Africa Screams only time that Shemp Howard and Joe Besser appeared together in a film; Besser would replace Howard as one of the Three Stooges following the latter's death in 1955. The main character's name Stanley Livington is suggestive of the surnames of British explorers Henry Morton Stanley and David Livingstone who had a famous meeting in 1871. It is not known whether the change from Livingstone to Livington is the result of a typist's error or a deliberate obfuscation. As this film is in the public domain in the United States, there have been a variety of DVD releases from multiple
Henry Morton Stanley Dr. David Livingstone, of whom little had been heard since his departure for Africa in 1866 to search for the source of the Nile. Stanley travelled to Zanzibar in March 1871, later claiming that he outfitted an expedition with 192 porters. In his first dispatch to the "New York Herald", however, he stated that his expedition numbered only 111. This was in line with figures in his diaries. Bennett, publisher of the "New York Herald" and funder of the expedition, had delayed sending to Stanley the money he had promised, so Stanley borrowed money from the United States Consul. During