Of course the locals they battle are SUSPICIOUS, they’re BROWN

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I’ll say it, ain’t no shame in my game, I LOVE the New York Post. Kindly tell me what other paper entertains so thoroughly for a mere $.50. Exactly.

An item in yesterday’s metro edition caught my eye; buried way in the back, long after the gleeful schadenfreude of page six, I saw the words Black Narcissus in a caption that was being suffocated by movie listings.

Intrigued, I did a double-take while slowly remembering that this was a book by Indian-born, erstwhile resident of Kashmir Rumer Godden, an author I had adored when I was much younger and sadder. Down went the paper and to the iBook I turned. IMDB was immediately summoned and I chortled at the movie’s tagline:

A Story to Storm Your Heart! Drama at the top of the world … where winds of the exotic past sweep men and women to strange and fascinating adventure…

Well, “top of the world” obviously means India. I mean, duh. More:

Anglican nuns, led by the stern Sister Clodagh, attempt to establish a religious community in the Himalayas, and must battle not only suspicious locals and the elements, but their own demons as well.

Oooooooh. They battled their own demons as well? Exciting!

I noticed that one of the cast members had a very Malayalee name, so I predictably clicked through to find out more about…”Sabu”, aka “The first Indian and middle-eastern actor to make it big in Hollywood.” Apparently “he was restricted to stereotypical roles of Indians.” Wow, that’s so sad, I mean, look at how far we’ve come! Indians aren’t subject to such narrow-minded casting now, thank goodness. gagOh, and AFAIK he’s not Mallu but he was an awesome Amreekan:

He became an American citizen on January 4, 1944, after which he served in the US Army Air Force during World War II as a tail gunner.
Father of Jasmine Sabu and Paul Sabu.
According to his widow, actress Marilyn Cooper, Sabu had a complete physical just a few days before his death, at which time his doctor told him, “if all my patients were as healthy as you, I’d be out of business.” Thus, his sudden death of a heart attack at the age of only 39 came as even more of a shock than it would have been otherwise. His last film, Disney’s A Tiger Walks (1964), was released posthumously, to good reviews.

He became an American citizen ON my birthday AND he was Air Force?

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So, if you’re looking for something to do in NYC this weekend BESIDES Pooja’s awesome brown lit+writing event, check out Black Narcissus. Do it for Sabu, man.

Showtimes via NYP:

WALTER READE THEATER AT LINCOLN CENTER Lincoln Center & W. 65th St. (Above Alice Tully Hall)
70 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York (212)875-5600 Black Narcissus (1946) (NR)
Friday 2:30 Saturday 9:00 Sunday 6:30

16 thoughts on “Of course the locals they battle are SUSPICIOUS, they’re BROWN”

  1. I have the book sitting on my shelf but havent read it, the movie version is actually a very intense film about sexual repression and madness. One of Michael Powell’s best films.

  2. My uncle, a Catholic priest, who came to study at the University of San Francisco in the mid 1950s, is still referred to as “Sabu” by his oldtime American friends.

    Apparently there was a popular TV serial (Sabu the elephant boy?) in which Sabu was the main character.

  3. A&E’s biography has profiled him (hour long treatment). they should have it in the video collection by now….

  5. Here’s a pic of Sabu’s son, Paul Sabu, who became an 80s rock star as part of the band, Sabu. (Second from the left).

    Warning: Work safe but gratuitous chest hair.

  6. Jasmine Sabu the daughter of Sabu (Dastagir) played a role in the Hollywood film Godfather.

  7. Sabu — the first Desi actor [to be exploited] in Hollywood.

    I’ve seen a bunch of Sabu movies. Early in his career, when he was in movies like The Thief of Baghdad and Arabian Nights, he usually played the loincloth-wearing child sidekick to the tall, clothed American hero.

    He continued to play this role well into adulthood. For some reason, he was always cast in roles that required him to wear a loincloth, and act like a child — even well into his 20s. They also had him speaking broken, sing-song English, with an accent that will definitely make most people cringe today (it’s far worse than “Abu” on the Simpsons).

    If you don’t mind the rampant racism and pro-imperial adventure themes, the Sabu movies are fun, campy adventure flicks — “B” movies made on shoestring budgets. Incidentally, the female lead in many of the Sabu movies was Maria Montez, a Latina bombshell who was repeatedly cast as an Oriental (Arab) princess. She had a pronounced Mexican accent, even playing Scheherazade!

    One other oddity: both Sabu and Maria Montez are icons in the gay community. A gay desi filmmaker has made a short film focusing on Sabu as an erotic figure (Surviving Sabu), and Maria Montez is often “cited” in drag performances (Flaming Creatures)…

  8. Just FYI, Jasmine Sabu did not have a role in “The Godfather”. She was 15 years old at the time, and Marilyn (her mom) was my godmother, so Jasmine was like a big sister to me.

  9. Sabu performed in Circus Mikkenie in Europe in 1952 and 1953. The director, Frans Mikkenie, was my grand-uncle. Sabu and his wife Marilyn Cooper used to live with my family in Amsterdam in those days. I will place a lot of pictures on my website very soon.

    ‘Goddaughter’, can you put me in contact with your godmother, Marilyn Sabu? I want to show her and her son some pictures. Thanx!

  11. And why is the cause of Jasmine’s death so covered up? Both she and her father died very young, and this automatically makes most people wonder about the cause of death, but there is nothing at all anywhere on the internet. I mean, I’ll Google it, but I’m not SO interested that I would e-mail the L.A. coroner’s office. I will simply assume she inherited a weak heart from her dad, although the internet has no information as to why he died of a heart attack at such a young age. So I guess he inherited a weak heart from his parents as well.

  13. I just want to say that Sabu was one of the most beautifull men in Hollywood and that is the reason why I don’t mind seing him in a loincloth all the time!

    I find it sad that you don’t know him as an actor unless you are a friend of the family! I’m a portuguese woman who as no connection to India or the USA and I’ve know Sabu all my life! For the ones who actually see his movies: I’ve seen “The Thief of Bagdad” (my mother and father told me it was a great hit in Portugal in it’s time and Sabu had many fans then) and the ridiculous but funny “Cobra Woman” and I’ve seen “Black Narcissus”. What good movies with Sabu do you think I should try next?

  14.     I was 10 years old when I first saw Sabu in 'THE THIEF oF BAGDAD".(A big ''crush'' on him too!)
Wonderfull film & now I am going to try to seek out a dvd to show my grandtwins who are almost 10!!!!
     It will bring many memories back for me ,for it was during the war in Britain,& it was such a beautiful distraction for us.It is so very sad that Sabu was taken from us so young!!!Also  his daughter Jasmin too!_Late condolences to his wife Marilyn.

  16. To Mark Burrows – Sabu had just one daughter and one son; I don’t know of any grandson unless Paul has children. To Portugal – Elephant Boy (Sabu’s first film), The Drum (Drums) and Black Narcissus. I have written a biography of Sabu entitled “Star of India: The Life and Films of Sabu” which will be published by BearManor before the end of the year. Go to bearmanormedia.com to see the cover. For the book I interviewed Marilyn Sabu and Bud Knight, Sabu’s best friend from his early Hollywood days. There is much information in it that has never been previously published.