A legend began when MGM cast Johnny Weissmuller, a twenty-eight-year-old swimming champ from the 1924 and 1928 Olympic Games, as Tarzan in the first sound version of Edgar Rice Burroughs' popular story.
Synopsis
Jane Parker (Maureen O'Sullivan), her father (C. Aubrey Smith), and her boyfriend (Neil Hamilton) venture into the wilds of Africa in search of the Elephants' Graveyard, expecting it to be rich in ivory. They have survived a series of hair-raising dangers when suddenly the jungle yell of Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) is heard, stirring up the fears and anxieties of the expedition. Before long, a kicking and screaming Jane has been taken captive by the jungle man, who carries her off into the treetops. Threatening to fill Tarzan with bullets, her father and suitor demand that she be returned to safety. When she is finally released, she comes to the defense of the ape-man with whom she is falling in love.
She is soon swinging through the trees under his arm and clowning around with Cheta the Chimp (which delivers an amazingly captivating performance). As the bond between the two humans deepens, Jane laboriously teaches Tarzan to speak, and he finally utters the immortal words, "Me Tarzan, you Jane." Then they are captured by a tribe of pygmies and appear to be doomed as they are lowered into a pit with a giant ape called Zumangani. But Tarzan saves the day, letting out a thunderous yell that brings a herd of elephants stampeding to his aid, smashing the pygmies and their village. Meanwhile, her father's fate is resolved when he rides a wounded elephant to the graveyard, where he dies with the elephant amidst a fortune in ivory. Hamilton returns to England without Mr. Parker, Jane, or the
ivory.
