FILM OF ESKIMO LIFE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21769, 7 April 1934, Page 12 (Supplement)

FILM OF ESKIMO LIFE

INTELLIGENT NATIVE ACTING CURIOUS MORAL CODE 'W. S. Ven Dyke has made motion pictures in many strange lands. He : took a company into the heart of Africa to make. " Trader Horn he created stories with: the Samoan natives in " White Shadows of the South Seas," and now he comes from i the farthest reaches of the North with " Eskimo." Mr. Van Dyke took a staff of photographers 'and other technicians to Alaska with'him, and for more than a year they worked with the natives, making a picture from two of Peter Fretieheri's novels of the Arctic regions. Freuchen helped in making the picture, and both he and Van Dyke acted roles, , those :of jvhite.'ihen. The picture naturally recalls "Nanook of the North," for in that film of the silent days a group of the little people of the North were followed through their daily life. " Eskimo " enlarges on the adventures of Arctic existence, and adds a melodramatic story. The photography is something to wonder over, for much of the action was full of danger, yet the pictures come out clear and splendid. , One is surprised to note the nudity of the people in their igloos, and even outside in the bitter cold, remarks an American critic. Mala generally comes out. bare .to the waist and then leisurely puts on his fur sweater. Captain Freuchen shows up the dealings of the white men with-..the natives in the miserable exchange they make for the valuable furs and in the contempt with which thev treat them. The people speak the language of the country,- which is translated in superimposed English titles. The speech is rough-in sound, but, as it is very formal in shape, with the third person used altogether. The curious code of morals comes often into view. The men are allowed two wives, and they may lend one or both to a friend.

If a man refuses the lady ho insults her husband. Hut the lending does not extend to strangers, a fact which brings about the deaths of two persons in the story. The* captain of the ship Mala on a' whale hunt, and while be is away he forces Aba, Mala's wife/ to spend the night with him on board the ship, making her drunk. In the morning she staggers away to her igloo, and falling on the ice is mistaken bv the ship's mate for a seal, and killed." Mala kills the captain on his return for the indignity done-to him, and the second half of the story is devoted to the pursuit of Mala by the Hoyal Mounted Police, his capture, escape,' and the final dropping of the cas'e.. Two of the women, Aba and Iva, are really beautiful in an exotic way, and act with considerable intelligence.