rec.arts.movies.past-films

On 5 Okt, 15:59, "steve" wrote:
> Many people mistakenly believe this sci-fi cult classic was based on the
> Defoe novel of similar title. In fact, it is loosely based on the lesser
> know film from the declining years of Swedish silent cinema. In "Larzan
> Unde der Primat" (1924, British Title: "Lars and his Monkey") early aviator
> Larzan is cut off from civilization when his plane is forced down by the
> increasingly hostile Germans in the remotest jungles of southern Sweden. A
> monkey pulls Larzan from the burning wreck and rifles through his pockets.
> Finding nothing of value, the kindly monkey befriends the still unconscious
> aviator repeatedly*. Lars Larson (Larzan) recalls the scene as one of the
> most uncomfortable he'd ever had to play.
>
> "By the 5th take, I'd had it. It wasn't so much the crew laughing as it was
> the smirk on that damn monkeys face! I walked off the set repeatedly.
> Later I discovered that they had a double in the wings the whole time. I
> never worked with that director again, though I did do several more films
> with the monkey. He was really quite an actor."
>
> Unlike the remake, Larzan eventually succumbs to hunger and, in a sober and
> touching scene, eats the monkey (repeatedly). Soon thereafter an escaped
> slave arrives, and he and Larzan spend the balance of the film "befriending"
> one another. Larson later described it as "payback time".
>
> A British film company bought the rights to the story in 1927, but a
> partially written script sat idle and was only rediscovered when the failing
> studio went into receivership in the late 1950s.

Just to fill in here, the re-worked British script was to be called
"Lord Steve" and the basic story line recounts the adventures of
Steven Robinson who is on a pleasure steamer that hits a submerged log
in the mangrove swamps of the Thames estuary and capsizes. Everyone
abandons ship leaving Steven Robinson in a hashish induced stupor in
his cabin with only his loyal Moroccan houseboy to care for him. The
boy, Shareem, manages to drag his master into the water and then swim
with him to a sandbank where they have to survive on a hamper of
champagne and a dead seagull. Shareem is subsequently savaged by an
irate hippopotamus. After eating the remains Steven spots a bloated
sheep carcase floating by, swims out to it, using it to float
downstream, past a pirate stronghold and out to sea. Eventually he
floats ashore at Torquay and the incomplete manuscript ends abruptly
at this point.


>
> steve
> --
> "The accused will now make a bogus statement."
> James Joyce