Dark of The Sun - Production

Production

The book and the film are a fictional account of the Congo Crisis (1960–1966), when Joseph Mobutu seized power during the First Republic of the Congo after national independence from Belgium. The conflicts in Dark of the Sun are based on the anti-colonial struggle, a secessionist war with the province of Katanga and a United Nations peacekeeping operation within the context of the Cold War. Actual violence in the Congo resulted in the deaths of up to 100,000 people.

The Henlein character was based on Siegfried Müller, a German mercenary who fought in the Congo wearing the Iron Cross that he earned during World War II. Mueller was featured in a 1966 East German-made documentary Der Lachende Mann (The Laughing Man).

In the German version, Curry was renamed Willy Krüger and was portrayed as a former Wehrmacht officer who had already clashed with Henlein during World War II because of the latter's fanatical Nazism. The German version also cuts the scene where Henlein murders two Congolese children and is misleadingly entitled Katanga, implying the film takes place during the first Congo emergency in 1961-64, when mercenaries like Müller and 'Mad' Mike Hoare were involved. In fact, the film takes place during the Simba Rebellion of 1964-65, when mercenaries were recruited by the Congo government to fight a leftist insurgency.

Most of the film was shot on location in Jamaica on that country's railway system, taking advantage of a working steam train as well as safety and cost-effectiveness. Interiors were completed at Borehamwood Studios near London. At the same time, MGM was filming Graham Greene's The Comedians (1967) in Africa, though the original took place in the Caribbean.

Rod Taylor claimed he rewrote a fair amount of the script himself, including helping devise a new ending.

The film's score was composed by Jacques Loussier.