Tarzan of the Apes is a 1918 American silent motion picture directed by Scott Sidney. Starring Elmo Lincoln as Tarzan and Enid Markey as Jane, the film is the first screen adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel Tarzan of the Apes. Released during the silent era, it introduced Burroughs' jungle hero to movie audiences and established many visual tropes that later Tarzan pictures would follow.

Story and adaptation

The film follows the broad outline familiar from the novel: an English couple marooned in Africa, their infant son who is orphaned and then raised by apes, and the young Tarzan's encounters with human explorers and Jane Porter. The 1918 production concentrates on the opening portion of Burroughs' book; the remaining episodes of the novel were adapted in a subsequent film, The Romance of Tarzan.

As a silent feature, the movie relies on pantomime, intertitles and staged action rather than spoken dialogue. The casting of Elmo Lincoln emphasized a powerful, athletic Tarzan figure; Enid Markey's Jane became the first cinematic Jane. The director and filmmakers made choices to condense and dramatize the source material for early cinema audiences.

Production, release and legacy

Produced and distributed within the context of 1910s filmmaking, the picture played a key role in translating a popular adventure novel to the new medium of film. Contemporary audiences responded to its spectacle of the African jungle and its dramatic situations. Over the decades the title has been noted for launching a long-running screen franchise, influencing jungle-adventure filmmaking, and shaping popular perceptions of the Tarzan character.

Critics and historians often point out that the 1918 film is unusually faithful to the book's first episodes compared with many later adaptations, which altered plotlines and character dynamics. The story elements and physical portrayal introduced by this film informed subsequent portrayals in the silent and sound eras.

Further reading and references