THE WILD MAN OF BORNEO
US, 1941, 80 minutes, Black and white.
Frank Morgan, Mary Howard, Billie Burke, Connie Gilchrist, Bonita Granville, Marjorie Main, Walter Catlett, Dan Daily, Donald Meeks, Phil Silvers.
Directed by Robert B.Sinclair.
The Wild Man of Borneo is the American turn of phrase, otherwise, the wild man from Borneo. Whatever the way he was described, he was part of those carnival freak shows, so popular at the beginning of the 20th century.
However, the wild man does not appear until the latter part of the film. Actually, the film has good credentials, based on a play by Marc Connolly and the celebrated Hermann Mankiwicz (writer of Citizen Cane at this time). It has been adapted for the screen by one of Hollywood’s significant writers, Waldo Salt.
The film retains many of the theatrical devices, especially the setting, popular in a number of films of this period, of a boarding house without wide range of characters. There is a lot of dialogue and many scenes with the large number of characters in a room. However, it has quite some vitality from the dialogue as well as the performers.
Frank Morgan portrays a conman, a grifter, snake-oil salesmen. And he does it perfectly, especially in the many sequences where he starts a story and develops the lies to an enormous extent. He had had great success on screen several years earlier as The Wizard of Oz. Billie Burke, wife of Florenz Ziegfeld, gives her usual performance as a slightly dotty elderly lady. Connie Gilchrist and Bonita Granville are mother and daughter, quite straightforward in what they want to get out of life, especially the recovery of her husband, Walter Catlett, another showman and grifter. Donald Meeks has a better role than usual – and a wig as well. Mary Howard is Morgan’s daughter and has a romance with Dan Daily, at the beginning of his career, here playing an experimenter with moving pictures. Phil Silvers is the barker. And Marjorie Main does her usual thing as the house maid and cook.
1. A light entertainment of the 1940s, MGM production values, based on a stage play.
2. MGM, cast, character actors? Musical score? The provincial cities, the world of the snake-oil salesmen? New York City, the boarding house, the theatre, the streets, the 16th Street showplace?
3. The title, carnival characters, Daniel and his being reduced to being the wild man, his performance, everybody in the audience, his having to tell the truth?
4. Daniel, his life as a salesman, selling the potions, helping to make them, news of his sister-in-law’s death, his wanting to see his daughter, make a good impression? The daughter having no money, he having no money? Having written letters for so many years, building up his image in his daughter’s eyes, her expectations of wealth and the high life and travel? His arrival, discovering the truth?
5. Daniel, shrewdness, always having a story to cover the situation? Going to the boarding house, talking his way in, being charming, the room, the meals, interactions with the group?
6. The members of the household: urban, the cook, Marjorie Main in pre—Ma Kettle vein? Mrs Diamond and Francine, theatrical family, searching for her husband, the private detective, Francine and her boldness, speaking out frankly? Bernice Marshall, the theatrical background, her husband, the actor? Professor Charles Birdo, his bird imitations, his devotion to Bernice, the clashes with Daniel, looking into his room, considering him a fake? Ed, acrobat, his experiments with moving pictures, his becoming a producer?
7. Daniel and his attempt for respectability, the visual collage of his auditions and the refusal of auditions? His making potions, selling them on the street, Mrs Diamond seeing him? Following him? The encounter with the show, being hired to be the Wild Man, finding Skelby, the performances?
8. Daniel present pretending to be in King Lear, his daughter asking him to recite the lines, everybody going to find Mrs Diamond’s husband, all present to see Daniel as the Wild Man? His telling the truth?
9. The irony of Skelby being Mrs Diamond’s husband, his reliance on Daniel, going off with the police?
10. Daniel, decision to leave, the talk with Bernice, her understanding him fully, his asking Ed to take care of his daughter – and then his meeting them, returning to the house, Charles getting drunk, promising to keep the secret? And immediately telling more stories about a future?
