| Call Me Bwana | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Gordon Douglas |
| Produced by | Harry Saltzman Albert R. Broccoli |
| Written by | Johanna Harwood Nate Monaster |
| Starring | Bob Hope Anita Ekberg Edie Adams Arnold Palmer |
| Music by | Monty Norman End Title Song sung by Bob Hope |
| Cinematography | Ted Moore |
| Editing by | Peter R. Hunt |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | June 14, 1963 (U.S) |
| Running time | 102 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
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.
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Bob Hope 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.
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.[1]
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.[2] 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.[3] Paul Jarrico made revisions to the script[4]
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.[5]
The film was scored by Monty Norman. John Barry claimed that Norman contacted him to orchestrate his theme The Big Safari for the film[6] 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".[7] Bob Hope sang the title song over the end credits.[8]