Drums of the Orient (1932)

[Music] Vagabond Adventure pictures present Mr Game Whitman who will take you with him on a visit to say in traveling around the Orient every new place one finds proves to be very Old Siam is one of those places it was settled thousands of years ago by a tribe from the interior of China that was before the days of taxi cabs and they did their migrating on boats and you can plainly see they have never gotten out of the Habit let's take a stroll pardon me a paddle down the main stream of the ancient city of Bangkok which is known as the Venice of the Orient bangkok's main Canal is known as Broadway you can only navigate it when the tide is in which is twice a day otherwise you're up to your neck in mud and if you read the papers you know we've got plenty of mud on our Broadway boats are everything to to the camese they buy and sell anything on these peculiar River crafts you can get whatever you want Hardware milary food drink or clothing all come along if you wait long enough and if you want bananas well here they are this lady in the small boat has them in bunches that song yes we Have No Bananas was not written in cyan down the river comes the water boy pushing a boatload of coconuts coconut milk is the only liquid you can drink in this hot country and remain conscious imagine having to sit down and milk a coconut every time you're thirsty these human scales load the boats with the immense quantities of rice exported from cyan those umbrella hats are their only protection against the blazing sun they hurry to get everything on board before they lay off for the Noonday Siesta which lasts until the sun cools off around 3:00 this last fellow may think he's hot in that Collegiate hat but when the sun gets to him he'll curl up like a watchspring they have to or they'll be called on the carpet and if they don't hurry they're called in the carpet anyhow so what's the use when they get hot they quit all coolies loow some sit around and eat some sit around and drink some sit around and think and some just sit around both sexes dress the same one yard by three of cloth no buttons no hooks just roll yourself up and there you are few people walk around during Siesta hour a few men and some women it's hard to tell the women from the men there's only one way if it grows up and marries a man it's a woman and vice versa you've no doubt heard of the charm of the temple Bell here they mingle their silvery age-old tones with the croaking millions of frogs in the river below blending into a weird enchanting medley the Siamese are Buddhists and their religion is rigid with discipline each male Siamese must sometime or other shave his head and spend six months as a Buddhist monk political pool means nothing in Siam no matter who you know sooner or lat they'll make a monk of you the temples are intricate in design and those who come to worship bring tiny bits of gold leap as offerings which are used to keep the Pagoda in a state of repair these seemingly halfhazard carvings depict the virtues of the life of Buddha a constant reminder that to be happy one must be good and standing on each side guard in the gate we have the Siamese Amos and Andy and dog gone if the boys aren't trying to high hat us outside of every Temple stand these grotesque and fearful images their duty is to prevent evil spirits from entering and disturbing the Tranquility of the congregation if I was an evil spirit and came face to face with one of them I'd turn right around and hurry home to mother and as if they needed anything else to make them hideous they use the tusks of wild boes for mustaches ugly as they are these Idols are the basis for the masks worn by the Siamese dancers back of this fish looking mask is a young man man who might well be as good-looking as Mrs Gable's boy Clark speaking of dancers let's go around the corner to the theater the theater is the leading form of recreation in Siam these boys and girls are all members of the leading stock company or whatever the Siamese call them rather a nice looking lot don't you think and jolly Bunch probably fussed at having their pictures taken let's meet the girls personally move in girls there you are not bad at that they're all right if you judge them like horses by their teeth they seem a trifle odd but how do you girls think your bathing parades would look to with me his moving plan I got a pass from the manager so if you're real quiet I'll take you back to the star's dressing room even Siamese ladies undress our presence doesn't seem to embarrass her in the least she goes right on getting into her costume for her big number on it goes then a touch to the hair and to dress a Siamese artist's hair is an art in itself on goes the heavy and Mystic looking headdress and our leading lady is all ready for the dance in the Siamese dance every little movement has a meaning all its own she struts her stuff and suddenly reaches for the carving knife this probably means how do you like your roast beet rare or well done or maybe she's a lady Bara looking for customers no show is complete without an orchestra folks meet the siami symphonic jazz band I'm sorry we couldn't reproduce this with the original sound but maybe it's just as well all Siamese dances mean something for instance this is a devil and a goat lady that is she was born in the goat year each year is named after an animal tiger year elephant year Mouse year and so on and the belief is that if a cat lady marries a rat gentleman well he's out of luck well this goat lady is engaged to a horse gentleman and the devil is trying to convince her to go right ahead and put the deal through but she's dubious she realizes if she marries the man it'll be a horse on her on come the show Girls a bevy of Siamese Beauty and the orchestra gets hot this is the Royal Siamese ballet an ancient institution in that country children are taught from infancy The Poetry of motion the art of expression the beauty of the dance notice the long tapering fingers on these ladies some of them are so limber they can be bent back far enough to touch the wrist their faces are covered with a mask of plaster-like substance they cannot smile they must say what they want to say by means of gestures they must picture their desires and passions by movement each Twist of the wrist May mean I love you or I'll take vanilla imagine trying to tell your best girl you love her by sticking your elbow in her eye on with the dance okay jazz band drums are the Prevailing instrument Drums of all sizes all types drums you scum with your hands great drums that you beat with a club and little drums with bumps on their head here is something that approaches billone in construction they look like little s supension Bridges and believe me this is the only kind of bridge the Siamese play the dance is finished the ballet having portrayed to Their audience some narrative hidden from for andai and if the Siamese don't give these little girls a big hand then they don't deserve good dancing