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Pre-Hays code movies could be quite daring, but the nude swimming scene had to be cut from Tarzan and His Mate before it was granted a Production Code Administration seal. In his book Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema, Thomas Patrick Doherty surmises that MGM included the scene as a red herring, believing that it was so outrageous a violation that the censors would focus all their attention on it and give a pass to other, less blatant but still risqué scenes of Tarzan and Jane cavorting in skimpy outfits. As Doherty points out, Johnny Weismuller was the principle sex object in the Tarzan films, the advertising for which was aimed primarily at women who, in those days, bought most of the movie tickets. Maureen O'Sullivan's T&A were sacrificed to morality, but Weismuller's tasteful side-butt shots prevailed throughout the movie.