This is one of Robert Mitchum's lesser movies, a hunting saga involving the search for an elusive big cat, with Elsa Martinelli, who appeared in Howard Hawks's safari picture Hatari! the previous year, providing the human quarry. Mitchum virtually sleepwalks through the picture, while co-star Jack Hawkins has to sweat a lot and go mad when his mistress (Martinelli) switches her affections. Claiming to be set in Malaya, it was actually shot in Hawaii and at the San Diego zoo, and is one of many rehashes of the 1930s potboiler Red Dust. Alexander Korda's discovery of the 1930s, Sabu, makes his penultimate screen appearance.

In colonial Malaysia, British big game-hunter Otto Abbot and American trapper Harry Stanton clash over the ethics of catching versus killing animals and over Abbot's mistress, Anna.