Tarzan's Three Challenges (1963) is a British-American adventure film

Adventure film

Adventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....

 filmed in Metrocolor

Metrocolor

Metrocolor is the trade name used by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for films processed at their laboratory. Virtually all of these films were actually shot on Kodak's Eastmancolor film.-External links:* at Internet Movie Database...

, which is a followup to 1962's Tarzan Goes to India

Tarzan Goes to India

Tarzan Goes to India is the first film featuring Jock Mahoney as Tarzan. It was written by Robert Hardy Andrews and directed by John Guillermin who also directed Tarzan's Greatest Adventure. It was one of two Mahoney films that took Tarzan out of Africa and sent him to the far east...

. The movie was Jock Mahoney

Jock Mahoney

Jock Mahoney was an American actor and stuntman of Irish, French, and Cherokee ancestry. Born Jacques O'Mahoney, he was credited variously as Jock Mahoney, Jack O'Mahoney or Jock O'Mahoney. He starred in two television series, both westerns...

's second and final turn as the apeman, was produced by Sy Weintraub

Sy Weintraub

Sy Weintraub was a movie and television producer best known for his series of Tarzan films and television episodes between 1959 and 1968. Weintraub broke with the Johnny Weissmuller formula of portraying Tarzan as a pidgin-speaking noble savage who lives in a treehouse with Jane and Boy...

, written by Robert Day and Berne Giler, and directed by Robert Day. The film was released in June 1963.

Plot

Tarzan

Tarzan

Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...

 is summoned to an unnamed Asian country to protect Kashi (Ricky Der), the youthful heir to the throne, from his evil uncle, Khan, played by Tarzan veteran Woody Strode

Woody Strode

Woodrow Wilson Woolwine "Woody" Strode was a decathlete and football star who went on to become a pioneering black American film actor. He was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best supporting actor for his role in Spartacus in 1960...

.

The first set of three challenges are for Tarzan, to prove he is worthy to be accepted into Kashi's service. First is an archery contest to test skill. Then Tarzan stands between two tall posts, grasps handles which are attached to two ropes which run over the top of each post and are attached to buffalo. When the buffalo are driven apart, Tarzan is lifted into the air and stretched, to test strength. He passes the test by not letting go of either handle. Third, he is asked to answer a question designed to test his wisdom.

The second set of three challenges are for the young new leader, Kashi. First he must choose the correct diamond out of three. Second he must choose an empty goblet out of three. Last, he must choose one urn of ashes of the deceased previous leader out of five. After passing all three tests, Khan then came forward and demanded that Kashi take the fourth test of three challenges of life or death combat events called "The Challenge Of Might" which haven't been invoked in a thousand years. The boy chooses Tarzan as his defender in which Tarzan accepts.

Tarzan and Khan battled each other in two of the challenge events of the fourth test which concluded to the third and final challenge event with each man fighting with swords on a wide mesh net suspended above vats of boiling oil in which Khan dies by falling through the net into one of the vats.

Cast

• Jock Mahoney
  Jock Mahoney
  Jock Mahoney was an American actor and stuntman of Irish, French, and Cherokee ancestry. Born Jacques O'Mahoney, he was credited variously as Jock Mahoney, Jack O'Mahoney or Jock O'Mahoney. He starred in two television series, both westerns...
  
   as Tarzan
• Woody Strode
  Woody Strode
  Woodrow Wilson Woolwine "Woody" Strode was a decathlete and football star who went on to become a pioneering black American film actor. He was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best supporting actor for his role in Spartacus in 1960...
  
   as Khan / Dying Leader
• Tsu Kobayashi as Cho San, Prince's Nursemaid
• Earl Cameron
  Earl Cameron (actor)
  Earl Cameron, CBE is a Bermudian actor. He is known as one of the first black actors to break the "colour bar" in the United Kingdom, along with Cy Grant...
  
   as Mang
• Jimmy Jamal
• Salah Jamal as Hani
• Anthony Chinn
  Anthony Chinn
  Anthony Chinn , the child of Chinese and Brazilian parents, was a supporting actor who appeared in over fifty films and television shows throughout a career which spanned more than four decades. His first film appearance was in the UK in 1957 when he was 27...
  
   as Tor
• Robert Hu as Nari
• Christopher Carlos as Sechung
• Ricky Der as Kashi

Production notes

The movie was filmed near Bangkok, Thailand and in the jungle near the Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai sometimes written as "Chiengmai" or "Chiangmai", is the largest and most culturally significant city in northern Thailand. It is the capital of Chiang Mai Province , a former capital of the Kingdom of Lanna and was the tributary Kingdom of Chiang Mai from 1774 until 1939. It is...

 province.

Some scenes were shot in the Temple of Buddha's Footprint, the first film ever granted permission to shoot at this holy site. Crew members and cast removed their shoes and shot in almost total silence.

Midway through the film, Mahoney contracted dysentery

Dysentery

Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...

, dengue fever

Dengue fever

Dengue fever , also known as breakbone fever, is an infectious tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles...

 and finally pneumonia

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

. His weight plummeted from 220 pounds to 175 pounds. Some critics, noting how thin and weary he appeared in some action scenes, said it undermined the film’s credibility. English Stuntman Ray Austin made the 120 ft dive for Mahoney at Begor Bridge.

Forty-four years and four months old when the film was released, Jock Mahoney became the oldest actor to portray the apeman.