screenshots / Tarzan Escapes / 1936 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

"Miss Jane, he's the finest gentleman I ever knew ...trousers or no trousers."

This third film starring Johnny Weissumuller as Tarzan begins with Jane's (Maureen O'Sullivan) two cousins arriving in Africa along with a hunter who intends to capture Tarzan so as to put him on public display.

A scene which had Tarzan fighting vampire bats was deleted prior to release after test audiences found it to be too frightning. (Production photos from this scene still exist but the film footage and negative appears to be lost.)

Filming began in 1935 with the production's first director James C. McKay being replaced by John Farrow in 1936 (who re-shot much of the film), and later with Richard Thorpe getting the onscreen directing credit.

Richard Thorpe was also chosen to direct The Wizard of Oz (1939) but was replaced by the studio after two weeks of filming. (He later directed the 1942 film Tarzan's New York Adventure.)

Years later, John Farrow would go on to direct the 1953 John Wayne 3D western classic Hondo.

Actor William Henry (Eric Parker) would later again appear with Johnny Werssmuller in the Jungle Jim entry Fury of the Congo (1951).

California filming locations include the backlot at Metro-Goldwyn-Studios (Culver City), Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden (Arcadia), and Malibu Creek State Park (Calabasas).

Only days prior to the film's release, actor John Buckler (Captain Fry) was just 30 years old when he drowned (along with his father) when their car skidded during a rainstorm and ended up overturned in the waters of Malibou Lake in the Santa Monica Mountains of California.

William Henry passed in 1982 at the age of 67.