(later Maureen O’Sullivan’s husband and father to Mia Farrow) and remake practically the entire film. An early teaser trailer, which is available on Disc-4 of this set, sheds some light on the con- tent of Goldstein’s rejected version. Over midnight spook-show trailer-style graphic art (alas, no film footage!), a Voice-of-God narrator enthuses:
“Into the heart of darkest Africa come two expeditions: one to capture and cage Tarzan, leader of a fabled band of Great White Apes, the other to find his mate, heir- ess to a huge fortune. Tarzan and his apes save one safari from the fierce Gaboni war- riors. They are beset by man-eating lions, but Tarzan’s friends the elephants come to the rescue. Crocodiles attack them... Giant bats so huge and humorous that they darken the sky, all but overwhelm them before a friendly pygmy tribe saves them. Tarzan—ambushed, outnumbered—is cap- tured by the rascally hunters and caged for sale to a zoo. And then, trumpeting his awesome cry of vengeance...”
... cue the title, TARZAN ESCAPES.
Though the eventual release version does
bear some similarities to the synopsis above, action set-pieces from the Goldstein version were either swapped out with less fierce vari- ants or replaced with more talk and humor. Unfortunately, what promised to be the most exciting bits—the giant vampire-bat attack and pygmy rescue—were cut completely, joining the spider-pit sequence from KING KONG in the fantasy genre’s pantheon of legendary lost scenes.
Released one year after it was originally slated
to premiere, the revised TARZAN ESCAPES opens much like its predecessors, with the ar- rival of a riverboat. Rita and Eric Parker (Benita Hume and William Henry) are seeking a guide to take them to the Mutia escarpment, where they hope to find their lost cousin Jane. If Jane does not accompany the pair back to London, the cousins stand to lose an inherited fortune. Their best prospect, skilled trapper Captain Fry (John Buckler)—part Count Zaroff, part Carl Denham—heartily agrees to the challenge (“I need a vacation with just a touch of adventure thrown in!”), secretly hoping that he can trap Tarzan in his state-of-the-art metal cage and
The only surviving shot of TARZAN ESCAPES’ vampire bat attack sequence, which MGM considered too horrifying to release.
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