NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Film Detective Blu-ray (August 2022): Film Detective have transferred their "The Tarzan Vault Collection" to 3 Blu-ray discs that house: 1918's Tarzan of the Apes,  Adventures of Tarzan from 1921, and a dozen episodes of the serial The New Adventures of Tarzan from 1935. The two silent features are on the first Blu-ray and the second and third Blu-rays split the episodes of the New Adventures 12-epsiode serial.

It should be noted that Adventures of Tarzan  was a 15-chapter serial but the episodes have been strung together to create this feature. It is described as "adapted from the serial" with new intertitles. Ed Hulse, in the commentary, states it is not a true feature version on the 1921 serial. It's rather a compilation of reels that include the final chapter. This is not the version that was re-released in 1929, paired down to 10-chapters.

On The New Adventures of Tarzan the primary release version has a 57-minute first episode, but there have been shorter and longer versions of chapter one (ranging from 65-minutes to 43-minutes.) The next 11 chapters are around 20-minutes each. Each introduce the characters and actors playing them and a opening title for the chapter (this lasts about 2-minutes:) and stating the next week's chapter at the conclusion. Examples:   

The transfers are 1080P with high bitrates, but suffer from the unrestored sources - although we should be grateful that any of it survives. They are all watchable without egregious damage examples - just mostly wear and tear with a few jump-cuts. I appreciated the film textures and contrast may have been slightly boosted to produce whiter whites and richer black levels. Anyway, it's watchable considering the features are over 100-years old. Hopefully the included screen captures below will give you an idea.

NOTE: We have added 100 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Film Detective use a DTS dual-mono tracks (16-bit), with the option of lossy Dolby, and it generally sounds quite weak - notably for the talkie The New Adventures of Tarzan. The audio is quite inconsistent and has background irregularities. There are scores for the silent features that sound agreeable and quite dramatic at times. For The New Adventures of Tarzan the uncredited score is by Mischa Bakaleinikoff (The Lineup, New Orleans Uncensored, The Crooked Web, Cell 2455 Death Row, Comanche Station, It Came from Beneath the Sea, The Giant Claw, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, The 27th Day, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Lady for a Day, 1956's The Werewolf) sounding supportive if of rather rough quality. Film Detective offer optional English (SDH) or Spanish subtitles on their three Region FREE Blu-rays.

The Film Detective Blu-ray offers a new commentaries for the 'Adventures of Tarzan' feature and 'The New Adventures of Tarzan' serial both by Ed Hulse. He provides great back-story detail on the productions and versions. I notice I own one of Ed's books - The Art of the Pulps: An Illustrated History. He is remarkable for being able to fill so much time on these - a few hours of discussion, information, cast; Elmo Lincoln, Herman Brix, Louise Lorraine, producers Dearholt and Stout, the Tarzan franchise and tidbits that were obviously hard to dig up. There are three Ballyhoo Motion Pictures featurette supplements directed by Daniel Griffith and produced by C. Courtney Joyner; Swinging into Action is a 20-minute video piece on the early adventures of Tarzan on film. Drawn to the Jungle runs 10-minutes and discusses the early history of Tarzan in comics with input from Donald F. Glut. There is also a 1/2 hour piece Law of the Jungle: The Cinematic Adventures of Herman Brix with archival interview footage with the man himself (he passed in 2007.) In 1928 Herman Brix (Bruce Bennett) won the silver medal for the shot put at the Olympic Games held in Amsterdam. Bennett's acting career spanned more than 40 years. Lastly the package has a full-color 28-page booklet insert that includes three original essays by authors Don Stradley and Jennifer Churchill.

Film Detective's "The Tarzan Vault Collection" Blu-ray package is really taking a step back in time. The 1918 film Tarzan of the Apes was the first Tarzan film ever made and is based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' original 1912 novel. The film is often considered the most faithful of all the film adaptations of the iconic Burroughs book. It's my favorite part of this set. 1921's The Adventures of Tarzan is the third and final appearance of Elmo Lincoln as Tarzan but this pieced together feature holds less value than the 15 chapter movie serial it was adapted from, imo. The 1935 12-chapter serial starring Herman Brix, The New Adventures of Tarzan has the Tarzan character as the cultured and educated as in the original Rice Burroughs novels. Unfortunately it's digital quality is weak. I'm a  big fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels (more than 25!) having read them all when I was growing up. I'm also a fan of serials (Flying Disc Man From Mars, Panther Girl of the Kongo, Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, The Invisible Monster, Jungle Girl etc.) and I am also more partial every year to Silent Era films.  What I may be even more excited about with this Film Detective 3X Blu-ray set are the extras; hours of commentary, three excellent Ballyhoo featurettes including the vintage interview with hunky Brix... and the wonderful booklet! Despite reservations on the a/v quality - this is still strongly recommended to fans. More serials!

Gary Tooze