Movie for a Sunday afternoon: "Call Me Bwana"(1963)

You Tube ^ | 1963 | Gordon Douglas

[ReformationFan]

Today's feature is a fun adventure starring Republican comedic legend Bob Hope. He plays a phony African explorer requested by then-President Kennedy to locate a missing space capsule. Along the way, he dangles with the Soviet representative(Anita Ekberg) given a similar mission by Khruschev and is aide by a lovely American agent(Edie Adams). Trivia sidenote: this was the only non-Bond film produced by both EON producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. Its poster figures prominently in a scene from the second Bond film "From Russia With Love".

[ReformationFan]

"She has a lovely mouth, that Anita."

[Vendome]

OMG !!!!

I remember watching this as a kid.

Hee Larry Us!!!!

Then again it’s Bob Hope...

[null and void]

ping

[BenLurkin]

Sourceof this classic IIRC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a6YdNmK77k

[ReformationFan]

Very accurate description.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Funny how they managed to cleverly work a very shameless plug for “Call Me Bwana” into “From Russia with Love.”

[Perdogg]

In the novel the poster was for “Niagara”

[ReformationFan]

Yep. But Miss Monroe had already died at that point and “Niagara” was a 20th Century-Fox film. It made perfect economic sense for both EON and UA to plug “Call Me Bwana” instead. I’m guessing more people have either seen or tried to see the 1963 Bob Hope comedy for the reason it was in FRWL alone.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I’ve only seen “Bwana” just the one time, probably 20 years or so ago. It was certainly nowhere as good as FRWL. Then, of course, when you go to see a Bob Hope movie, it’s just Bob Hope being Bob Hope. I wonder why Anita Ekberg never made an appearance in a Bond film.

[GenXteacher]

This thread needs more Anita:

[ReformationFan]

FRWL’s a different genre of film altogether from CMB. However, if you look closely there are quite few similarities between the Bond films and CMB(no surprise considering the source.)

Miss Ekberg was probably out of the price range for Bond girl actresses. Broccoli and Saltzman usually liked to pick unknown girls to “discover” them. Also, the cynical side of me would say the unknown actresses were probably cheaper for them to hire.

If you listen real closely, Anita Ekberg’s voice in CMB sounds the same as Ursula Andress’ in “Dr. No”, Claudine Auger’s in “Thunderball”, Mie Hama’s in “You Only Live Twice”, Shirley Eaton’s in “Goldfinger” and Virginia North’s in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”. They all belong to this lady:

http://www.nikkivanderzyl.co.uk/

[Perdogg]

I will have to check it out.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Those are... very... pointy.

[ReformationFan]

I'll oblige: Their other movie together:

[ReformationFan]

Some more:

[GenXteacher]

She’s a sharp one :) And to think that was fashionable at the time....

[fieldmarshaldj]

That musta messed with many a young man’s minds thinking that womens breasts were shaped like cones, only to discover it was not quite so.

[GenXteacher]

I’d say it would be a fleeting concern if you had gotten that far....

[ReformationFan]

Some of the similarities between Bond and CMB:

The hero is in pursuit of a missing space capsule(Dr. No, You Only Live Twice, Moonraker)

2 main leading ladies in the film(Most Bond films)

One leading lady is an American agent(Moonraker), the other is a Russian agent(The Spy Who Loved Me, From Russia With Love)

A golf game with a cameo or reference to Arnold Palmer(Goldfinger)

A sequence with a tarantula(Dr. No)

Mai-Ling, the actress who plays Hope’s female assistant at the beginning later played Mei-Lei, Goldfinger’s private plane stewardess and one of Tiger Tanaka’s geisha girls in You Only Live Twice).