Borneo, 1937

[Music] [Music] adventure with motion picture camera and airplane that was the life of Martin Johnson who flew and filmed with his wife OA he was a pioneer of Motion Pictures and aircraft in exploration in the study of remote places he preferred to make his record for the screen in traversing desert and jungle he preferred the skyroad Martin Johnson was the popular naturalist in Africa with Osa he made a memorable series of Adventure and wild animal pictures before that in their early exploring days they had been in Borneo which had left an abiding memory so 18 years later they returned with camera and plan to the aisle of the impossible their culminating adventure and culminating picture and their L they came home with a bitter ironic fatality Martin said he always felt safer in the Wilds than in civilized places just after arranging the production of this picture he and Osa took an airliner to California it crash Martin killed Osa injured he pioneered in Exploration with plane and film he perished in a plane at home and left behind this his greatest film Borneo [Music] [Music] geography dictated their first exploit Singapore the crossroads of the world their destination was the other side of Bal across the China Sea then across the giant Savage Island by the skyro in that plane they flew on many a great adventure in their African years now it is to be the spirit of Africa winging across [Music] Bal oosa spies the island of the lepers where victims of the dread malady are segregated and kept apart now they have crossed the China Sea but that was the least of this flight because it was wings cross Borneo that island of primitive ferocity which gave its name to the traditional wild men legendary with the terror of diak pirates a jungle land of Head Hunters no such flight had ever been made before so perilous the British authorities said no and at first refused a permit Borneo is divided between the British and the Dutch there's sandakan capital of British North Borneo the only colony governed by a chartered company they were not looking for town so on over the jungle peening with the Fantastic light that makes this the aisle of the incredible the Kim of aangan river that's their Adventure tra far up the stream they will find the darkest death so follow the Kim a Tanga it's a stem Winder it winds all over the place the rivers in Borneo are like that Meandering almost in circles looks like a lawn on carefully mowed but those trees Tower 200 ft High giant walls of Equatorial foliage the destination of this Expedition is the deepest and darkest Jungle of all a remote place the maximum of wilderness [Music] waterways are about the only way that they can get anywhere in this world of towering Thicket the rivers likewise are the only Landing fields and pilot Jim ler had better be skillful here where the flying fields are jungle streams the river dwellers here are the muru along the coast the natives are of the melee race seaing conquerors here in the interior are the older and more primitive tribes Head Hunters they used to be and maybe still are Osa finds their language utterly strange but a stroke of Love Martin finds one of the maruts who has been the sandakan among the English there how are you oh I'm all right how are you so you speak English where' you learn to speak English I'm small I looking at oh and you learned there from the white people huh how'd you like to go along with me as interpreter huh I like it you like to go with you huh what's your name Logan Logan huh uh how much money you want plenty oh you want plenty do you all right I think maybe you can go with me that'll be fine [Music] Expedition headquarters is to beat deep in the jungle so push on snakes flying snakes serpents on Wayne this island of the unimaginable abounds in reptiles they're weird fascinating they're poisonous not so fascinating and they fly [Music] the mots have told Martin about a place abounding with strange equatorial life look out for the equatorial KN there's some of it Osa is brave not afraid of a mouse but that's no mouse the blow gun the native weapon poison arrow what that name jaw transfixed by the dark hip with Venom the M Marksman knows the poison is doing its deadly work they cut their way for hours to the haunt of jungle light that the natives have talked up so highly Logan wait a minute what do you think about this place well I think it'll be awfully pretty when it's cleared this will be a fine place now Logan you go tell a boys to come around here and cut all this down huh we'll cut two or three acres we make a fine Camp here get all their knives and their pangas get them here go on Utah you go with me we'll look around where you're going see what's over there look over there ha of jungle Life Is Right River monkeys and here they are to establish their home a laboratory for the popular naturalists the tropical green abounds with the creatures of the wildes the rare Borneo deer here they'll make their headquarters and film with infinite cunning and Care shy wary beasts like this and curious birds like the white [Music] Heron Osa home builder as well as Explorer knows that this is to be their house household for long month to come the Borneo jungle is hot humid rainy insect ridden and teeming with reptiles some of the Borneo tribes are rated the laziest people on earth work of any kind bores them to tears their principal activity is boating cop fighting and gambling in the bad old days they were known to wax strenuously energetic while head hunting they're not so handy at handycraft it isn't camera that makes the slow motion it's just busy Borneo and that's not handicraft it's footwork fingers so lazy they let the toes do it as a head hunter he's a footw worker the height of activity a nap in the afteron noon they believe that work is for the dogs they build a raft out of Rattan bamboo jungle wood here here better put a piece of bamboo right up here on stand right here huh the forest abounds with valuable Timber some of the hardest on earth like Ironwood and the morot are skilled in watercraft born Riverman better get about two more logs along here great big fell supposed to hold this down solid all [Music] right so this is head quarters for the Martin Johnson Expedition a bit of America in the equatorial Forest a sturdy Bungalow a sound roof and a sturdy finished gra Borneo is split by the equator a land of immense tropical rainfall it has no wet or dry season only wet to the morot natives this Johnson jungle home is a place of endless wers home of white man's magic they come here for reasons of sorcery and they take Martin for a medicine man great gun that coming sick Head Hunter sick head hunter huh you sure look sick what's the matter with it f f well I don't know anything about a to I can't help many I'm not a dentist this morning I heard coming well is he a good dentist but he's a dentist oh he's a dentist how are we going to get him you put one FL near the river all right you go put up a plan you you take the with you I don't want to see any more of the dentists do come to these parts this one has journeyed up from sandin so he has a sign in English and Chinese the Chinese go everywhere they penetrate into the remotest Wilds of the East Indies flying their crafts ining tooth pulling they are known to put a gold cap on any native too whether it needs one or not here's Dentistry that makes a dent and now you'll see what makes the Wild Man of Borneo Wild [Music] [Music] Osa has been out exploring on her own and she's caught a fa I wonder if she's found this site is as wonderful as the natives said it was is it really such an abounding haunt of the wild animal life of the tropical forest are there strange birds and beasts here are there monkeys Osa yells yes a houseful of monkeys and out she chases them monkeys monkeys and monkeys even a lady Explorer becomes just an indignant housewife when she finds her front parlor full of monkeys [Music] Osa is insense she chases them in Wild confusion on your way monkss and don't you stop well there's no stopping them they think Osa is still after [Music] [Music] them these are River monkeys agile at jumping and swimming they are equally at home in the Treetops and in the river they shine at high jumping they shine at swimming Monkey [Music] Shine as high divers they're not particular either they don't need water at the other end of the jump dry land or hard rock will do just as well they dive into a cement pool before the water was led in and like it scientists say that there is some element of flying in this a gliding suggestion of the Flying Squirrel they use their tails for balancing tail swinging around suggesting a gyroscope they seem to spread their bodies with some sort of gliding effect if you don't believe it you try high diving onto the hard [Music] Earth the morot lead the way to a water hole there is the place huh but it looks good to me yes it's a pretty Place lights good you know the Naes say that lots of animals come down here to drink well well I'm going to look around in the jungles too I think there's other places probably around here ah Gibbon smallest anthropoid a the only one whose nose has a braad and a brock monkey also a baby or and then a red monkey yes this campsite seems to be okay right 100% for filming animal life and Borneo has owls wise Birds something like our own and some the like of which you've never seen before here's old sour p a regular Borneo [Music] screw the cus cuss is a cute little cus a lur with wide eyes and little vacuum cups on his feet suckers why he can walk right up a plate of glass and here's the way you have to drink in Borneo utar I can drink anything hurry up and cut it water is dangerous to drink as the old soap said Rivers Mountain Streams or even Crystal Springs here may be contaminated but the water is pure in the water Vine the stem has a vein of the most salubrious H2O the vine needs wine but it means water in barneo aisle of the Topsy tur this water hole is a treasure ground for the popular naturalist honey bears with thick fur protection from the stings of the jungle bees the Brock monkey Borneo is a dominant haunt for the primates from the tiny simeons to the great eight and to the water hole come wild P the attraction here is not only water but also salt both a water hole and a Salt Lake surely an ideal location for the camera blind where from camouflage the telescope lens can study Wild Life the Borneo civit cast the large close relation of the common domestic seeline twice as big as the American House cast a playground for Jungle life and the Brock monkey is renowned as the most playful of its kind to him the civid cat is just kitty [Music] [Music] kitty the spectacle monkey another Odd Fellow in this monkey [Music] [Music] Paradise Mr and Mrs Gibbon always drink like that even in a zoo with all civilized conveniences he gets the Habit from life and the treetop where finger drinking gathers the rainwater on the folley [Music] those two quaint chaps are not Borneo monkeys at all they're from samatra and how did they get here well the Expedition brought them along as if there were not enough monkeys in Boral but that type is especially interesting because of its extraordinary voice [Music] [Music] that fellow is a SE man not a monkey at all really he's an anthropoid Gibbon the extraordinary thing about the cang is the huge pouch that he has under his Jaws like great flabby jwls that's part of his vocal equipment filled with air the pouch can produce a tone of its own and auxiliary to the lung when the cang wants to do some special singing jungle Caruso stuff with an equatorial love song He punches his pouch to project an added tone a deer can't scratch his ear but a cang is great at picking out ticks this haunt ofle creatures is like an animal man's dream come true but Dreams Come more than true in in barneo this thing was brought into Camp by the natives who got it from far far up the river just a baby a dream come doubly triply true prosus monkey rarest of the rare and they're being fed the unaccustomed way with infinite patience Osa keeps them alive no prosus monkey has ever been kept alive in any civilized zoo on far away in the depths of the Jungle way Upstream there they say is a whole colony of those rarest of simeons a whole town of P already while Osa feeds the babies preparations are being made for a proasus hunt oh shaking your head baby that's all you are yes just the [Music] private a Chinese junk is pressed into service for the River voidage from here on off on a scouting tour pilot Jim lener has been making an air survey of the upper reaches of the Stream putting the plane away Jim reports forbidding Wilderness stupendous jungle and the river just a winding Maze of treacherous backwat he doesn't know if a boat can possibly get through it but never mind the Peril here we go we're on our way off by junk and by rat how could you hold Martin Johnson back when there are prosus monkeys to be f [Music] the mot rivermen are great paddlers slender built marvelous on endurance and stamina family life on a junk as up the river we pass native houses on still on still to be safe from reptiles and safe from floods the women more than do their share out here in Borneo and as for these Chinese junks well they penetrate [Music] everywhere the jungle is growing more dense now almost impenetrable Thicket on and on we go in the Quest for the prosus monkey deep in each Forest lay [Music] Martin makes sure his camera is in good shape by shooting a picture or two of Osa and Osa Returns the compliment taking up on her own camera by shooting one of [Music] Martin we're in a dark backwash of the Borneo River now the canoes will have to explore this so it's paddle and song The Kim of Aang and bman [Music] song one reason why the fosas monkey is so rare is because it feeds exclusively on the Sho of young pal along the River Bank the NEPA Palm now what do we see dense Groves of Nea pal so we're nearing our goal it won't be long until we're in proasus Ville to up the river and paddle on board [Music] now we need a scientist we need a zoologist so I present that eminent naturalist Professor Lou uh thank you it's a pleasure so little is known about the Pro's family that nobody can check up on I speak freely in this rare community of dribble poses family life is very human little tunia who snazzle is yet only a nozzle CLS Queens like a monkey while Mama met a dainty lady siiz beaser zes a spring salad lunch to all the little hose Noles outside of using them for sneezing snoring and sniveling no what reason has ever been found for a super colossal schmell the DTI family uh the proasas family is very heavy eaters it takes a lot of jungle or Dees to wear them out the perfect rhythm of their Sno how the nose beats time at a m m this swing it sister human beings always connect noses with being curious inquisitive but these Borneo scoop noses is very exclusive with a puss like d you wouldn't be a good mixer either these are the faces that you always remember but you don't know where to put them everything thing ain't always hunky dly at a propas family they're like any other married people so far you ain't seen the papa here he's late for dinner again that's why mama is always looking around only grandpaa is home to protect them hey Grandpa you got a flat still Papa ain't home yet he must be out with the boys again drking Palm juw yep she sees them on the front steps plastered look at that sound he just stuck his nose in the lodge and they filled it up ain't you a shame disgracing the family I hope you get hay fever yeah Mama that's him hi the children he's coming out of it no he ain't zck he's just got the nose Jitters look how it twitchers if he HIC cup it would knock his teeth out boy is he in the doghouse she's so mad she wouldn't care if grandp zck them into nose and I wouldn't give Grandpop any credit if he missed it look now he's got the DPS he sees little pink men running around tomorrow he'll say it for something he ate no [Music] doubt Grandpop is BU in it's queen that monkeys M noses like Grandpa smell just as same as other [Music] monkeys everybody knows that monkeys don't have f Le everybody but the monkeys so little Ludwick gets his once over light as the family ignores the South completely all the grandpa he never forgets he's got a mind like an elephant and a nose pretty near even that the world's greatest stiff don't know whether the monkeys grow these noses or these noses grow the monke look naaza Dandy is still at us so P ju G comes out of it empties the ice box and wonders what the chances is to go back M his family heavy heavy what a hangover but even as you and us he's still in the dogghouse she won't talk so what so he goes back to the large for more Palm juice [Music] I guess we don't need the professor now Moren keing would be a teller of tales of fantastic Terror from this point on the Martin Johnson Expedition is Bound for the Head Hunter [Music] country this type of native boat is called a goong essentially a Dugout primitive but well adapted navigating the streams and shallows of the Borneo [Music] jungle a Boral water turkey the endless walls of jungle on fold the equatorial Forest of palms and Ironwood and equally hard the tasu bamboo and ratan and the spreading banion tree all dominated by The Towering tepang tree Monarch of the Jungle Martin and Noosa call this the most beautiful scenery they had ever beheld Beauty yes and fantastic here in this aisle of the undream nature plays some of her weirdest pranks we're approaching one now and Frank is Right a freak of [Music] nature explorers have told of the tree climbing fish they've described these creatures of paradox and it all sounded like a traveler's Fable but here they are actually filmed what is the scientific explanation tell us Professor uh thank you with TW climing V science is stump the only time I saw things like these before was after a couple of bottles of schnu only the ones I saw you could make disappear mid asirin tablets isn't they're real fish too and not exaggerated tadpoles or Lizards these are precisely the same order of life as trout swordfish or seab basss they've become adapted to the conditions of the Borneo jungle sudden floods pools that swiftly dry up fish left stranded on land Nature has adapted them to that and as the shore is a tangle of trees branches and Roots the fish have got used to the trees this is a living example of the probable way that terrestrial beings came into existence on this planet the swarming life of the ocean creeping out on the land fish accommodating themselves to life out of the water you can imagine how in an ion of time these paradoxical creatures may lose the way of the water altogether and develop into creatures of the land and sure enough they actually climb into the lower branches of the trees so they are tree climbing fish they a tall Story come true but then so is all Borneo [Music] and now on with the Journey To The Head Hunters deeper into the jungle like a dank Cavern some gloomy River of the Nether world in dant's Inferno here we find no light fantastic mood of tree climbing f