Although the story takes place entirely in sub-Saharan Africa, it was shot entirely on sound stages, except for 11 minutes of location shooting, and two minutes at the Los Angeles County Arboretum for Roger Moore to take a swim.
Rafer Johnson, who plays Kosongo, was an Olympic decathlete who won the silver medal in 1956 and the gold in 1960. He was instrumental in capturing Sirhan Sirhan after the man shot and killed Sen/Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. Woody Strode was one of the first black athletes to play in the National Football League in 1946. As an actor, he was a favorite of both Cecil B. DeMille and John Ford.
Third-billed Roger Moore only appears on-screen 63 minutes into the film and his screen time does not exceed a total of 31 minutes. His attempts at performing an American accent are atrocious, as he often lapses into British pronunciations ("extraordinary," e.g.) and accent.
Au péril de sa vie (1961) is loosely based on the 1956 novel by Charles Mercer, Rachel Cade, published by G. P. Putnam's Sons. It was a Literary Guide selection and ran as a serial in the Woman's Home Companion prior to the film's production.
A January 1957 news item states that RKO bought the novel from galley proofs in 1956 for production by Stanley Rubin, who was later replaced by Henry Blanke. Rubin considered Stirling Silliphant for the film's writer and conferred about the film with writer/lecturer Rene Gabin, who spent over 10 years in the Belgian Congo; however, onscreen credits list Edward Anhalt as the screenwriter.The film was to be shot in Africa in the summer of 1957, but the location has not been confirmed.