Because the climatic scene looked so realistic, Schoedsack was accused of sacrifying Rango to the Tiger for years afterward. In fact, there was a thick glass screen between the young ape and the tiger. Then a tiger was filmed, tearing an ape-skin dummy into shreds.
The world premiere of "Rango" was at the Rivoli Theatre, New York, on 18 February 1931.
The film is alternately tinted yellow (for day), red (for sunset) and blue (for night), and is silent except for a talking prologue and a synchronized musical score. The film was shot in the jungles of Achin (also called Atjeh) in northwest Sumatra, Indonesia. Javanese and Malays were in the cast, along with the Achinese, who Motion Picture Herald describes as "one of the fiercest tribes in the Dutch West Indies."
One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.
When Rango gets thrown out of the back of his family's car, as he tumbles and bounces, he hits the windshield of a car driven by Dr. Hunter S. Thompson accompanied, in the back seat, by his drug-addled Samoan attorney, as they travel to a convention in Las Vegas. (From the cover of the book and the DVD).