Part 1: A Curse On You All

Chapter 7

"A Case of Fact or Fiction"

As Tarzan stared at the men who he thought were hunters, he was not really sure of who they were and of what business they had in the jungle to begin with. Just then, a small man came forward with a black and gray movie camera placed it down before Tarzan.

"You're not hunters?" asked Tarzan. The red haired man grabbed the bendable gun away from Tarzan and sneered crossly at him.

"Do you think that we would be carrying around these toys if they were weapons?" he said as Tarzan leapt down from the branch he was hanging upside down on. "We're actors, my scantily clad friend, not hunters as you claim us to be."

Tarzan looked up at the robust hunter in a confusing state. Once again, Tarzan was raised all his life in the jungle and still did not fully understand the ways of the human world. Still, the robust hunter tried his best to explain the situation to Tarzan.

"You know, actors?" he attempted to explain to Tarzan. "Thespians? Dramatics Personai?"

But, the younger and much taller hunter was more impatient than his co-star and walked over to him in impatience.

"Give it up, Dirk," he said, storming over to them. "The man's obviously a half-wit."

The tall hunter then turned his attention back to Tarzan and in a matter of impatience and frustration, tried to convince Tarzan that the best way for him to leave was to talk to him in his own language.

"Out of our way," he said in Tarzan's face in the most clear and possible voice that he could muster. "We're losing daylight."

Of course, the man in the red beret was much more understanding to Tarzan and tried to approach him almost like he was talking to Tarzan as a normal man would.

"Relax, Stanley," he said, dragging him away from Tarzan. "Don't you realize who this is? This is the real ape man!"

But, Stanley refused to believe what his director was saying and tried his best to brush off the comment in question. All he wanted to do was to get back to acting and call it a day.

"Oh, Tom," snickered Stanley. "That's just a legend."

The two men then saw Tarzan sniffing at the movie camera as the cameraman looked on in confusion at what Tarzan was doing. As soon as Tarzan stuck his eye into the camera's lens, Tom could see that there was a sense of inspiration deep within his creative mind that was about to burst wide open.

"Maybe not," he said to Stanley and walked over to Tarzan who was now inspecting the wooden dolly of the camera.

"What did you say your name was?" Tom asked, even though he never asked Tarzan to begin with.

"Tarzan," he replied and Tom stuck out his arm to shake Tarzan's hand, much to his still already confusion.

"Tarzan, I'm Tom Orland, director of this little movie called Savage Man. It's based on the legend of a man raised by gorillas in the wild African jungle, like, uh…"

"Like me," finished Tarzan, trying to identify himself with what Tom was trying to say to him. But, being the so called perfect actor that he was, Stanley walked over and boasted to Tarzan about who he really was and that was an actor and nothing more.

"No, like me," laughed Stanley. "I know that I don't look like a savage, but let me tell you that I am the star of the picture, Stanley O'Brien. You might have seen my last movie, right, Stone Rhapsody?"

But, yet once again, Tarzan had absolutely no idea what Stanley was talking about. He had never even heard of a movie to begin with and that the more Stanley boasted about it, the more confused he was becoming.

"No," replied Tarzan, trying to act polite about it. If Jane were here right now, then perhaps she would be proud of at least trying to make sense of the situation. Of course, Stanley's co-stars were eager to answer his question to Tarzan.

"Nobody saw his last movie," replied Dirk. "It tanked with audiences and Stanley lost another endorsement from a major studio."

Now, Tarzan was even more unsure about what was happening before him and the question of what a movie is was starting to overtake him.

"What's a movie?" he asked them and this made the men looked appalled and surprised at him. However, Tom could see this was divine inspiration and being the creative man that he was, he knew that it was his duty to educate Tarzan in the world of entertainment as much as possible.

"You've never seen a movie?" he gasped pushing Stanley and Dirk aside. But all Tarzan could do was nod that he had never seen a movie. "My stars, you are uncivilized."

He then thought of the perfect solution to help Tarzan understand what a movie was about. The only way to do that was to bring Tarzan, Jane and Archimedes to the trading post and show a movie to them in a private screening.

"My boy, you are in for a real treat!" he said excitedly as Terk, Tantor and Pumbaa were watching from their hiding spot as they were slightly overhearing with what was going on in front of them.

"Gee, must be something exciting going on," said Tantor. "And we thought they were hunters, eh, Terk?"

"Don't get your trunk in a twist," remarked Terk. "Remember what happened when Colonel Staquait was here and he kidnapped Jane and her friends? Never judge a book by its cover."

"They seem real nice," added Pumbaa, trying to counter Terk's criticism. "We'd better leave them alone with Tarzan, if we know what's good for them."

Terk was not sure, but she had a sense of fear deep in her system. Of course, the thought of the humanoid hyenas were still fresh in their minds and they couldn't be too careful of what was going on.

Later that night, Tarzan accompanied Jane and Archimedes to the trading post so they could see the movie that Tom was wanting to show them. In a sense, he was going to educate Tarzan into how a movie was made in a sense. When Jane and Archimedes heard about it, they were actually excited about it.

"I must say," said Archimedes as they walked into the trading post. "This is a perfect way to keep us occupied until the wedding. I haven't seen a movie since we left England, Janey."

"Indeed so, daddy," replied Jane. "Although, I do remember seeing that one little boy in that vaudeville performance. As I recall, his name was Charles Chaplin by the way."

They walked into a large room of the trading post and took their seats where Tom and Dumont were conversing before the movie was to be shown.

"Thanks for letting us turn your storeroom into a screening room, Mr. Dumont," said Tom. But, Dumont was very humbled for the company of a famous movie director and his cast and crew as his guests.

"Please, call me Renard," he replied. "I and my trading post are at your complete disposal while you are here."

"Great," replied Tom as Hugo and Hooft walked in with the disk containing the movie that he wanted to show Tarzan and his guests. He had a lantern in his hand and the disk in the other, causing great concern for him.

"Is this the right movie, Mr. Ormand?" asked Hugo, who put the disk far too close to the lantern's light. This made Tom grow concerned for his work.

"For goodness sake," he cried. "Put that lantern down. One spark on that disk and the film will go up like powdercake."

This made Hugo nervous and handed the disk over to Hooft, who thought the film disk was like food and the two ran around Tom like a couple of nuts.

"Here, you take it," said Hugo to Hooft, who began to chase him.

"No thanks, junior," cried Hooft. "I'm trying to cut down, if you are asking me."

But, Tom was having none of this tomfoolery that was happening around him and snatched the disk containing his film away from the two men.

"Just take it back to the projectionist," he ordered and Hugo and Hooft walked away, still feeling a sense of fear over what Tom had just said to them.

"Thank you so much for the invitation, Mr. Ormand," said Jane, clasping her hands together. "My father and I haven't seen a film since we've left England."

"Oh, you are going to love this one," cried Tom. "This was my last picture, The Great Train Caper. LIGHTS HENRY!"

The lights turned down and the projector was turned on and Tarzan looked around in confusion at what was happening around him and it was only when Jane tapped him on the shoulder did he see the screen come to life, accompanied by piano music. What Tarzan saw was a moving picture of a train heading right towards them.

"WATCH OUT!" cried Tarzan and thinking that it was real, Tarzan grew scared and grabbed Jane from her seat and onto a beam in the ceiling. This made Tom grow inspired once again as he stared at Tarzan with Jane in his arms.

"Incredible!" he gasped at Tarzan's quick thinking. But, Jane wanted to show Tarzan that what he was seeing was not real.

"Um, Tarzan, love," she said. "It's not a real train, see?"

To show Tarzan what she was talking about, Jane lowered her left leg down to the screen and wiggled her toes in front of it.

"It's like daddy's slide projectors, only that these pictures move," she explained.

"Indeed," added Archimedes. "It's too bad I don't have moving slides."

Tarzan was now beginning to understand the matter at hand and turned his attention back to Tom as he brought Jane back down onto the ground.

"I'm sorry I interrupted," he said. But Tom was having none of it, for he knew that this was divine inspiration that he was looking at.

"Balderdash!" he cried. "The director wants the audience to think that his movie is real."

He then got an idea that Tarzan should see a movie being filmed live and since he had a shooting to do tomorrow, this would be the perfect oppurtunity for him to do just that.

"In fact," he said. "How would like to come to the set tomorrow and see a real movie being filmed? Plus, tomorrow is the first scene with Naomi Madision, our leading lady."

Since the word "leading lady," came into his head, Tarzan thought that maybe Jane could come as well. As long as it was okay with the director of course.

"Can I bring Jane?" he asked.

"Oh, my," laughed Tom. "You really were raised by apes, weren't you?"

In a sense, Jane was allowed to come and as they returned to the treehouse that night, Jane was very excited to be attending a live filming since she had never experienced one before.

"I must say," replied Archimedes. "This is going to be such a splendid day tomorrow. We'll see a movie being filmed and then head to the Wazari village the next day."

"Perhaps maybe I could try out my new parasol tomorrow," added Jane. "Of course, I will have to find something to wear tomorrow. I need to look my best for the cast and crew."

As they walked back, Tarzan could see that the combination of this movie and the Wazari Wedding was making Jane feel happy again, especially after the events of Cape Doom.

But, little did they know that Shenzi, Banzai and Ed were watching their every move and that La was going to have them carry out a little surprise for the cast, the crew and their guests tomorrow…