(2 of 3)
Elephant Boy (London Films) is an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's Toomai of the Elephants, filmed by famed Director Robert Flaherty (Nanook of the North, Moana, Man of Arari). With his grizzled father, his father's elephant Kala Nag, an English white hunter and a group of seasoned Indian mahouts, picayune Toomai goes on a hunt for wild elephants. When a tiger kills his father, Kala Nag is given to another mahout. When the mahout mistreats him, Kala Nag runs amok. Disgusted with this situation, Toomai and Kala Nag run away from camp. A searching party finds them but by this time Toomai has found a herd of wild elephants, seen the legendary elephants' dance. When the herd has been captured, Toomai is a hero. For a reward, he is allowed to keep Kala Nag, is made the ward of a famed elephant hunter.
Amusingly highlighted by scenes showing Toomai and Kala Nag stealing melons and Toomai making Kala Nag take a bath (see cut), magnificently climaxed by the elephant hunt, superbly photographed throughout, Elephant Boy is the first of three forthcoming Kipling pictures.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer will shortly release Captains Courageous. Scheduled by RKO is Gunga Din. To make Elephant Boy, Director Flaherty, financed by Alexander Korda's London Films, accompanied by Producer Korda's brother Zoltan, spent two years in the province of Mysore. The Zanuck who, the day Ameche got to Hollywood, cast him in a tedious epic called Sins of Man.
Elephant Boy (London Films) is an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's Toomai of the Elephants, filmed by famed Director Robert Flaherty (Nanook of the North, Moana, Man of Arari). With his grizzled father, his father's elephant Kala Nag, an English white hunter and a group of seasoned Indian mahouts, picayune Toomai goes on a hunt for wild elephants. When a tiger kills his father, Kala Nag is given to another mahout. When the mahout mistreats him, Kala Nag runs amok. Disgusted with this situation, Toomai and Kala Nag run away from camp. A searching party finds them but by this time Toomai has found a herd of wild elephants, seen the legendary elephants' dance. When the herd has been captured, Toomai is a hero. For a reward, he is allowed to keep Kala Nag, is made the ward of a famed elephant hunter.
Amusingly highlighted by scenes showing Toomai and Kala Nag stealing melons and Toomai making Kala Nag take a bath (see cut), magnificently climaxed by the elephant hunt, superbly photographed throughout, Elephant Boy is the first of three forthcoming Kipling pictures. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer will shortly release Captains Courageous. Scheduled by RKO is Gunga Din. To make Elephant Boy, Director Flaherty, financed by Alexander Korda's London Films, accompanied by Producer Korda's brother Zoltan, spent two years in the province of Mysore. The elephant hunt in the picture is a real one; it included a herd of 80, one of the biggest ever captured in Mysore, and one of Mysore's biggest single wild elephants, who does not distinguish himself in the picture. Huge Kala Nag's real name is Iravatha. His specialty is tricks, best of which, stepping over a prostrate child, he executes in Elephant Boy. Toomai's real name is Sabu. Brought back to London to play parts in future London Films, he currently has a smart London apartment, drives about in his own midget car.