Tarzan movies can be a lot of fun.  There are the wild animals, cannibal savages, and the physical dangers of the jungle itself.  I have been told that the word “jungle” is not politically correct, that we are supposed to say, “tropical rain forest,” but if you are worried about that sort of thing, it’s best to stay away from Tarzan movies anyway, at least the old ones.

Then there is sex.  That was clear from the first Tarzan movie I ever saw.  It was Tarzan’s Hidden Jungle (1955), starring Gordon Scott.  At one point in the movie, Vera Miles steps into some quicksand.  As if that were not bad enough, a python is slithering toward her.  I suppose the snake might have had phallic significance, but I was only eight years old at the time, so I didn’t think of that.

Anyway, Tarzan comes to her rescue.  After he pulls her out, she faints in his arms. He picks her up and lays her gently on the grass.  She has mud all over her, so naturally Tarzan must clean her up. Scooping water from the river, he starts washing her body, beginning with her arms, and then rubbing water on her legs. He even lifts her skirt above her thighs so he can do a thorough job. While he is doing all this, she is still in a faint, but responding to her being bathed by him nevertheless, her head slowly moving back and forth, mouth slightly open, as if she were sexually aroused.

The theater where I saw this movie was in a small college town, and so the audience was full of college students.  They went wild, one guy yelling, “Watch it, boy!” while another sang out “Diddy-wah-diddy,” his version of the Tarzan yell, presumably.

As time went by, I was able to see earlier Tarzan movies, the ones starring Johnny Weissmuller, the first of which was Tarzan the Ape Man (1932).  When the movie begins, Jane Parker (Maureen O’Sullivan) shows up unexpectedly in Africa to visit her father, played by C. Aubrey Smith, who is trying to find out where the elephants’ graveyard is, the place where elephants go when they are dying.  He wants Jane to return home, but she refuses, saying, “Listen, Dad, from now on, I’m through with civilization. I’m going to be a savage just like you.”

Now, Jane does not mean that in a sexual way, but those of us in the audience are aware of that connotation, where civilization represents sexual repression, while savagery suggests running about half-naked, free of all inhibitions.  Of course, we don’t know just how much civilization she intends to give up, since she has brought six trunks with her, containing what she refers to as the “necessities of life.”

Anyway, while alone with her father, with a mischievous look in her eyes, she starts getting undressed, only down to her slip, but enough to make her father uncomfortable, owing to the effect her sexual charms are having on him.  She says, “Darling, don’t be silly. You’re not embarrassed by me. Why, you’ve bathed me sometimes, and very nearly spanked me, too.”

The bathing to which she refers makes us think of her being naked in front of her father, and the spanking she almost got makes us think of him paddling her bare behind.  This hints at incest, but it is not intended to go further than sexual teasing.  Nevertheless, the fact that it is taboo is titillating.  Finally, when she leans over the sink to wash her face, we get to see the upper portion of her breasts, which are ample.  Meanwhile, another man who will be on the safari to hunt for ivory, Harry Holt (Neil Hamilton), has already fallen in love with her.

After they climb the Mutia Escarpment, they are spotted by Tarzan, who grabs Jane and makes off with her.  He is too sexually naïve to actually do anything with her, but he knew there was something about her he liked.  I have read that there is no movie where Tarzan says, “Me Tarzan, you Jane,” but they begin having a primitive form of communication, where Tarzan doesn’t quite understand the function of pronouns.  While he is away looking for food, she is rescued by her father and Harry, who kill an ape that Tarzan was friends with.

It is clear that Jane has already fallen in love with Tarzan, and she remarks how unhappy he was when the ape was killed.  Her father says that people like him, living in the jungle, have no emotions. When Jane points out that Tarzan is white, her father says it makes no difference, for he is still a savage.  Harry is no better, ridiculing her for considering the feelings of a man-ape.

Tarzan kills some of the porters to get revenge for the death of his ape-friend. Harry and Jane’s father trick her into calling Tarzan, supposedly to get him to stop, but as soon as Tarzan shows up, Harry’s shoots at him, just grazing his head. Eventually, Jane comes to Tarzan’s rescue, nursing him back to health.

As he recovers, she decides to bathe in the river.  She removes her boots and is now barefoot, symbolic of her first step away from civilization, toward savagery.  She starts to get completely naked but stops when she sees that Tarzan is watching her.  They both end up in the river, with Tarzan holding her. When they get out of the river, Tarzan starts playing with her foot. Then he compares her hand with his, noting how much smaller she is.  “Do you like that difference?” she asks, looking at him in a way that asks him to take her.  He picks her up, and she buries her head between his neck and shoulder.  As he carries her away, the scene fades, and we know they have sex.  Cheeta, the chimpanzee, is embarrassed, so he covers his eyes.

Afterwards, she sees her father, and she knows she must return to him, so Tarzan brings her back. Shortly thereafter, the safari is surrounded by a tribe of small black men.  Jane asks, “Are they pygmies?”  Harry replies, “No, they’re dwarfs.” What Harry should have said was, “No, they’re Caucasian dwarfs in blackface.”

Jane tells Cheeta to go get Tarzan, which he does.  Then Cheeta goes and gets the elephants. Meanwhile, the dwarfs are having fun throwing men into a pit where a gorilla crushes them to death. Then Jane gets thrown into the pit.  The gorilla does not kill her but merely picks her up and holds her.  There is no mystery about that. As we have learned from watching pre-Code Movies like Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), The Sign of the Cross, (1932), and King Kong (1933), gorillas always want to have sex with white women.

Tarzan rescues her just as the elephants arrive, scattering the dwarfs.  A wounded elephant leads her father, Harry, Jane, and Tarzan to the elephants’ graveyard, where her father dies.  Harry says goodbye to Tarzan and Jane, and we gather that there will be a sequel, where Harry returns in hopes of getting all that ivory.

Tarzan and Jane are now free to start living in sin.