Tarzan of the Apes (1918 film)

Plot

John and Alice Clayton, Lord and Lady Greystoke, are passengers on the Fuwalda when mutineers take over. Sailor Binns saves them from murder but they are marooned on a tropical coast. After their deaths, their infant son is adopted by the ape Kala. The young Tarzan grows to maturity among the apes, becoming their king.

Binns, after ten years' captivity among Arabs, discovers the ape man and reports his survival to England. An expedition led by Professor Porter is launched. Kala is killed by a native, who is killed by adult Tarzan. Villagers kidnap Porter's daughter Jane; Tarzan rescues and romances her, and she accepts his love.

Production

Burroughs sold the film rights to William Parson for $5,000 plus stock worth $50,000 plus 10% of the gross, at a time when film rights normally sold for $100 to $500. The film was shot in 1917 in Morgan City, Louisiana, using Louisiana swamps as a stand-in for the African jungle.

A large portion of Gordon Griffith's role as young Tarzan is played in the nude, making this one of the first films to feature a named actor in a nude scene; most shots hide his genitals, though one shot briefly shows his penis. The film also includes brief scenes of female toplessness. Stellan Windrow was first cast as adult Tarzan and filmed stunt sequences, but withdrew due to enlistment in the First World War; Elmo Lincoln replaced him, though most of Windrow's stunt footage was retained.

Reception

Censors in Chicago removed several scenes from Tarzan of the Apes before it could be shown there. These included a captain shooting a man, a boy’s nudity, a woman’s exposed breasts, a maid sitting on a man’s lap in a closet, multiple choking moments, and close-ups of a Black man leering at a woman and later carrying her away.