Hatari!
Hatari! (, Swahili for "Danger!") is a 1962 American adventure romantic comedy film starring John Wayne as the leader of a group of professional game catchers in Africa. Directed by Howard Hawks, it was shot in Technicolor and filmed on location in northern Tanganyika (in what is now Tanzania). The film includes dramatic wildlife chases and the scenic backdrop of Mount Meru, a dormant volcano. At the 35th Academy Awards, Russell Harlan was nominated for Best Color Cinematography for his work on "Hatari!", but the award went to Freddie Young for his work on "Lawrence of Arabia". Plot. Sean Mercer  heads a game-catching company in Tanganyika in the early 1960s, contracted by species by zoos and other buyers. He dominates his titular co-partner, young Frenchwoman Brandy de la Court, whose father was killed in one of the chases some time earlier. Filling out the crew are temporarily sidled German race car driver Kurt Müller; retired alleged Mexican bullfighter Luis Francisco Garcia Lopez; Native American sharpshooter "The Indian"; and zoophobic middle-aged former New York City cabbie "Pockets". While seeking to capture an aggressive rhinoceros The Indian is gored in the leg. A five hour journey to Arusha hospital  ensues, where a cocky young Frenchman, Charles "Chips" Maurey, appears, anxious to assume the Indian's role. Assaulted by Kurt for his impudence, Chips turns out to be the only one with the blood type required to save the Indian's life; he agrees to undergo a transfusion, in return for a job offer from Sean. Back at their compound the crew is stunned to discover that an Italian photographer from a Swiss zoo the Indian had invited, "A.M. D'Alessandro", is a very beautiful young woman. Nicknamed "Dallas", she is allowed to stay. Despite many rookie embarrassments, she displays a  perky temperament and enjoys her first day. Everyone quickly grows fond of her but Sean. Chips arrives at the compound, and in an impromptu shooting contest proves just as accurate but faster than Kurt. The two begin to form a competitive bond. Dallas and Sean start to develop feelings for one another, in spite of Sean's resistance to becoming involved with a woman after being jilted some time earlier by a fiancée. Brandy is pursued by Kurt, Chips, and even Pockets. The Indian rejoins the group, still too limited to work. Shaken by his experience, he persuades Sean not  pursue any more rhinos...at least until every other contract has been fulfilled. While on a trip the crew passes through a village where a rogue female elephant has been killed by a game warden. Her orphaned calf appears, and Dallas adopts it despite Sean's protests. Chaos ensues when everyone gets drawn into figuring out how to feed it. Sean begins to notice Dallas has a way with animals. That night she inveigles him into a romantic kiss. Shortly Dallas adopts another orphaned elephant calf. The local waArusha tribe, impressed by how the babies follow Dallas, stage a ceremony  adopting her into their tribe as "Mama Tembo" ("Mother of Elephants"). A third calf appears and joins her family. The crew capture a zebra, an oryx, a gazelle, a leopard, and a cape buffalo without incident, but the herding car blows a tire while pursuing wildebeests and flips. Kurt's shoulder is dislocated and Chips' leg is badly hurt. The same day Pockets falls off of a fence onto some grass, and Brandy is there to comfort him practically before he lands. Kurt and Chips realize they are out of the running. Pockets devises a way to catch a 500 -strong vervet monkey troop all at once by using a rocket to cover a whole tree with a fishing net. To the surprise of everyone, including himself, it works. This leaves the rhino the only animal left to catch. The crew finds an angry bull, and, after a terrific struggle - and a brief escape - he is crated and hauled off, to everyone's relief. The season's work done, Dallas decides to flee before she can be rejected by Sean. Upon reading her goodbye note he organizes a district-wide search mission, aided initially by the first elephant calf adopted ; the other two follow his jeep to the city of Arusha and join in. Dallas is cornered, she and Sean reconcile, and are married that afternoon. Before they can consummate the marriage the baby elephants barge in their room, seek to climb into the bed, and collapse it. Production. While "Hatari!" is bookended by the two attempts to capture a rhinoceros, it otherwise has a very loose script, and, like many other works by Howard Hawks, is principally structured around the relationships among the characters. At the start of production all Hawks knew was that he wanted to make a  movie about people who catch animals in Africa for zoos, which he saw as a dangerous profession that would allow for exciting scenes, the likes of which had never been seen on-screen before. Much of the script was written by Hawks' favorite writer, Leigh Brackett, after the production returned from Africa with footage of the characters catching various animals, and before and during studio takes in Hollywood. Hawks increased his knowledge of animal-catching by studying the work of the famous South African animal conservationist Dr. Ian Player. In 1952, South Africa was eliminating large wild animals to protect  livestock, and only 300 white rhinos survived. Player then invented his famed rhino catching technique to relocate and save the white rhinos. His project was called "Operation Rhino", and it was recorded in the renowned documentary film of the same name. Another source of inspiration for Hawks was the famous animal photographer Ylla, so he had Brackett add the character of Dallas to the script. Hawks said, "We took that part of the story from a real character, a German girl. She was the best animal photographer in the world." Hawks stated in interviews that he had originally planned to  star both Clark Gable, who had just played a rough-and-ready wild horse catcher (who did his own stunts) in "The Misfits", and Wayne in the film, until Gable's death ruled that out. Much of the film revolves around scenes of the cast chasing animals in jeeps and trucks across the plains of East Africa. Ngorongoro farm, purchased by Hardy Kruger after the filming, served as the movie's setting. The animals pursued are all live, wild, and untrained. Capturing animals by chasing them down is banned today both due to concerns over strain upon all those involved  in a chase (targeted and not) and the development of effective animal tranquilizers and powerful dart guns to subdue those ultimately selected. According to director Howard Hawks, all of the animal captures in the film were performed by the actors themselves—not by stuntmen or animal handlers (although a stand-in, Mildred Lucy "Rusty" Walkley, was used for some scenes involving Elsa Martinelli's character). When Hawks interviewed de Vargas, he said production would be very dangerous, as there would be no double, and showed de Vargas a documentary. Government-licensed animal catcher Willy de Beer was hired by Hawks  as a technical adviser, and he and his assistants worked with the actors on how to go about catching the animals. During filming, the rhino really did escape and the actors had to recapture it, which Hawks included in the completed film for its realism. Much of the audio in the capture sequences had to be re-dubbed due to John Wayne's cursing while wrestling with the animals, and Hawks said Wayne admitted being scared during some of the action scenes, particularly those in which he is sitting in the exposed "catching seat" as a truck hurtles over terrain  full of hidden holes and obstacles. According to Hawks, Wayne "had the feeling with every swerve that the car was going to overturn as he hung on for dear life, out in the open with only a seat belt for support, motor roaring, body jarring every which-way, animals kicking dirt and rocks and the thunder of hundreds of hooves increasing the din in his ears." On the other hand, one evening, while Buttons and Wayne were playing cards outside, a leopard came out of the bush towards them, but, when Buttons mentioned the approaching leopard, Wayne reportedly simply said , "See what he wants." Filming in Africa was not only dangerous for the actors, however. De Vargas said de Beer was mauled by a loose baby leopard that sprang on him from a tree, and "came back with his arm covered in bandages and throat completely wrapped, but he just shrugged it off." As the animals frequently refused to make noise "on cue" (in particular, the baby elephants refused to trumpet inside populated areas), local Arusha game experts and zoo collectors were hired to do "animal voice impersonations" for the film. Michèle Girardon spoke no English when she was cast  and, according to a July 1961 "LIFE" magazine profile of the actress, she taught herself English while on the set. John Wayne wore a belt with the famed "Red River D" from his starring role in Hawkes' iconic Red River on its buckle, as he did in many of his movies. It can be clearly seen in the scene where Sean Mercer radios "Arusha Control" after The Indian is gored by the rhino at the start of the film, and again in the scene where Sonja (the cheetah) wanders into the bathroom while Dallas is bathing and introduces herself by  licking Dallas and purring. The memorable Henry Mancini tune "Baby Elephant Walk" was written for and first appeared in "Hatari!". Another memorable musical moment from the film is a duet of Stephen Foster's "Old Folks at Home" (aka "Swanee River"), with Dallas on piano and Pockets on harmonica. Reception. "Hatari!" grossed $12,923,077 at the box office, $7 million of which came from U.S. theatrical rentals. It was the 7th highest-grossing film of 1962. Jean-Luc Godard listed "Hatari!" as one of the best films of its year of release. The film was recognized by American Film  Institute in these lists: Novelization. Michael Milner adapted Leigh Brackett's screenplay for the film into a paperback novel published by Pocket Books in 1962 as a tie-in to the movie. The cover of the novel features the movie poster of the rhino attacking the catching truck. The novel goes into more detail about some aspects of the animal-catching, particularly Pockets' rocket-net project, as well as about the pursuit of Brandy by Kurt, Chips, and Pockets. The book is a bit edgier than the film, but it is a fast read and faithful to the movie. The  novel's ASIN number is B000BJUQP4.