Call Me Bwana

Last updated

Call Me Bwana
Call me bwana.jpg
Cinema release poster
Directed by Gordon Douglas
Written by Johanna Harwood
Nate Monaster
Produced by Albert R. Broccoli
Starring Bob Hope
Anita Ekberg
Edie Adams
Arnold Palmer
Cinematography Ted Moore
Edited by Peter R. Hunt
Music by Monty Norman
Production
company
Distributed by Rank Film Distributors
Release date
4 April 1963 (1963-04-04) (UK)
Running time
102 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Box office$2.2 million [1]

Call Me Bwana is a 1963 British Technicolor farce film starring Bob Hope and Anita Ekberg and directed by Gordon Douglas.

Contents

Largely set in Africa, it was the only film made by Eon Productions not about the fictional MI6 agent James Bond until the 2014 film The Silent Storm . It was made by most of the same crew as Dr. No .

Plot

Bob Hope plays Matt Merriwether, a New York writer who has passed off his uncle's memoirs of explorations in Africa as his own. Merriwether 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 also 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.

Cast

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 did not want his career totally in the hands of Eon.

When asked by journalist and close Broccoli affiliate Donald Zec if they had any ideas for their non-Bond film, Harry Saltzman, who had previously made The Iron Petticoat with Hope, suggested a Bob Hope movie. 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. [2]

Edie Adams thought that she was actually going to Africa and had 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. [3] 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 Adams a role, the script was rewritten to add a new female character. [4]

In fact, the film was indeed being written during shooting. In October 1962, after being in production for two weeks, producer Broccoli hired novelist Paul Jarrico to do a "fast rewrite." Six writers had already worked on the script, "hundreds of jokes had been written about a bumbling explorer and a CIA agent searching for a U.S. space capsule in Africa, but no filmable story had emerged." Jarrico believed the script needed logic. Broccoli subsequently paid Jarrico $2,500 for four weeks' uncredited work. [5]

Production director Syd Cain recalled that originally wild African animals from British zoos were to be released onto the golf course sequence but the idea was shelved when they caused expensive damage. [6]

Spoofing a scene from Dr. No, Hope's character is asleep in a tent when a tarantula begins crawling up his leg. A similar thing had happened to James Bond in the first 007 film, played seriously, rather than for laughs.

Call Me Bwana is "plugged" in Eon Productions' 1963 Bond film From Russia with Love during a sequence where Ali Kerim Bey assassinates the Russian agent Krilencu with a sniper rifle. Krilencu attempts to escape through a window, which is situated in Anita Ekberg's mouth, on the wall-sized poster: "She should have kept her mouth shut," Bond says. In the original novel by Ian Fleming, published in 1957, the scene happens in a trapdoor situated in Marilyn Monroe's mouth on a poster for Niagara . [7] Production of From Russia, With Love actually began three days prior to the UK release of Call Me Bwana.

The next non-Bond Eon Productions release would not be until the 2014 film The Silent Storm, followed by Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool in 2017.

Soundtrack

The film was scored by Monty Norman. John Barry claimed that Norman contacted him to orchestrate his theme The Big Safari [8] 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 pseudonym of "The Countdowns". [9] Bob Hope sang the title song over the end credits. [10]

Home media

Call Me Bwana was released to DVD by MGM Home Video on 27 June 2011 via MGM's Limited Edition Collection as a MOD (manufacture-on-demand) widescreen Region 1 DVD.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Felix Leiter</span> Fictional character in the James Bond books and films

Felix Leiter is a fictional character created by Ian Fleming in the James Bond books, films and other media. The character is an operative for the CIA and Bond's friend. After losing a leg and his hand to a shark attack, Leiter joined the Pinkerton Detective Agency. The name "Felix" comes from the middle name of Fleming's friend Ivar Bryce, while the name "Leiter" was the surname of Fleming's friend Marion Oates Leiter Charles, the then wife of Thomas Leiter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert R. Broccoli</span> American film producer (1909–1996)

Albert Romolo Broccoli, nicknamed "Cubby", was an American film producer who made more than 40 motion pictures throughout his career. Most of the films were made in the United Kingdom and often filmed at Pinewood Studios. Co-founder of Danjaq, LLC and Eon Productions, Broccoli is most notable as the producer of many of the James Bond films. He and Harry Saltzman saw the films develop from relatively low-budget origins to large-budget, high-grossing extravaganzas, and Broccoli's heirs continue to produce new Bond films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eon Productions</span> British film production company known for producing the James Bond film series

Eon Productions Limited is a British film production company that primarily produces the James Bond film series. The company is based in London's Piccadilly and also operates from Pinewood Studios in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anita Ekberg</span> Swedish actress (1931–2015)

Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg was a Swedish actress active in American and European films, known for her beauty and curvy figure. She became prominent in her iconic role as Sylvia in the Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita (1960). Ekberg worked primarily in Italy, where she became a permanent resident in 1964.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Saltzman</span> Canadian theatre and film producer (1915–1994)

Herschel "Harry" Saltzman was a Canadian theatre and film producer. He is best remembered for co-producing the first nine of the James Bond film series with Albert R. Broccoli. He lived most of his life in Denham, Buckinghamshire, England.

Peter Roger Hunt was a British director, editor and producer of film and television, best known for his work on the James Bond film series, first as an editor and then as a second unit director. He finally served as director for On Her Majesty's Secret Service. His work on the series helped pioneer an innovative, fast-cutting editing style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monty Norman</span> British composer (1928–2022)

Monty Norman was a British film score composer and singer. A contributor to West End musicals in the 1950s and 1960s, he is best known for composing the "James Bond Theme", first heard in the 1962 film Dr. No. He was an Ivor Novello Award and Olivier Award winner, and a Tony Award nominee.

Since its inception in 1962, the James Bond film series from Eon Productions has featured many musical compositions, many of which are now considered classic pieces of British film music. The best known piece is the "James Bond Theme" composed by Monty Norman. Other instrumentals, such as "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", and various songs performed by British or American artists such as Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger", Nancy Sinatra's "You Only Live Twice", Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die", Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better", Sheena Easton's "For Your Eyes Only", Duran Duran's "A View to a Kill", Tina Turner's "GoldenEye" also become identified with the series.

Ted Moore, BSC was a South African-British cinematographer known for his work on seven of the James Bond films in the 1960s and early 1970s. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Fred Zinnemann's A Man for All Seasons, and two BAFTA Awards for Best Cinematography for A Man for All Seasons and From Russia with Love.

<i>Casino Royale</i> (1967 film) James Bond spy comedy film

Casino Royale is a 1967 spy parody film originally distributed by Columbia Pictures featuring an ensemble cast. It is loosely based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming, the first novel to feature the character James Bond.

<i>The Man with the Golden Gun</i> (film) 1974 James Bond film by Guy Hamilton

The Man with the Golden Gun is a 1974 spy film and the ninth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, and the second to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. A loose adaptation of Ian Fleming's posthumously published 1965 novel of the same name, the film has Bond sent after the Solex Agitator, a breakthrough technological solution to contemporary energy shortages, while facing the assassin Francisco Scaramanga, the "Man with the Golden Gun". The action culminates in a duel between them that settles the fate of the Solex.

<i>On Her Majestys Secret Service</i> (film) 1969 James Bond film by Peter R. Hunt

On Her Majesty's Secret Service is a 1969 spy film and the sixth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions. It is based on the 1963 novel by Ian Fleming. Following Sean Connery's decision to retire from the role after You Only Live Twice, Eon selected George Lazenby, a model with no prior acting credits, to play the part of James Bond. During filming, Lazenby announced that he would play the role of Bond only once. Connery returned to portray Bond in 1971's Diamonds Are Forever.

<i>The Spy Who Loved Me</i> (film) 1977 James Bond spy film by Lewis Gilbert

The Spy Who Loved Me is a 1977 spy film, the tenth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions. It is the third to star Roger Moore as the fictional secret agent James Bond. The film co-stars Barbara Bach and Curt Jürgens and was directed by Lewis Gilbert. The screenplay was by Christopher Wood and Richard Maibaum, with an uncredited rewrite by Tom Mankiewicz.

<i>Dr. No</i> (film) 1962 James Bond film directed by Terence Young

Dr. No is a 1962 spy film directed by Terence Young. It is the first film in the James Bond series. Starring Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Joseph Wiseman and Jack Lord, it was adapted by Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, and Berkely Mather from the 1958 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. The film was produced by Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli, a partnership that continued until 1975. It was followed by From Russia with Love in 1963. In the film, James Bond is sent to Jamaica to investigate the disappearance of a fellow British agent. The trail leads him to the underground base of Dr. Julius No, who is plotting to disrupt an early American space launch from Cape Canaveral with a radio beam weapon.

<i>From Russia with Love</i> (film) 1963 film in the James Bond series directed by Terence Young

From Russia with Love is a 1963 spy film and the second in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, as well as Sean Connery's second role as MI6 agent 007 James Bond.

The James Bond film series is a British series of spy films based on the fictional character of MI6 agent James Bond, "007", who originally appeared in a series of books by Ian Fleming. It is one of the longest continually running film series in history, having been in ongoing production from 1962 to the present. In that time, Eon Productions has produced 25 films as of 2021, most of them at Pinewood Studios. With a combined gross of over $7 billion, the films produced by Eon constitute the fifth-highest-grossing film series. Six actors have portrayed 007 in the Eon series, the latest being Daniel Craig.

<i>Dr. No</i> (soundtrack) 1963 film score by Monty Norman

Dr. No is the film score for the 1962 film of the same name composed by Monty Norman.

Warwick Films was a film company founded by film producers Irving Allen and Albert R. Broccoli in London in 1951. The name was taken from the Warwick Hotel in New York where Broccoli and his wife were staying at the time of the final negotiations for the company's creation. Their films were released by Columbia Pictures.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to James Bond:

Johanna Harwood, a.k.a. J. M. Harwood, is a retired Irish screenwriter. She was born and raised in County Wicklow, Ireland. She co-wrote two James Bond films, and went uncredited for adaptation work on a third.

References

  1. ↑ "Top Rental Features of 1963". Variety. 8 January 1964. p. 71. Please note figures are rentals as opposed to total gross.
  2. ↑ http://www.tcm.turner.com/thismonth/article.jsp?cid=92562&mainArticleId=92499 [ dead link ]
  3. ↑ p.90 Mackin, Tom Brief Encounters: From Einstein to Elvis2008 Author House
  4. ↑ http://www.tcm.turner.com/thismonth/article.jsp?cid=92562&mainArticleId=92499 [ dead link ]
  5. ↑ Ceplair, Larry (2007). The Marxist and the Movies: A Biography of Paul Jarrico. University Press of Kentucky. p. either 188 or 250. ISBN   9780813137049.
  6. ↑ Cain, Syd Not Forgetting James Bond 2005 Reynolds and Hearn
  7. ↑ Field, Matthew; Chowdhury, Ajay (2015). Some Kind of Hero: The Remarkable Story of the James Bond Films. The History Press. p. 102. ISBN   978-0750966504.
  8. ↑ "The John Barry Resource: Monty Norman's "James Bond Theme" Lawsuit".
  9. ↑ "John Barry".
  10. ↑ "Monty Norman - the first man of James Bond music". Archived from the original on 8 November 2008. Retrieved 22 December 2008.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.