The Cinema
[" CHANG:' AT THE PLAZA.] Chang is a magnificent film. The cinema has here brilliantly fulfilled a part for which it is better fitted than any other artistic medium. No book, painting, musical impression or circus could give so adequate and vivid a picture of the jungle. And it is hardly a picture, but a slice of the actual life of a Siamese tracker and his delightful family. They live in a log hut built on stilts, with a tame monkey, Bimbo, as the family jester. Around this solitary homestead leopards prowl, stealing by night the goats, on whose milk Kru's children depend, until the last goat is sacrificed as a bait to catch this ruthless marauder in a trap. There are snakes, ant-eaters, large scaly lizards, bears, tigers and monkeys galore in this labyrinth of sinister-shaped trees and interwoven undergrowth. At one time a herd of elephants—some hundred I should think—are driven by fearless natives into a kraal.
The photography of Mr. Ernest B. Schoedsack is nothing short of a miracle, and Major Merian C. Cooper is to be congra- tulated on a marvellous production. The picture, of this jungle life is not only conveyed by the film but also by the sounds of the different types of animal characters who appear, which have been recorded in the Zoological Gardens. Every one should see this film, for it must be seen to be believed.
C. S.
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