Me Tarzan, You Rebecca!

It’s amazing that in starting this journey through the dark winding cobweb strewn back passages of my mind, that I have rediscovered so many joys from my childhood years...this week it was all those wonderful Tarzan films starring Johnny Weissmuller.

What started me on this particular trail was recalling the name Henry Stephenson.

Henry Stephenson

Henry Stephenson was a dignified British character actor who at the time he appeared in the film Tarzan Finds A Son (1939) was almost 70. Not the most familiar of names but a face that would pop up in many films from Captain Blood (1935) to Oliver Twist (1948) - in which he played the kindly Mr Brownlow with Sir Alec Guinness as Fagin and Robert Newton as Bill Sikes.

Thinking of Henry Stephenson got me reflecting on other British and US character actors from that era and the flood gates opened - Sir C Aubrey Smith, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Nigel Bruce, Dame Judith Anderson, Gladys Cooper, Reginald Denny, George Sanders.

Johnny Weissmuller

But I’m leaping ahead, let me return to the beginning - Henry Stephenson appeared in two of the twelve Tarzan films made by Weissmuller, the former Olympic swimmer who filled the role and the loin cloth from 1932 until 1948. In both movies Stephenson played a character who was ennobled, Sir Guy Henderson and Sir Thomas Lancing, and this is what actors like Stephenson gave to the cinema - they gave gravitas and a sense of class - it balanced the crassness and brashness of some of the new stars like Weissmuller.

As a boy, a chance to watch or re-watch a Tarzan film was never missed, mostly to see the antics of Cheetah the chimpanzee of course. Weissmuller was a very athletic man and according to the biography of Esther Williams, he did not reserve that ability just for playing Tarzan!

Ably supported by Maureen O’Sullivan as Jane and Johnny Sheffield as Boy, the hero battled angry natives, angry lions, angry crocodiles, angry snakes and also angry Nazis. Guess who won?
And who could forget one of the most iconic sounds in film history....Tarzan Calling!

This sound was claimed by Weissmuller as his own, but we know now it was created in a studio by Douglas Shearer, a sound recordist.

The making of the Tarzan films gave the studios a chance to use loads of stock footage and as they were cheap to make and had a good audience response, they were steadily churned out over the course of 16 years until Weissmuller handed the loin cloth and swinging vine duties to Lex Barker and Gordon Scott.

There was also room for lots of great character actors to make appearances, like Sig Ruman, Neil Hamilton, Henry Wilcoxon, Barton MacLane, Maria Ouspenskaya and the aforementioned Sir C Aubrey Smith.

C Aubrey Smith

Smith had been a cricketer, a victorious England Captain no less,  and he carried this love of the game to America where he was quite insistent that any British actors come along and join the Hollywood Cricket Club. With roles in films as diverse as The Crusades, The Prisoner of Zenda and And Then There Were None, he also played Jane’s father in Tarzan The Ape Man (1932).

Now stay with me because the connections are going to get a bit convoluted...

Tom Conway

Tom Conway was an actor who will
probably ring no bells in the minds of anyone reading this blog - but for me Tom Conway is a name I recall for a couple of reasons. Firstly he was the brother of George Sanders, who he closely resembled, and secondly he starred as The Falcon, taking over the role from his brother and making a series of quite good mystery thrillers. Conway starred in two Tarzan films, one with Weissmuller and one with Lex Barker - he was suave, there is not other word to describe him - suave.

Of course  this was a family trait because his younger brother, Sanders, was the epitome of the suave English gentleman even though he was born in Russia. He may have been born in Russia but it was to British parents who repatriated him to England at the start of the Russian revolution.

George Sanders

If you have not heard or do not recall George Sanders, let me remind you that it was he who provided the voice of Shere Khan the Tiger in The Jungle Book (1967).

Sanders would become a regular in Hollywood and British cinema across 40 years until he committed suicide at the age of 65. He left a most revealing note which read:

‘Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck.’

He did leave behind a wonderful collection of performances, usually the cad or the villain and an especially smooth performance in the film Rebecca (1940).

And so we arrive at our final destination for today, a film that is still watched and enjoyed the world over, Hitchcock making his first film in America but a very British story and a film stuffed with great British character actors including the aforementioned C Aubrey Smith plus Dame Judith Anderson, Nigel Bruce and starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine.

Joan Fontaine is the younger sister of Olivia De Havilland, both still alive at the respective ages of 93 and 94. The only sisters to win Best Actress Oscars, they were both nominated in 1942 when Fontaine’s win was the start of an alleged falling out between them.

Joan Fontaine and Judith Anderson
in Rebecca (1940)

The one iconic role in the film that I recall above all others is that of Mrs Danvers played with controlled malice by Dame Judith Anderson. Listen to her here trying to persuade Fontaine to commit suicide...
Dame Judith Anderson as Mrs Danvers

Dame Judith - T'Lar

Dame Judith was an Australian who was a renowned stage actress before moving to films. A string of great performances followed topped off for me by her portrayal of the Vulcan High Priestess T’Lar in Star Trek:The Search for Spock. She was 86 and from every wonderful wrinkle shone a life of acting greatness.

Anyway, there we have it, from Tarzan to Rebecca and all because of Henry Stephenson, a man forgotten by many - but not by me.