In a surprising discovery, we determined that a humble maid from Isan trumped a group of would-be movie stars from the Bangkok hi-so establishment. The whole thing was captured in a wonderful video clip by the great film maker and war hero Merian Cooper, who is best known for his famous 1926 release King Kong.
Cooper was one of the earliest American expatriates to fall in love with Thailand. When he was not flying flimsy planes and being shot down and imprisoned in various wars, three or four of them, he amused himself by making movies. His most famous film was the 1926 original King Kong, but shortly before that project he came to Thailand and made a film called Chang, about elephants, combining real action scenes of elephants, tigers, and Thai villagers.
We can't be absolutely sure that Cooper was the one who made another wonderful short film of Thailand for the Bell and Howell movie camera company, although it was made at the same time as Chang, 1926.The name of this film is "In Siamese society" and it is supposed to be about a tea and betel nut party of fashionable hi so ladies in Bangkok at that time. But during the course of the film the filmmaker became bored with the ladies and much more interested in the maid, an upcountry girl, probably from Isan. So where as most of the film is about a lot of bowing and smiling between rich ladies the best part is about this wonderful servant girl, whom we see here doing her morning ablutions.
The choicest bits of the clip and the Chang movie can be seen at
No comments:
Post a Comment