual in 10 than she does here; Richard Harris, then, chews the scenery incessantly as Jane’s obsessed explorer father, but John Philip Law barely registers as his aide who meekly shows some initial interest in Jane herself; newcomer Miles O’Keeffe has the title role and he only makes his entrance 45 minutes into the movie, is completely silent throughout except for his famous yodel (which is probably lifted from Johnny Weissmuller anyway!) and, furthermore, is as inexpressive as one of the trees he dangles from at regular intervals throughout the film’s second half!; for the record, he later starred in two ATOR movies (or would-be CONAN imitators) for Joe D’Amato and the King Arthur-era set, SWORD OF THE VALIANT (1984).

When still an actor, director John Derek (who also serves as his own cinematographer here) had worked with some good film-makers (Cecil B. De Mille, William Dieterle and Robert Rossen) and a few great ones (Otto Preminger, Nicholas Ray and Don Siegel) but he clearly learned zilch from them as his direction of this one is a major liability: appallingly pretentious at times (witness the perfectly horrid python attack sequence) with a senseless overuse of the slow motion technique and cheesy transitions; this was Derek’s seventh film as a director (and his second of four with wife Bo) and, eventually, he would only get to make two more.

The film’s utter failure only needs to be gauged by the fact that the Tarzan legend was tackled once more on film – in GREYSTOKE: THE LEGEND OF TARZAN, LORD OF THE APES (which, surprisingly enough, I haven’t watched myself yet) – a mere three years later!! Nominated for six Razzie Awards (including John Derek, Richard Harris and Miles O’Keeffe) and winning one for Bo Derek herself, TARZAN, THE APE MAN was co-written by Gary Goddard, the future director of another highly anticipated but ultimately disappointing transposition to the silver screen of a (this time animated) heroic figure, MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE (1987) which I will be revisiting presently as well (yay)! Despite a charming closing credit sequence showing Tarzan and Jane playing with around with an orang-utan and a music score that is not half bad actually and quite rousing on occasion, any belated good intentions are defeated by an extremely silly climax involving natives painting Bo completely white and, fatally, John Derek’s clear disinterest in the character of Tarzan himself which makes him come off as an unimportant supporting character in his own self-titled movie!!