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Alligators and Crocodiles in Movies   Hatari (1962)   Spoiler Alert ! Some of these pictures and descriptions may give away plot details that you might not want to know before watching the film.   This is a classic adventure comedy with some great animal action and outstanding cinematography, starring John Wayne and Elsa Martinelli and directed by Howard Hawks. Wayne and his men catch wild animals in Africa to sell to zoos. They use trucks to run down giraffes, buffalo, wildebeast, gazelles, and rhinos and catch them with a noose. They also use a rocket to shoot a net over a giant tree full of monkeys, then they cut down the tree and put all the monkeys in a cage. This is probably how animals were captured for zoos back in the day before zoos relied on captive breeding and gave their animals large naturalistic enclosures. Everything was going just swell for the boys until Martinelli shows up. She's a beautiful wildlife photographer who almost never uses a camera, and when she does, she always uses a short lens. She's also nearly 30 years younger than Wayne, but we're supposed to believe there is automatic romantic chemistry between them. The only realy chemistry was between her and a bunch of baby elephants. The crododile scene happens after Wayne hires a young French man named Chips. Chips and a German driver named Kurt are both competing for the same woman, so they hate each other, are constantly fighting, and even throw a few punches. On the way back to the camp after a day of hunting, their convoy of trucks crosses a shallow river. Chips and Kurt are driving in the same jeep, which gets stuck in the middle of the river. Kurt gets out to carry a tow rope over to a truck that is on the shore ahead of them. Chips stands guard with his rifle. When he sees a crocodile jump into the river and swim towards Kurt, he shoots it. We see the crocodile roll over and make a splash that startles Kurt. Kurt smiles and thanks Chips. This is the first example we see of the two men getting along, and by the end of the movie they are the best of friends, planning on going to Paris together to look for work and chase girls. In the crododile scene, we see footage of a real crocodile enter a river and swimming. But the crocodile we see roll around in the river after it was shot is a prop. Probably a big rubber crocodile.