Mogambo

Mogambo
Original movie poster
Directed byJohn Ford
Screenplay byJohn Lee Mahin
Based onRed Dust
by Wilson Collison
Produced bySam Zimbalist
StarringClark Gable
Ava Gardner
Grace Kelly
CinematographyRobert Surtees
Freddie Young
Edited byFrank Clarke
Music byRobert Burns
Production
company
Distributed byLoew's, Inc.
Release date
  • October 9, 1953 (1953-10-09)
Running time
115 minutes
CountriesUnited States
United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$3.1 million[1]
Box office$8.3 million[1]

Mogambo is a 1953 Technicolor adventure/romantic drama film directed by John Ford and starring Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, and Grace Kelly, and featuring Donald Sinden. Shot on location in Equatorial Africa, with a musical soundtrack consisting entirely of actual African tribal music recorded in the Congo, the film was adapted by John Lee Mahin from the play Red Dust by Wilson Collison. The picture is a remake of Red Dust (1932), which was set in Vietnam and also starred Gable in the same role.

Although the original trailer for the film explains that "Mogambo" means "the Greatest," in fact, the word "Mogambo" has no meaning at all. Producer Sam Zimbalist came up with the title by altering the name of the Mocambo, a famous Hollywood nightclub.

  1. ^ a b The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles, California: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.