Elephant Boy

In India, an elephant boy (Sabu) wants to become a great man like his father and helps a British colonial conservationist (Walter Hudd) find and herd elephants.

A film project that began with producer Alexander Korda sending the great documentary filmmaker Robert J. Flaherty to the Mysore region of India to film for an Empire project. The result was 55 hours of geographic documentary footage, but no discernible narrative. Zoltan Korda took over, brought the production back to England and filmed a narrative around Rudyard Kipling's story, 'Toomei of the Elephants'. Much of Flaherty's footage is used in the film, but incongruously also sits beside some poor obvious fake elephant feet as in the 'Dance of the elephants' sequence. Nevertheless, both as a docudrama and a narrative film it comes off surprisingly well. One of Flaherty's other contributions was the discovery of Sabu who became a star after this film.

It is quite clear from the beginning that we have to be understanding about Sabu's acting ability in this his first film.He undertakes the opening narration in a very stilted form.It is quite apparent that he is reading off of boards placed behind the camera.The scenes in India are very well photographed in black and white and the music is quite captivating.the dramatic scenes though are often rather awkward.Not just because of Sabu.the scenes of him with the white trappers are very redolent of the Empire,upon whom the sun never set.Korda did rather have an obsession about this.Bearing in mind that he had previously made Sanders of The River and was about to embark upon "The Drum" and of course "The Four Feathers".Sabu would shortly become a much more skilled performer.

While the Elephant Boy is an engaging character. Seeking to become a "great hunter" Of what , it is never made clear. The acting and pronunciation of Sabu in the title role requires a great deal of patience. But this is made up by the excellent documentary footage of Robert Flaherty ( Nanook of the North). Therefore the Elephant Boy is full of fascinating footage of Indian elephants and their Mahouts. Including Sabu clearly scrubbing around an elephants massive eye. The authentic Indian footage makes up for the stodgy direction and acting that accompanies thIs otherwise staggering masterpiece? Sabu would go on to improve his acting chops in the much much much superior : Thief of Bagdad.

Wonderful little film adapted from Rudyard Kipling's story Toomai of the Elephants. Kipling's work always makes fine films, even if his British colonialism makes it somewhat dated. This particular film features an unpleasant master-servant relationship between the white man, Petersen (Walter Hudd), and the Indians. But, if you can get past that, and I think most mature people should be able to see the class system in its proper historical light, the movie is very enjoyable. Robert Flaherty discovered Sabu, later to star in such great films as The Thief of Bagdad, The Jungle Book, and Black Narcissus. Sabu is very good, though his English is sometimes difficult to understand. This was Flaherty's only narrative film - I expect that he directed the nature parts of the film and Zoltan Korda directed the actors. The best moments feel just like Flaherty's masterpieces, including a wonderful opening bit (discounting the unnecessary prologue) where Sabu, his elephant, and a monkey echo each other's movements as they all wake up in the morning. The cinematography is quite beautiful, as is the musical score. 8/10.

In his first film, young Sabu introduces himself as "Toomai of the Elephants" before leading an expedition to find a herd of elephants in the jungles of India. Though this is based on an adventure story by Rudyard Kipling, it runs more like a documentary. There is much time spent on filming Sabu cavorting with his elephant "Kala Nag" and others. Sabu relies on acting natural and hasn't perfected his English; people found him highly appealing, but he's sometimes more of a liability, herein. Sabu and the Korda productions got better. "Elephant Boy" is for viewers who really, really like Sabu and/or a lot of elephants on screen.

**** Elephant Boy (4/5/37) Robert Flaherty ~ Sabu, Walter Hudd, Allan Jeayes, W.E. Holloway