Call Me Bwana - Production

Production

According to Albert R. Broccoli's autobiography When the Snow Melts, Eon Productions was originally contracted by United Artists to make two films a year for them; one James Bond film and one non-Bond film. Many original suggestions were meant to showcase Sean Connery who turned them all down as he didn't want his career totally in the hands of Eon. When asked by United Artists executive Donald Zec if they had any ideas for their non-Bond film, Harry Saltzman who had previously made The Iron Petticoat with Hope said he had an idea for a Bob Hope movie. Broccoli asked Zec if he had any ideas and Zec replied that he had seen a British rock and roll group called The Beatles that had sellout crowds and thought about featuring them in a film. Saltzman laughed and asked why he would want to make a film about four young long-haired kids from Liverpool when he had Bob Hope. United Artists made the Beatles film with Walter Shenson and A Hard Day's Night was more successful than Call Me Bwana.

The film was originally intended to be shot entirely on location in Kenya but the problems of the Mau Mau Uprising led the producers to only have second unit cinematography led by John Coquillon.

Edie Adams thought that she was actually going to Africa and had her painful inoculations. She remembered that the film seemed to be written as it went along; initially her character was a nuclear scientist, then a big game hunter. One day on the set she met a stuntwoman dressed like her character throwing a male stuntman in a jiu jitsu throw; Adams realised that now her character was a secret agent. Adams' original role was given to Anita Ekberg but as Hope had promised her a role the film was rewritten for a new female character. Paul Jarrico made revisions to the script

Art director Syd Cain recalled that originally wild African animals from British zoos were to be released onto the golf course sequence during the filming but the idea was shelved when they caused expensive damage.

The film was scored by Monty Norman. John Barry claimed that Norman contacted him to orchestrate his theme The Big Safari for the film but the film's orchestration was eventually credited to Muir Mathieson. Barry released a recording of The Big Safari as well as another United Artists comedy The Mouse on the Moon under a psudonym of "The Countdowns". Bob Hope sang the title song over the end credits.