Joseph Cotten. In April 1953, Sam Marx was trying to set it up in London with Cotten and Gene Tierney. In May, Kurt and Marcel Hellman, producers, were discussing shooting footage of the film in South Africa later that year. By June, the leads were confirmed as Dana Andrewas and Jeanne Crain. It was the first production from Todon, a company of Tony Owen and his wife Donna Reed. There would be five weeks filming in South Africa with the rest in London. The bulk of finance came from Moulin, a British company headed by Harold Mirisch. Associated British distributed. David Farrar signed to play the second male lead. Although the copyright states that the screenplay was based on an original story by S. K. Kennedy, a July 1953 Variety article reports that screenwriters Samuel Marx and Tommy Morrison used a German novel originally published in 1942 as its source. Shooting Principal photography occurred between 24 August and early December 1953. Portions of the film were shot in South Africa at Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg, in Bechuanaland (now Botswana), and at Victoria Falls (on the Zambia/Zimbabwe border). An October 1953 Daily Variety news item stated that scenes were shot at Kruger National Park. On 25 September 1953, British assistant director Anthony Kelly, aged 32, died when he was thrown from his overturned canoe into a whirlpool on the Zambesi River; they were near Livingstone, Zambia, towards Palm Island. He was in a boat with two hunters and an African guide. The other three got to safety but not Kelly. The Hollywood Reporter stated that after audiences at a 29 July 1954 Los Angeles preview jeered at the film's ending, Warner Bros. re-edited the final scenes. The Variety review lists the running time of the British release as 105 minutes; reviews of the American version list the running time as 98 minutes. Michael Mataka who sings the song "The Night Belongs to Me" became the first person of African descent to become commissioner of the Zambian Police. Reception According to Owen, the film made $3 million. It launched Todon on a series of films set in Africa with two American leads. In 1954, it was expected the film would earn $2 million in the US, returning $1.2 million to Britain. SoundtrackThe Night Belongs To Me'' Music by Mischa Spoliansky Lyrics by Norman Newell Sung by Michael Mataka References External links Duel