Call Me Bwana
Encyclopedia
Call Me Bwana is a 1963 farce
film starring Bob Hope
and Anita Ekberg
, and directed by Gordon Douglas
. It is largely set in Africa
. It is the only film made by EON Productions
which is not about the Ian Fleming
spy
character, James Bond
and was made by most of the same film crew as Dr. No
.
plays a New York writer who has passed off his uncle's memoirs of explorations in Africa as his own. Hope lives his false reputation as a great white hunter
to the point of living in a Manhattan
apartment furnished to look like an African safari lodge
complete with sound effects records of African fauna
. Based on his false reputation as an "Africa Expert", he is recruited by the United States Government and NASA
to locate a missing secret space probe before it can be located by hostile forces.
Hope's co-stars include Edie Adams
and Anita Ekberg
playing secret agents. Golfer
Arnold Palmer
makes a brief cameo, playing a crazy round of golf with Hope—a scene revisited in the film Spies Like Us
where Hope makes a cameo appearance and plays golf through a tent. A scene involving an unseen President John F. Kennedy
in his famous rocking chair is parodied with his Russian counterpart Nikita Khrushchev
rocking in a chair that squeaks loudly.
'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.
Farce
In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...
film starring Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
and Anita Ekberg
Anita Ekberg
Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg is a Swedish model, actress and cult sex symbol. She is best known for her role as Sylvia in the 1960 Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita which features the legendary scene of her cavorting in Trevi Fountain alongside Marcello Mastroianni.-Biography:Ekberg was born in...
, and directed by Gordon Douglas
Gordon Douglas (director)
Gordon Douglas was an American film director, who directed many different genres of films over the course of a five-decade career in motion pictures. He was a native of New York City.-Hal Roach and Our Gang:...
. It is largely set in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. It is the only film made by EON Productions
EON Productions
Eon Productions is a film production company known for producing the James Bond film series. The company is based in London's Piccadilly and also operates from Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom...
which is not about the Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
spy
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
character, James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
and was made by most of the same film crew as Dr. No
Dr. No (film)
Dr. No is a 1962 spy film, starring Sean Connery; it is the first James Bond film. Based on the 1958 Ian Fleming novel of the same name, it was adapted by Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, and Berkely Mather and was directed by Terence Young. The film was produced by Harry Saltzman and Albert R...
.
Plot
Bob HopeBob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
plays a New York writer who has passed off his uncle's memoirs of explorations in Africa as his own. Hope lives his false reputation as a great white hunter
Great White Hunter
White hunter is a term used for professional big-game hunters of European or North American backgrounds who plied their trade in Africa, especially during the first half of the 20th century...
to the point of living in a Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
apartment furnished to look like an African safari lodge
Safari lodge
A safari lodge is a type of tourist accommodation in southern and eastern Africa. Lodges are mainly used by tourists on wildlife safaris, and are typically located in or near national parks or game reserves....
complete with sound effects records of African fauna
Fauna
Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...
. Based on his false reputation as an "Africa Expert", he is recruited by the United States Government and NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
to locate a missing secret space probe before it can be located by hostile forces.
Hope's co-stars include Edie Adams
Edie Adams
Edie Adams was an American singer, Broadway, television and film actress and comedienne. Adams, a Tony Award winner, "both embodied and winked at the stereotypes of fetching chanteuse and sexpot blonde." She was well-known for her impersonations of female stars on stage and television, most...
and Anita Ekberg
Anita Ekberg
Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg is a Swedish model, actress and cult sex symbol. She is best known for her role as Sylvia in the 1960 Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita which features the legendary scene of her cavorting in Trevi Fountain alongside Marcello Mastroianni.-Biography:Ekberg was born in...
playing secret agents. Golfer
Professional golfer
In golf the distinction between amateurs and professionals is rigorously maintained. An amateur who breaches the rules of amateur status may lose his or her amateur status. A golfer who has lost his or her amateur status may not play in amateur competitions until amateur status has been reinstated;...
Arnold Palmer
Arnold Palmer
Arnold Daniel Palmer is an American professional golfer, who is generally regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of men's professional golf. He has won numerous events on both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour, dating back to 1955...
makes a brief cameo, playing a crazy round of golf with Hope—a scene revisited in the film Spies Like Us
Spies Like Us
Spies Like Us is a 1985 American comedy film directed by John Landis and starring Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Steve Forrest, and Donna Dixon...
where Hope makes a cameo appearance and plays golf through a tent. A scene involving an unseen President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
in his famous rocking chair is parodied with his Russian counterpart Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
rocking in a chair that squeaks loudly.
Production
According to Albert R. BroccoliAlbert R. Broccoli
Albert Romolo Broccoli, CBE , nicknamed "Cubby", was an American film producer, who made more than 40 motion pictures throughout his career, most of them in the United Kingdom, and often filmed at Pinewood Studios. Co-founder of Danjaq, LLC and EON Productions, Broccoli is most notable as the...
's autobiography When the Snow Melts, EON Productions
EON Productions
Eon Productions is a film production company known for producing the James Bond film series. The company is based in London's Piccadilly and also operates from Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom...
was originally contracted by United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
to make two films a year for them; one James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
film and one non-Bond film. Many original suggestions were meant to showcase Sean Connery
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
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
Harry Saltzman
Harry Saltzman was a Canadian theatre and film producer best known for his mega-gamble which resulted in his co-producing the James Bond film series with Albert R...
who had previously made The Iron Petticoat
The Iron Petticoat
The Iron Petticoat is a 1956 British Cold War comedy film starring Bob Hope and Katharine Hepburn and directed by Ralph Thomas. Hepburn plays a Russian aviatrix who lands in West Germany and is quickly converted to capitalism after sampling life in the West in the company of Major Chuck Lockwood...
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
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
group called The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
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
A Hard Day's Night (film)
A Hard Day's Night is a 1964 British black-and-white comedy film directed by Richard Lester and starring The Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr—during the height of Beatlemania. It was written by Alun Owen and originally released by United Artists...
was more successful than Call Me Bwana.
The film was originally intended to be shot entirely on location in Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
but the problems of the Mau Mau Uprising
Mau Mau Uprising
The Mau Mau Uprising was a military conflict that took place in Kenya between 1952 and 1960...
led the producers to only have second unit
Second unit
In film, the second unit is a team that shoots subsidiary footage for a motion picture. Its work is distinct from that of the first unit, which shoots all scenes involving principal actors...
cinematography
Cinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
led by John Coquillon
John Coquillon
John Coquillon was a Canadian cinematographer.Born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Coquillon started in the British film industry as a Pinewood Studios clapper loader in the 1950s before becoming a documentary cameraman later in the decade shooting numerous wildlife movies throughout Africa. ...
.
Edie Adams
Edie Adams
Edie Adams was an American singer, Broadway, television and film actress and comedienne. Adams, a Tony Award winner, "both embodied and winked at the stereotypes of fetching chanteuse and sexpot blonde." She was well-known for her impersonations of female stars on stage and television, most...
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
Anita Ekberg
Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg is a Swedish model, actress and cult sex symbol. She is best known for her role as Sylvia in the 1960 Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita which features the legendary scene of her cavorting in Trevi Fountain alongside Marcello Mastroianni.-Biography:Ekberg was born in...
but as Hope had promised her a role the film was rewritten for a new female character. Paul Jarrico
Paul Jarrico
Paul Jarrico was an American screenwriter and film producer who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses during the era of McCarthyism.-Early years:...
made revisions to the script
Art director
Art director
The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
Syd Cain
Syd Cain
Sidney B. "Syd" Cain was a British production designer who worked on more than 30 films, including four in the James Bond series in the 1960s and 1970s....
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
Monty Norman
Monty Norman is a singer and film composer best known for being credited with composing the "James Bond Theme".-Biography:...
. John Barry
John Barry (composer)
John Barry Prendergast, OBE was an English conductor and composer of film music. He is best known for composing the soundtracks for 12 of the James Bond films between 1962 and 1987...
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
Muir Mathieson
James Muir Mathieson was a Scottish conductor and composer. Mathieson was almost always described as a "Musical Director" on a large number of British films.-Career:...
. Barry released a recording of The Big Safari as well as another United Artists comedy The Mouse on the Moon
The Mouse on the Moon
The Mouse on the Moon is a 1963 British comedy film, an adaptation of the novel The Mouse on the Moon by Irish author Leonard Wibberley. It was directed by Richard Lester and served as the sequel to The Mouse That Roared. In it, the people of the Duchy of Grand Fenwick, a microstate, attempt space...
under a psudonym of "The Countdowns". Bob Hope sang the title song over the end credits.