Hatari!

Hatari!
original movie poster by Frank McCarthy
Directed by	Howard Hawks
Produced by	Howard Hawks Paul Helmick
Written by	Harry Kurnitz Leigh Brackett
Starring	John Wayne Elsa Martinelli Hardy Krüger Red Buttons
Music by	Henry Mancini
Cinematography	Russell Harlan
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	October 6, 1962
Running time	157 min

Hatari! is a 1962 American film directed by Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne. The title means "danger" in Swahili, which was mentioned in the film as well. Portraying a group of hunters, the film includes dramatic wildlife chases and the magnificent backdrop scenery of Mount Meru, a dormant volcano.

Hatari! was filmed on location in Tanganyika, (in what is now northern Tanzania).

The film gathers its several characters from different parts of the world: Sean Mercer (John Wayne, USA), Pockets (Red Buttons, USA), Anna Maria 'Dallas' D'Allesandro (Elsa Martinelli, Italy), Kurt Müller (Hardy Krüger, Germany), Brandy De la Court (Michele Girardon, France), Charles 'Chips' Maurey (Gerard Blain, France), Luis Francisco Garcia Lopez (Valentin de Vargas, Mexico).

Plot

The story involves a group of Western expatriates catching wild animals in Africa and selling them to zoos, led by Sean Mercer (John Wayne).

At the outset, Little Wolf (Bruce Cabot), aka "The Indian," is injured during a rhinoceros chase. He is rushed to the hospital at Arusha, where he needs a blood transfusion. None of the team can provide the required rare blood type, but a young Frenchman, Charles "Chips" Maury (Gerard Blain) can. Chips is hired as a replacement for The Indian as the international group tries to fill all its animal orders for the season.

A wildlife photographer, Anna Maria D'Allesandro (Elsa Martinelli), arrives to take photos of the animals caught by Mercer's men for a zoo that will be buying the bulk of that season's captures. She is at first mistaken for a man because of the introduction letter she'd signed with only her initials. She soon acquires the nickname "Dallas."

During her stay, Dallas also becomes known as Mama Tembo (Mother of Elephants) for her efforts to save three baby elephants, culminating in a chase through the streets of Arusha in Tanzania. She also develops a crush on Mercer. There are romantic subplots between the other characters as well.

Production

Hatari! has a very loose script and, like many other major works of Hawks, is principally structured on the relationships between the characters, though it is 'bookended' by the initial violent (and nearly fatal) encounter with a rhinoceros and the end-of-season determination to make such a capture to fulfill the team's quota. Much of the film revolves around scenes of chasing animals in jeeps and trucks across the African plains. The animals pursued are also all live, wild, and untrained, a procedure banned today over concerns of exhausting and killing the targeted animals. The script was written by Hawks' favorite writer, Leigh Brackett, after the group returned from Africa with the hunting scenes.

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'.

Hawks stated in interviews that he had originally planned to star both Clark Gable and Wayne in the film until Gable's death finally ruled that out.

Hatari! introduced the memorable Henry Mancini tune "Baby Elephant Walk". Other memorable musical moments involve a duet of Stephen Foster's Old Folks at Home (Swanee River) with Martinelli's character playing the piano, and Red Buttons' character playing the harmonica. Also, after 'the Indian' is left to recuperate in the hospital, the members of the group get drunk and sing a somewhat tragicomical song that features lyrics like "Oh whisky leave me alone, I'm tired and I want to go home".

According to director Howard Hawks, all the animal captures in the picture were performed by the actual actors; no stuntmen or animal handlers were substituted onscreen. The rhino really did escape, and the actors really did have to recapture it - and Hawks included the sequence for its realism. Much of the action sequence audio had to be re-dubbed due to John Wayne's cursing while wrestling with the animals.

The title of the film is the word "hatari," which means "danger" in Swahili.

Cast

• John Wayne as Sean Mercer
• Hardy Krüger as Kurt Müller
• Elsa Martinelli as Anna Maria 'Dallas' D'Allesandro
• Red Buttons as Pockets
• Gérard Blain as Charles 'Chips' Maurey
• Bruce Cabot as Little Wolf aka The Indian
• Michèle Girardon as Brandy de la Court
• Valentin de Vargas as Luis Francisco Garcia Lopez
• Eduard Franz as Dr. Sanderson
• Queenie Leonard as Nurse (scenes deleted)

References

North American musician Tune-Yards made a song Hatari, loosely based on the movie.

Guitarist Michael Hedges performed Henry Mancini's "Theme from Hatari!" on his CD, Oracle.

We can see a poster of the movie in a scene from the movie «Le Mépris» of the French producer Jean-Luc Godard.

External links

• Hatari! at the Internet Movie Database
• hatari in the Internet Living Swahili Dictionary
• Hatari Lodge: A History