Development In 1946, the
Los Angeles Times reported MGM was considering remaking
Red Dust with
Marilyn Maxwell as a possible star. In March 1948,
Marie McDonald reportedly screen tested for the Jean Harlow part. In May 1949, Maxwell and
Gene Kelly were being considered for lead roles. The studio had a great deal of success with color remakes of older films shot on location overseas, including ''
King Solomon's Mines (1950) and Quo Vadis (1951). In August 1951, MGM announced it would make Mogambo
, shot on location in Africa. The producer would be Sam Zimbalist who had made King Solomon's Mines'', and the star would be Clark Gable. In February 1952, Zimbalist scouted locations in Africa for six weeks. In June, John Ford agreed to direct.
Casting Shelley Winters was mentioned as a possible co-star.
Patricia Neal also was discussed. In June 1952, Ava Gardner signed. Grace Kelly was not the first choice for the role of Linda Nordley.
Gene Tierney withdrew because she did not want to leave
Aly Khan in Paris.
Shooting Gable arrived in Kenya on 1 November 1952 and was given an armed guard due to the
Mau Mau Uprising. Filming started 17 November. It was done on location in Okalataka,
French Congo as well as
Mount Kenya,
Thika,
Kenya, with
Mount Longonot and
Lake Naivasha, both in the
Kenyan Rift Valley, and Fourteen Falls near
Thika seen as backdrops, and
Kagera River,
Tanganyika. Other scenes were filmed in the area of Archer's Post and
Isiolo. Interiors were shot at the
MGM-British Studios, in
Borehamwood,
Hertfordshire, England.
Frank Allen and his wife were guides during the six week-safari that constituted location filming. The unit was plagued by rain and had a deleterious effect on the already poor quality of the roads. Three of the crew were killed in road accidents, including assistant director John Hancock.
Donald Sinden, then a contract star for the
Rank Organisation at
Pinewood Studios, recalled:"Ten White Hunters were seconded to our unit for our protection and to provide fresh meat. Among them were
Viscount Mandeville and Marcus, Lord Wallscourt, a delightful man whom Ford treated abysmally - sometimes very sadistically. In Ford's eyes the poor man could do nothing right and was continually being bawled out in front of the entire unit (in some ways he occasionally took the heat off me). None of us could understand the reason for this appalling treatment, which the dear kind man in no way deserved. He himself was quite at a loss. Several weeks later we discovered the cause from Ford's brother-in-law: before emigrating to America, Ford's grandfather had been a labourer on the estate in Ireland of the then Lord Wallscourt: Ford was now getting his own back at his descendant. Not a charming sight. Before leaving camp on the first morning [of shooting] I had been told to report to the hair-dressing departments tent, where I found the make-up men armed with electric clippers: 'I have to remove the hair from your chest.' 'Whatever for?' I asked, 'Orders.' It transpired that Clark [Gable], whose chest was completely devoid of hair, had always insisted that no other actor should appear on film exposing a hirsute breast. This included any member of the crew not wearing a shirt as well. He considered it a slight on his masculinity. We now had to return to the
MGM Studios in London to shoot all the interior scenes. Someone must have pointed out to Ford that he had been thoroughly foul to me during the entire location shoot and when I arrived for my first day's work I found that he had caused a large notice to be painted at the entrance to our sound stage in capital letters reading "BE KIND TO DONALD WEEK". He was as good as his word - for precisely seven days. On the eighth day he ripped the sign down and returned to his normal bullying behaviour."
Post-production Except for Gardner accompanied by player piano, the music featured in the film was by local traditional performers, unusual for Hollywood at the time.
Francoist Spanish censors would not allow adultery to be shown onscreen. For this reason, they changed the relationship of the characters of Linda Nordley (Kelly) and Donald Nordley (Sinden) from wife and husband to sister and brother in the dubbed version released in Spain, thus necessitating the removal of a bedroom scene in which only one bed is present. ==Reception==