If you're a fan of the Raymond Burr version of Perry Mason, you may recognize Morris Ankrum, who plays the head of the lion hunting expedition. A few years after this film, he was cast in a recurring role, playing a judge in nearly two dozen Mason episodes during the series' eight year run on CBS.
Ann E. Todd, who plays Bomba's "love interest" Jean, was a moderately successful child actress of her era, who had featured roles in dozens of films, including the Shirley Temple version of The Blue Bird, How Green Was My Valley and King's Row. She did not make the transition to adult roles, and Lion Hunters was her next-to-last appearance on screen.
Many of the "wild animals" in this film were provided by Jungle Land, an animal preserve in Thousand Oaks California that specialized in exotic creatures for film and TV which, for many years, was the home of both Cheetah, the chimp from the Tarzan movies and Leo, the lion in M-G-M's studio logo.
The tall Masai warrior standing behind the tribal chief when he and Bomba discuss the wounded lion is played by Woody Strode, who would later become one of Hollywood's first recognizable African American character actors, with prominent roles in such memorable films as Spartacus, the 1956 remake of The Ten Commandments and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
Final film of Ann E. Todd.
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