Frank Merrill, Tarzan The Tiger: Best Stunt Award for 1929 goes to Frank Merrill, born Otto Poll, for the 15-part serial Tarzan the Tiger. Serials of the 20’s and 30’s were a great source for stunts in the early days of film due to the nature the studios wanting to leave the audience with thrills so they would come back the next week to see how they ended. This one has the distinction of being the last silent film version of Tarzan AND the first talkie version of Tarzan when sound was recorded and the film was then re-released.
Frank Merrill was a national title-winning gymnast, winning the national championships 1916 to 1918 and winning over 50 Southern California titles in Roman rings, high bars and rope climbing. The rope climbing especially came in handy when he the first Tarzan to swing from vine to vine that was used from then on in all the following Tarzan movies. He was also the first one to give voice to Tarzan and created the “Tarzan Yell”, popular in sound versions for the character.
Tarzan the Tiger was directed by Henry MacRae for Universal Pictures.
Things to look up ( go to IMDB):
Frank Merrill
Henry MacRae
Tarzan the Tiger
Universal Pictures
Glossary of film terms as defined by Wikipedia:
- Serials – More specifically known as Movie serials, Film serials or Chapter plays, are short subjects originally shown in theaters in conjunction with a feature film. They were related to pulp magazine serialized fiction. Also known as “chapter plays”, they were extended motion pictures broken into a number of segments called “chapters” or “episodes”. Each chapter was screened at the same theater for one week, and ended with a cliffhanger, in which the hero and heroine found themselves in a perilous situation with little apparent chance of escape. Viewers had to return each week to see the cliffhangers resolved and to follow the continuing story. Serials were especially popular with children, and for many youths in the first half of the 20th century a typical Saturday at the movies included a chapter of at least one serial, along with animated cartoons, newsreels, and two feature films.
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