''TRADER HORN'' - THE FIRST ENGLISH FILM I SAW
J.K. SIVAN

It must be on a Sunday, in the year 1946-47.

I was about 7 or 8 years old then. My elder brother used me to pester my father to get his permission and money for the three of us to go and see the English film TRADER HORNS. Luckily my father was not only in a good mood but had some money to spare also. He gave us Ten rupes to go to Mount Road (now Annasalai) to see the film at New Globe theatre ( for some time Alankar and then shopping complex)

We walked from Kodambakkam Vadapalani to Mount Road, after hurried meals, at 11 am. and reached the theatre by 12 noon or so. Waited in the queue for the film to start by 2.30 pm.

It was not airconditioned but the seats for 6 annas (36 paise now) was good for us.

Before seeing the film we had eyefull of the posters pasted in the entrance hall and near ticket counter depicting some scenes from the film. It was my first English film.

Trader Horn is a 1931 American Pre-Code adventure film starring Harry Carey and Edwina Booth, and directed by W.S. Van Dyke. It is the first non-documentary film shot on location in Africa. The film is based on the book of the same name by trader and adventurer Alfred Aloysius Horn and tells of adventures on safari in Africa.

It was a MGM Production and a Lion would turn either side and roar. I was thrilled to see the lion.

The film depicts the adventures of real-life trader and adventurer Alfred Aloysius "Trader" Horn, while on safari in Africa. The fictional parts of the plot include the discovery of a white blonde jungle queen, the lost daughter of a missionary, played by Miss Booth. The realistic part includes a scene in which Carey as Horn swings on a vine across a river filled with genuine crocodiles, one of which comes very close to taking his leg off.

I later learnt that one of the crew of the film production was eaten by a crocodile. Another was killed by a charging rhino. The rhino was captured on film and the scene was used in the final form of the film. Swarms of insects, including locustsand the-tse flies, were common.

I did not understand any of the dialogues spoken by the characters and dont know the story till now. But I was taken aback by the wild animals and the adventures of the gun man who was the hero and feared the tribes whose faces were night mare for me affecting my sleep for many days.

The music was new to my ears and I was in a strange world for three hours or so when I was seeing the film. I held the hand of my elder brother tightly throughout the film was screened and wished to run home.

Though the film was in black and white I felt I was in the middle of Africa without any help, the fierce and cruel man eaters surrounding me and I felt everyone was after me to kill and eat. I closed my eyes most of the times but the noise of the animals and tribes shouting would make me open the eyes with fear and look at the screen. I never thought I was witnessing a shadow or a picture. It made me feel that I was unlucky and unfortunate to be caught by the tribes and taken a prisoner for no fault of mine.

The subsequent films like Tarzan made me long for seeing english films. Johny Weismuller's crying from the tall tree branch and his fast swimming in the crocodile infested river is still a wonder to me how it al created goose bumps all over my frame.