Herman Brix

I think I might be falling in love with Herman Brix.

I have, in the past, mentioned my adoration for Tarzan in general, but Herman Brix has to be the best Tarzan I have ever seen.

I mean, he is clearly superior in every way to Gordon Scott, and Scott's always been my favourite.

I can't stand Johnny Weissmuller. Never could. He irritated me even before I started reading the books and realised just how far from Tarzan he really was.

I mean, Tarzan rocks. The guy managed to survive being "abandoned" by his parents shortly after birth (does dying of jungle related illnesses count as abandoning?), being raised by apes and getting into regular scrapes with gorillas, wild cats, giant snakes and the like. He taught himself to read using children's books, taught himself to speak French by imitating a French guy he found in the jungle, can communicate with almost any animal he comes in contact with and managed to learn the language of every people group he's ever encountered. He's a giant of a man with a lithe, muscular figure and incredible strength whose every sense has been enhanced by living wild in the jungle.

He's the epitome of "good breeding", being physically and mentally superb and therefore capable of surviving any adventure you could possibly throw at him. And he's an English Lord, an African Chieftain and the uncontested king of the jungle. He's certainly not some flabby, inarticulate monkey man.

And yet, when MGM took a crack at Tarzan films in the 1930s, they decided to go with the flabby, inarticulate monkey man take on things, and that's the version of Tarzan most people know today. Okay, to be fair Weissmuller wasn't that flabby to start with, but by the 40s he definitely wasn't the Olympic swimmer any more.

The 1930s period was an interesting time for Tarzan, though, as there were actually two different film franchises created by two different companies. On the one hand, there was Weissmuller (who obviously won the battle for the public's love and adoration). On the other hand, we had Herman Brix.

Born Harold Herman Brix and later working under the name Bruce Bennett, Brix played Tarzan the way he was written - intelligent, articulate and bounding with power and energy. He was tall, had a lithe, muscular physique and was completely convincing when climbing trees or bounding through the jungles of Guatemala (barefoot, no less). He did his own stunts, spoke in complete sentences and looked completely at ease with monkeys and hamfisted actors alike.

He's just perfect. I've never seen an actor better capture the Tarzan of the books. Why oh why did Weissmuller's version take off when Brix is clearly the superior Tarzan?

It was probably MGM's doing. No way an independent film company was going to beat a megacorporation at the box-office - not even in the 1930s.