When Africans Mutia Omoolu and Riano Tindama were brought to Hollywood for re-shoots, they were refused admission to the Hollywood Hotel because they were black.
This is the film watched by Bigger Thomas and his friends at a segregated Chicago movie theater in the opening scenes of Richard Wright's groundbreaking 1940 novel "Native Son".
According to Alfred Hitchcock, audiences at the first screening of this film laughed when C. Aubrey Smith suddenly appeared in the story.
MGM secretly sent a second unit crew to Tecate, Mexico to avoid the American laws about ethical treatment of animals. Animals were shot fighting each other, and lions were reportedly starved to promote vicious attacks on hyenas, monkeys and deer.
Director W.S. Van Dyke and many of the crew contracted malaria and were treated with quinine. Two fatal mishaps occurred during the African filming: a native crewman fell into the river and was eaten by a crocodile, and a native boy was killed by a charging rhino (which was captured on film and is in the movie). Other misfortunes also plagued the production, including flash floods, sunstroke, swarming locusts, and tse-tse fly and ant attacks.