I’ve only seen “Bwana” just the one time, probably 20 years or so ago. It was certainly nowhere as good as FRWL. Then, of course, when you go to see a Bob Hope movie, it’s just Bob Hope being Bob Hope. I wonder why Anita Ekberg never made an appearance in a Bond film.
FRWL’s a different genre of film altogether from CMB. However, if you look closely there are quite few similarities between the Bond films and CMB(no surprise considering the source.)
Miss Ekberg was probably out of the price range for Bond girl actresses. Broccoli and Saltzman usually liked to pick unknown girls to “discover” them. Also, the cynical side of me would say the unknown actresses were probably cheaper for them to hire.
If you listen real closely, Anita Ekberg’s voice in CMB sounds the same as Ursula Andress’ in “Dr. No”, Claudine Auger’s in “Thunderball”, Mie Hama’s in “You Only Live Twice”, Shirley Eaton’s in “Goldfinger” and Virginia North’s in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”. They all belong to this lady:
http://www.nikkivanderzyl.co.uk/