A rare B-movie adventure about slave trade and the illegal elephant poachers, photographed in Cinemascope and filmed in Moshi (TANGANYIKA), Nairobi (KENYA) & England, set at a time when Mombasa was the capital of the British East Africa Protectorate in competition with the German East Africa.
The movie was conceived in 1956, being inspired firstly by the story of the Anglo-Irish hunter John Henry Patterson who fought the the Tsavo man-eaters, as narrated in the 1954 book AFRICAN BUSH ADVENTURES by the Scottish veteran and professional “white” hunter JOHN ALEXANDER HUNTER (1887-1963): before that, John Alexander Hunter had written the autobiographical books WHITE HUNTER (1938), HUNTER (1952) and AFRICAN HUNTER (1954) and, after that, the HUNTER’S TRACKS (1957).
His book AFRICAN BUSH ADVENTURES or TALES OF THE AFRICAN FRONTIER tells the thrilling story of the men and women –the early settlers- who risked their lives to make a new life in Africa and managed to become the great pioneers and hunters of East Africa (like John Boyes, Robert Foran and Lord Delamere) but it also narrates the lives of slavers, ivory hunters, missionaries, traders and police officers.
For more info on J.A Hunter, see:
1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._A._Hunter).
2.
https://www.europeansineastafrica.co.uk/_site/custom/database/?a=viewIndividual&pid=2&person=1100
3.
https://www.africahunting.com/threads/john-alexander-white-hunter.3120/
For more info on John Henry Patterson, see:
4.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_Patterson_(author)
5.
https://www.africahunting.com/threads/john-henry-patterson.2822/
6.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsavo_Man-Eaters
7.
https://rdnewsnow.com/2018/02/15/the-savage-tsavo-man-eaters-and-the-man-who-stopped-them/
8.
https://www.shakariconnection.com/j-h-patterson-books.html
9.
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30248216
10.
https://bioone.org/journals/journal-of-east-african-natural-history/volume-90/issue-1/0012-8317_2001_90_1_TSOMAL_2.0.CO_2/The-Science-of-Man-Eating-Among-Lions-Panthera-leo-With/10.2982/0012-8317(2001)90[1:TSOMAL]2.0.CO;2.full
The J.A. Hunter’s book AFRICAN BUSH ADVENTURES or TALES OF THE AFRICAN FRONTIER was co-authored in 1954 by the American writer, journalist, photographer, sideshow performer, stage magician, sword swallower, fire eater, animal trainer, professional hunter, collector of wildlife for zoos and circuses, bird trainer and filmmaker Dan (Daniel) Pratt Mannix: for his extraordinary life, see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_P._Mannix .
This story was adapted to a screenplay at first by the Jewish-German novelist, screenwriter and surfer Peter Viertel who had written in 1953 the novel WHITE HUNTER BLACK HEART, lived almost all his life in the U.S., worked at the O.S.S, served in the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant in France, married Deborah Kerr and died living in Spain (see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Viertel) and then, mainly, by the British painter, screenwriter and director John Gilling, a specialist in horror films and close collaborator of Irving Allen & Albert R. Broccoli.
The second leg of the script was based on a story provided by the Jewish-American actor, film and TV producer, playwright and screenwriter Richard Maibaum (a World War II veteran, he was a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, known for his anti-Nazi feelings and for his work on the screenplay adaptations of 14 James Bond novels for Allen & Broccoli since he was the director and producer of the film O.S.S. in 1946 and also produced the movie CAPTAIN CAREY, USA in 1949) and the American novelist –a former reporter- and screenwriter Cyril Hume who was mainly a science-fiction writer, descendant of the Scottish philosopher David Hume (Earl Felton Jr., an American writer and producer also collaborated on the script).
Finally, the movie was directed by the prolific American director Richard Thorpe (a former actor, his full name was Rollo Smolt Thorpe, he directed THE WIZARD OF OZ) whereas Irving Allen & Albert R. Broccoli were the producers of THE KILLERS OF KILIMANJARO, having as executive the Scottish producer and assistant director John R. Sloan.
According to a review, “From the 17th till the 19th century, Sansibar under the domain of the Sultan of Oman was a center of East-African slave trading. But it was pushed back more and more from Britain & Germany although slave trading was still holding a stand around the Red Sea till the middle of the 20th century. In Sansibar slavery was abolished by the Brits in 1897. The German troop commanders of the Eastern-African army corps were in high esteem among the local. Small numbers of German led Askaris with poor weaponry withstood superior British forces. The allied casualty list was 10 times longer than those of the enemy although the Brits outnumbered the enemy 10 to 1. The film shows the opposite”.
Check: 1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Africa_Protectorate ,
2.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_East_Africa .
