Africa Screams

Features the only on-screen pairing of Joe Besser and Shemp Howard. Shemp was an original member of The Three Stooges. He left the group and was replaced by his younger brother, Curly Howard. Shemp later returned, replacing Curly, and is generally considered "the fourth stooge". Besser later replaced Shemp, and is considered "the fifth stooge".

The comment by Boots (Buddy Baer) to Grappler (Max Baer), "I'll hit you harder than Louis ever did", is a reference to boxer Joe Louis who battled both Baers in the 1930s.

The original script had a lovestruck female gorilla pursuing Lou Costello. However, the Breen Office censors that enforced the Production Code objected to any hint of the possibility of a sexual encounter--even an unwilling one--between a man and a female gorilla. The writers changed it from a female gorilla to a male one, and the Breen Office approved it, apparently they saw that man/gorilla straight relationship would involve marriage and sex, but man/gorilla same sex relationship wouldn't rise above mere friendship.

The failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.

The little "mini-car" shown in the final scenes isn't a movie prop car, as some have claimed. It's a Crosley, which was a real car produced by the Crosley Motor Co. from 1939-42, discontinued during the war years, then resumed in 1946 until the company folded in 1952.