Buster Crabbe narrowly lost the role of Tarzan to Johnny Weissmuller, so he starred in this Tarzan "copycat" film.
The Associated Press reported that during a scene being rehearsed at Paramount Studios on 5 November 1932 in which Crabbe was supposed to mix it up with a lion and put it to flight, the animal "got different ideas and took a nip at Crabbe's shank," inflicting a severe laceration. The actor, and former swimmer, who had only been signed for the film two days before, was taken to hospital where the wound was cauterized. "Belief that the full grown movie animal was not angry, but induced by exuberance to 'play' too roughly was expressed at the studio."
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. Its earliest documented telecast took place in Seattle Tuesday 5 May 1959 on KIRO (Channel 7).