It was producer Harry Saltzman who came up with the idea of Call Me Bwana as a vehicle for his friend Bob Hope. Many of the same production personnel from the Bond films were also used, including editor Peter Hunt and composer Monty Norman, who is noted for originating the famous '007 Theme.'

Their Bond influence comes through in Call Me Bwana's tongue-in-cheek presentation of gadgets, spies, and gorgeous girls. No (1962) and From Russia with Love (1963). The producers of Call Me Bwana, Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, are the same team behind the first seven hugely popular James Bond films, beginning with Dr. The problem? Matthew Merriweather is a total fraud who has never been to Africa in his life! Edie Adams plays a sensible CIA agent sent to accompany Hope, and Anita Ekberg (of La Dolce Vita fame) is a sexy foreign spy out to charm Hope with her feminine wiles. In it, the United States government sends famed anthropologist and expert on Africa, Matthew Merriweather (Hope), deep into the African jungle to retrieve a valuable moon probe that has gone off course and crashed. Share Call Me Bwana (1963) is one of Bob Hope's solo efforts from his later career and a pleasant diversion for his fans. Reaching it, they take off and arrive safely in Florida. But they are captured and prepared for that night's dinner, as Luba, who has fallen in love with Matt, joins him and his party in racing to the capsule. After Matt has received a royal welcome in honor of his late uncle, Mungo and his henchman try to steal the capsule. When they finally stumble into Ekele territory, they discover that the natives regard the capsule as a divine symbol dropped by the gods.

Overcome by Luba's charms, Matt invites her to join his safari, professedly searching for a rare elephant and, though he has several nearly fatal accidents, he never suspects his companions. Ezra Mungo, her 'missionary father'-who have orders to obtain the capsule at any cost. Also on the scene are two foreign agents-Luba, a voluptuous blonde, and Dr. Equipped with a do-it-yourself suicide kit and accompanied by an attractive security agent, Frederica Larsen, Matt arrives in Africa. Consequently, when an American moon capsule containing vital data crashes into an uncharted region inhabited by the savage Ekele tribe, Matt is assigned the task of recovering the capsule because of his supposed expert knowledge of the locale. Matt Merriwether has built up a phony reputation as an intrepid explorer of darkest Africa by writing books based on the secret diaries of his uncle.

Call me bwana 1963