RAMNATH N PAI RAIKAR | NT NETWORK
Filmed lavishly on exotic locations in northern Tanganyika – present day Tanzania – ‘Hatari!’ followed a slew of safari films like ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ (1950), ‘The African Queen’ (1951), ‘The Snows of Kilimanjaro’ (1952) and ‘Mogambo’ (1953). It is however unlike any of these safari films. The earlier safari movies utilised the spectacle of the African landscape to break from the film’s narrative, while ‘Hatari!’ does the exact opposite by using the narrative to break up the spectacle, a result of the loosely scripted production.
Produced and directed by the legendary filmmaker, Howard Hawks, ‘Hatari!’ was provisionally titled ‘The African Story’. When the casting for the film began, Hawks was keen to team William Holden, a keen conservationist, with either John Wayne or Clark Gable. In 1960, Clark Gable had agreed to star in the movie with John Wayne, provided he received first billing on the opening credits, and one million dollars, plus ten per cent of the gross. Paramount, however, would not raise the budget to finance Gable, so the script was radically changed. Gable died twelve days before the filming began, with Wayne becoming the solo hero of the film.
The character of Pockets was originally an Englishman named Robbie and Hawks offered the role to Leo McKern, Peter Ustinov and Peter Sellers. McKern refused to work with the Right Wing John Wayne, Ustinov was unavailable and Sellers accepted before the character was reworked into an American. Red Buttons was eventually signed to play the role.
Hawks was inspired by Ylla, the famous Hungarian photographer who specialised in animal photography and therefore, inspired to add the character of Dallas enacted by Elsa Martinelli. Claudia Cardinale was earlier considered for this role.
Once in Tanganyika in October 1960, the film crew rented all vehicles available there, even the privately owned ones. The government licensed animal catcher, Willy de Beer was hired by Hawks to be the close-by technical advisor, and his assistants became their staff of experts in regards to catching the animals. The spectacle of live animal interaction turned to be the film’s highlight, which features scenes of giraffes and rhinos being chased and captured by the film actors riding in jeeps, throughout the rough African landscape. Hawks’ car-mounted cameras follow the cast in both wide and medium shots of action that clearly puts both the actors and wild animals in the same space, bringing authenticity and danger to levels previous films never achieved.
Incidentally, many of the animal scenes would not be allowed in a present-day film. In fact, many of the scenes in ‘Hatari!’ obviously served as the template, decades later, in Steven Spielberg’s ‘The Lost World: Jurassic Park’ (1997), though with the comfort of CGI, which didn’t put the actors in harm’s way.
Hawks began shooting the film without a complete script. Writer, Leigh Brackett was hired at a later date to retrofit the animal footage into a cohesive storyline. As the animals frequently refused to make noise “on cue” – in particular, the baby elephants refused to trumpet inside populated areas – local game experts and zoo collectors were hired to do animal voice impersonations. Most of the filming was completed in March 1961.
‘Hatari!’ was scored by Henry Mancini. He wrote a brief piece of incidental music to go with a scene where a baby elephant is taken for a walk. The simple little playful song became an international hit as “Baby Elephant Walk”, and has been recorded by a large number of artists, in different styles. The other tracks include “Just For Tonight” with lyrics by Johnny Mercer and music by Hoagy Carmichael, and “Old Folks at Home” aka “Swanee River” written by Stephen Foster. The film’s soundtrack was among the bestselling albums of 1962.
The film has beautiful cinematography by Russell Harlan – with Joseph Brun as associate cinematographer – who generated a realistic atmosphere through location shooting. In fact, the lone Academy Award nomination received by ‘Hatari!’ was in the Best Cinematography (Colour) category. The Oscar however went to cinematographer, Freddie Young for ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ (1962).
Hawks himself appears in at least two scenes in the movie: First at the back of the truck when the group is chasing the rhino toward the end of the movie; the second, when they are standing listening to Pockets read the letter from Dallas as he walks through the hall behind the scene.
Michael Milner adapted Leigh Brackett’s screenplay for ‘Hatari!’ into a paperback novel published by Pocket Books in 1962 as a tie-in to the movie, with the cover featuring the movie poster of the rhino attacking the catching truck. The novel goes into more detail about some aspects of the animal-catching, particularly about Pockets’ rocket net project, and about the pursuit of Brandy by Kurt, Chips and Pockets. The book is a little edgier than the film, but it is a fast read and faithful to the movie.
The pre-release radio and television promotional campaign for ‘Hatari!’ was the largest in the history of Paramount. A gala premiere of the film was held at the Kachina Theatre in Scottsdale, Arizona, on June 1, 1962, to benefit a new Maytag-Phoenix Zoo. Wayne attended the premiere as well as a benefit pre-party held on Fifth Avenue.
When released, many critics carped that ‘Hatari!’ seemed like a lazy vacation for Hawks. They were partly right; there was no finished script and Hawks relished the chance of filming what he wanted on East African location, far away from the watchful eye of the studio, happily burning through their six million dollar budget. Nevertheless, ‘Hatari!’ grossed $12,923,077 at the Box Office, earning $7 million in US theatrical rentals. It was the 8th highest-grossing film of 1962, as was Paramount’s highest-grossing film of that year.