Tarzan of the Apes
1918 · 60 min · silent
Tarzan of the Apes (1918), the first Tarzan film, with Elmo Lincoln and Louisiana swamp playing Africa. Watch the silent movie free online, no account.
The first screen Tarzan, six years after Edgar Rice Burroughs published the novel, with Elmo Lincoln in the loincloth and Enid Markey as Jane. Scott Sidney directed. It is stiffer than the legend that grew around it, and it is still the point where every ape man since started.
Africa is the Atchafalaya Basin. The company shot around Morgan City, Louisiana, making this the first American feature filmed on location outside New York or California, and the cypress swamp stands in for jungle far better than it has any business doing.
It took over a million dollars, which put it among the biggest hits of the whole silent era.
Free to watch via internet-archive, wikimedia, tubi.
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