ME TARZAN, YOU JANE

As I'm writing about this film, my fingers are fumbling, not sure what keys to press. It's a film you ought to see.

It's a story that's already perfectly told by actress Maureen O'Sullivan and actor Johnny Weissmuller, who were directed by "One Take Woody," W.S. Van Dyke II, a brilliant, bold, remarkable director who co-produced, and created the script from Edgar Rice Burrough's various manuscripts.

I can't spend my time reciting credits when all I want to do is drool over the romance, but golly, I have to mention the amazing scenes with hippopotamuses, alligators, Weissmuller wrestling with lions and tigers, and soaring -- oh my -- the way Johnny soars through the air with Maureen in his arms!

And I have to hallelujah the plot -- what a love story -- we love her, we love him we want them to get together, stay together, be together forever -- yes we do!

I recently blogged about "My Fair Lady" as my favorite film because of what it mean to me as an artist and friend of Alan Jay Lerner -- seeing him coming into his own, being in his prime, being able to be the very best that he could be.

There's nothing about this Tarzan film, made in 1932, that I'm involved with personally except the characters -- Maureen so touching, beautiful in a non-cliche way, so tender, and such fun. She created a Jane who is uniquely feminine and brave -- fearlessly able to be a woman and face incredible dangers, and be utterly, deliciously, feminine in all the cliche ways, but Jane is never CLICHE.

Johnny, similarly, is perfect -- not so handsome that you disbelieve his masculine, almost dumb, stubborn persistence.

Here are four short previews:

ME TARZAN YOU JANE -- a couple of minutes that got me hooked even though I was already riveted by an earlier scene.


SWIMMING -- fun that took me back to what "fun" felt like to me when I was very young.


THE PIGMYS -- just a peek at the beginning of the climax that creates a life-or-death dilemma for all the characters whom we love.


RIVER MENACE -- the dangerous attempt to get Jane's father on his way to where he desperately wants to go.


With what's going on in the real world of 2011 -- all the things that are jabbing, attacking, nagging at us every day -- if you need a rest, and are in the mood to spend a couple of hours with this man and woman, hoping -- childishly hoping -- that they'll get together, be together, be together forever ... well, this film is IT ... a great story, wonderfully told in film.