is a 1962 American adventure romantic comedy film starring John Wayne as the leader of a group of professional game catchers in Africa.

The film includes dramatic wildlife chases and the scenic backdrop of Mount Meru, a dormant volcano.

In Tanganyika in the 1960s, the Momella Game Company captures animals for zoos and circuses using off-road vehicles, lassos, and cages.

The crew consists of French owner Brandy de la Court, Irish-American Sean Mercer, who heads the capture expeditions; retired German race car driver Kurt Müller; Mexican Bullfighter Luis Francisco Garcia Lopez; Native American sharpshooter Little Wolf (aka "The Indian"); zoophobic former NYC cabbie "Pockets"; and several native-Tanzanians.

Everyone was expecting a male photographer, but, as Dallas was sent by Momella's biggest client (the Basel zoo), Sean reluctantly allows her to accompany the crew on a giraffe capture.

Pockets successfully launches a small rocket attached to a net to trap nearly 500 vervet monkeys in a tree, surprising everyone, including himself.

Dallas, fearing that Sean cannot move past his fiancee's betrayal, writes a farewell letter and flees the compound.

is bookended by the two attempts to capture a rhinoceros, it otherwise has a very loose script, and, like many other works by Howard Hawks, is principally structured around the relationships among the characters.

At the start of production all Hawks knew was that he wanted to make a movie about people who catch animals in Africa for zoos, which he saw as a dangerous profession that would allow for exciting scenes, the likes of which had never been seen on-screen before.

[2] Much of the script was written by Hawks' favorite writer, Leigh Brackett, after the production returned from Africa with footage of the characters catching various animals, and before and during studio takes in Hollywood.

Hawks increased his knowledge of animal-catching by studying the work of the famous South African animal conservationist Dr. Ian Player.

[3][4] Another source of inspiration for Hawks was the famous animal photographer Ylla, so he had Brackett add the character of Dallas to the script.

According to Hawks, Wayne "had the feeling with every swerve that the car was going to overturn as he hung on for dear life, out in the open with only a seat belt for support, motor roaring, body jarring every which-way, animals kicking dirt and rocks and the thunder of hundreds of hooves increasing the din in his ears.

[16] Another memorable musical moment from the film is a duet of Stephen Foster's "Old Folks at Home" (aka "Swanee River"), with Dallas on piano and Pockets on harmonica.

was released on 4K Blu-ray region-free disk made by Kino Lorber that can be viewed with Dolby Vision and HDR grades.

[21][22] Michael Milner adapted Leigh Brackett's screenplay for the film into a paperback novel published by Pocket Books in 1962 as a tie-in to the movie.