The company arrived in Africa just before winter set in. The chimps wouldn't perform, so Cheetah's part had to be cut. The area around Mount Kenya was so cloudy that Lex Barker's tan disappeared and he had to use body makeup. The first time Barker showed up in a loin cloth the native extras burst out laughing.
First Tarzan film to be shot in Africa, where it was set.
The film was originally shot in color, but more than half of it was ruined on location. It was converted to black and white, the remaining footage winding up in later pictures.
Normally quite hairy-chested, Barker was forced to submit to a full body wax in order to play the buffed version of Tarzan demanded by the producers. It was not until he abandoned the Tarzan role and went to Europe to film that his fans were finally allowed to see him as nature intended, with his chest hair intact.
This is one of two Lex Barker Tarzan films in which character actor Alan Napier appeared ( he was previously seen in Tarzan's Magic Fountain). Napier appeared in nearly 150 movies and television shows, including the horror classic The Uninvited and Danny Kaye's comic romp The Court Jester, but he's best remembered for playing Bruce Wayne's steadfast Butler Alfred in 120 episodes of the campy 1960s TV hit Batman.