General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Tarzan and His Mate

Tarzan and His Mate is a 1934 American adventure film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the second of the Tarzan pictures starring Johnny Weissmuller, who returns with Maureen O'Sullivan and Neil Hamilton from Tarzan, the Ape Man (1932). It was released on 20 April 1934, near the end of the pre-Code (era before Hollywood's 1934 censorship rules were strictly enforced) era, and is remembered above all for its underwater nude swimming sequence, which became one of the landmark cases of Hollywood film censorship.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Release	20 April 1934, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; 92 or 105 minutes depending on version¹
Leads	Johnny Weissmuller (Tarzan), Maureen O'Sullivan (Jane Parker), Neil Hamilton (Harry Holt), Paul Cavanagh (Martin Arlington)¹^•³
Director	Cedric Gibbons, head of M-G-M's art department, received his only directing credit on the film¹
Famous scene	Underwater ballet in which Jane, doubled by Olympic swimmer Josephine McKim, appears completely nude²
Censorship	Rejected by the Production Code office on 10 April 1934; all prints ordered changed by 24 April 1934¹
Restoration	The original uncensored version returned when Ted Turner issued the film on video in 1991²

Spoilers

Story and cast

The story continues from the first film. Harry Holt (Neil Hamilton), who visited the jungle in Tarzan, the Ape Man, returns to Africa seeking ivory, accompanied by his friend Martin Arlington (Paul Cavanagh). Holt also hopes to bring Jane back to civilization, but she refuses his overtures. Tarzan eventually tries to stop the expedition from plundering the sacred elephant burial grounds, confronting wild animals along the way.²^•⁶ Forrester Harvey plays Beamish and Nathan Curry plays Saidi.³

Weissmuller, a champion swimmer rather than a trained actor, threw himself into the physical sequences, briefly riding a rhinoceros, though Alfred Codona doubled for him in the treetop swinging scenes and Bert Nelson wrestled the lions.² Weissmuller's swimming credentials were extraordinary: from entering competitive swimming in 1921 until retiring seven years later he never lost a race, winning 36 individual AAU championships and 67 world championships, becoming the first swimmer to break one minute for 100 meters, and holding 51 world records and 94 American records.²

Production

Filming began on 2 August 1933, with Cedric Gibbons given responsibility for the first unit.⁴ The production was troubled from the start. The Hollywood Reporter's production schedule of six months was described as the longest in cinematic history at the time, and by 1 July 1933 W.S. Van Dyke, who had directed the first film, was dropped from the project and Gibbons announced as sole director.¹ TCM's account differs, stating that less than a month into shooting Gibbons himself was replaced by Jack Conway, with no record of why; Rotten Tomatoes and the TCM credits list both men as directors.²^•³ Rod La Rocque was pulled from the cast and replaced by Paul Cavanagh because of miscasting, and William Stack and Desmond Roberts also took over roles originally cast with other actors.¹^•² Much footage was re-shot, but the Toronto Film Society's notes observe that none of these disruptions show on screen.⁵

Gibbons, a celebrated art director, never directed again; he worked on hundreds of pictures between 1924 and the late 1950s but Tarzan and His Mate was the only one. In later years O'Sullivan insisted that most of the film was actually directed by James C. McKay.²

The nude swimming scene and censorship

The film's most famous sequence is an underwater ballet in which Tarzan and Jane swim together and Jane is completely nude. O'Sullivan was doubled by Josephine McKim, an Olympic swimmer who won bronze in the 400 meter freestyle at the 1928 Amsterdam Games and gold in the 4x100 meter relay at the 1932 Los Angeles Games; when Jane rises from the water, O'Sullivan resumes the role.²^•⁷

According to the censorship files in the MPAA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library, the sequence caused serious trouble with the Hays Office. On 10 April 1934, Joseph I. Breen, director of public relations of the MPPDA, reported to Will H. Hays that the film had been rejected because of shots in which "the girl was shown completely in the nude." Producer Irving Thalberg protested by citing the earlier M-G-M film White Shadows of the South Seas, but jurors who screened that film determined none of its women were naked. By 24 April 1934 all prints in all territories were ordered changed, and the trailer, which also contained the nude shots, was ordered changed as well.¹

M-G-M had prepared three versions of the scene: one with Jane fully clothed, one with only her breasts exposed, and one completely nude. US states could enact individual censorship laws, and the versions were filmed so each state could select the one conforming to its laws.¹^•⁸ All three were eventually removed after protests from conservative religious groups, particularly the Catholic Legion of Decency, and the offending scene was cut from the film's negative.⁸^•¹ A June 1934 Breen memo still pressed for elimination of underwater views where breasts were unduly exposed.¹ The film's general pre-Code sensibility, including Jane's scant costume and the couple sharing a bed, also drew Code attention, and wardrobe in the later Weissmuller films became more modest.⁵^•⁹

Reception and afterlife

The film was a popular success, seen by roughly twelve million people worldwide, though it was banned in Nazi Germany, where the regime objected to an Aryan-looking hero portrayed in a violent, primitive setting.¹⁰ Critics have treated it generously: Rotten Tomatoes records a 100% Tomatometer from 19 reviews, and reviewers have singled out the rubber-crocodile battle, the photography, and the film's raw energy for its time.⁶

The uncensored version returned when Ted Turner issued the film on video in 1991, and the Warner Archive Collection Blu-ray restores the full underwater sequence along with previously cut warfare footage.²^•⁹ Scholars have also examined the film's portrayal of Africa: a 2001 study in Africa Today analyzed how its music helped generate stereotyped notions of African peoples, and the Toronto Film Society notes that the film is shown less often today partly because of its cavalier treatment of native characters.¹¹^•⁵

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026