A few weeks ago I sold an original Czech poster to Tarzan Escapes to a collector, Ron Hall, who told me he had a very "special" interest in the movie.
He won the poster, and now he has revealed what that interest was, which is that it shows a large image of Tarzan fighting vampire bats! Unknown to me, the movie was actually filmed in 1935, and there is a major subplot involving Tarzan, pygmies, and vampire bats, basically making it a horror film! The studio hated the movie, and hired a new director to re-film it in 1936, and they junked all of the 1935 movie EXCEPT for the major vampire bat scene, and they made drastic changes to the plot (no apes, no Jane rescuing Tarzan at the end, etc)!.
The 1936 version opened, and mothers everywhere complained that the movie was too violent and scary for their kids. So in 1954, when the movie was re-released, they took out the vampire bat scene, and made some other cuts for violence.
But this is just a summary. You should read the collector's entire blog on this at
http://caferoxy.blogspot.com/And he is desperately searching for anyone who might have a print with the vampire bat scene, or have a lead on someone who does (apparently, no Tarzan collector alive has even seen that scene, except for the few who were alive in 1936! Also, the original 1935 version is also lost, except that there is a Big Little Book that shows 100 images from that movie, and they show how different it is from the 1936 version, and it would be great if someone could find the 1935 version!
Please read Ron's blog entry, and contact him if you have the slightest lead.
