Delivered 92 years ago, this line is one of the most famous in cinema. And yet, no one gets it right!

The 7th art is naturally decorated with lines that have become so famous that some of them have almost entered everyday language. Who hasn’t heard the famous line from Don Corleone, the Godfather, “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse.” ? Or the iconic dialogues written by Michel Audiard for the film Les Tontons flingueurs?

At the opposite end of that spectrum are also the lines you swear you heard in the piece. Except no. This is a known case “I’m Tarzan, you Jane”From the film Tarzan the Monkey, released in 1932.

false memory

March 25, 1932 film Tarzan, the ape man, which features former Olympic swimming champion Johnny Weissmuller in the guise of Tarzan, is making its public debut in New York. From the film, the collective imagination has – vaguely – retained the line that has become famous, especially since it relates to the ape-man’s first spoken adventure: “Me Tarzan, you Jane!” Except that line is anything but accurate, unworthy of Lord Greystoke, Lord of the Apes.

This is actually a mistake. In the movie Johnny Weissmuller just beats his chest and says “Tarzan!”He then points to his partner (played by Maureen O’Sullivan) and says “Jane!” The actor will not say the line “Me Tarzan, you Jane!” In no film did the character appear between 1932 and 1948. Nor does this line appear in the stories written by author Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Weissmuller actually said the line, but in jest, during an interview published in Photoplay magazine in June 1932. “I didn’t have to play Tarzan the ape, just say ‘I’m Tarzan, you’re Jane.’ An obvious way to emphasize the simplicity of his role. Except, in hindsight, many people got that line from the movie.

It’s quite ironic that the same (false) line was also used with humor by the woman who was his wife for five particularly tumultuous years, because their arguments were so Homeric: Mexican actress Lupe Velez, nicknamed “Mexican Fireball”.

They married at the height of their popularity in the 1930s, and shortly after their divorce, Velez joked about his particularly poor command of English. “Because she was married to a man who could only say ‘I’m Tarzan, you Jane.’

“The public knows I wasn’t going to pretend”

When Johnny Weissmuller died in 1984, Associated Press reporter Robert Hanley related this anecdote, never again uttering that famous line: “One day a journalist asked him to explain the success of his film, given his limited acting experience.

Weissmuller replied: How can a man climb trees, say “I’m Tarzan, you Jane” and make millions? Society forgives me game because he knows I was an athlete. He knows I wasn’t going to pretend.”