Hatari!

Hatari!
Original movie poster by Frank McCarthy
Directed by	Howard Hawks
Produced by	Howard Hawks Paul Helmick
Screenplay by	Leigh Brackett
Story by	Harry Kurnitz
Starring	John Wayne Elsa Martinelli Hardy Krüger Red Buttons
Music by	Henry Mancini
Cinematography	Russell Harlan
Edited by	Stuart Gilmore
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	June 18, 1962 (1962-06-18)
Running time	157 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$12,923,077

Hatari! (pronounced [hɑtɑri], Swahili for "Danger!") is a 1962 American action/adventure romantic drama film directed by Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne. It portrays a group of professional game catchers in Africa. The film includes dramatic wildlife chases and the scenic backdrop of Mount Meru, a dormant volcano.

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

Hatari! is the story of a group of adventurers in East Africa, engaged in the exciting and lucrative but dangerous business of catching wild animals for delivery to zoos around the world. As "Momella Game Ltd.", they operate from a compound near the town of Arusha. The head of the group is Sean Mercer (John Wayne); the others are safari veteran Little Wolf a/k/a "the Indian" (Bruce Cabot); drivers "Pockets" (Red Buttons), a former Brooklyn taxi driver, and Kurt (Hardy Krüger), a German auto racing driver; roper Luis (Valentin de Vargas), a former Mexican bullfighter, and Brandy (Michele Girardon), a young woman whose late father was a member of the group; she grew up there and owns the business.

Their method (shown in several action sequences) is to chase the selected animal across the plains with a truck, driven by Pockets. Sean stands in the bed of the truck with a rope noose on a long pole, and snags the animal by its head. (For smaller animals, Sean rides in a seat mounted on the truck's left front fender.) A smaller, faster "herding car," driven by Kurt, swings outside, driving the animal back toward the "catching truck". Once the animal is snagged, Luis, an expert roper, catches its legs and secures it. The animal is then moved into a travel crate and carried on a third truck, driven by Brandy. The captured animals are held in pens in the compound, tended by native workers, until they are shipped out at the end of the hunting season.