Angkor

At the Los Angeles Adventurers' Club, Wilfred Lucas, the noted writer, world traveler, motion picture actor and director and adventurer, presents and narrates a motion picture record of two adventurers, who, in 1912, penetrated the jungles of Cambodia in an attempt to solve one of the world's greatest enigmas: the disappearance of the million inhabitants of the once great city of Angkor. The men died before the footage they shot was exhibited, and Lucas relates that the producers of the following motion picture assembled the footage and shot additional scenes suggested by the explorers' notes and diaries. The film begins as the adventurers come to Phnom Penh, where they view the Royal Cambodian dancers. They are astonished that all the princesses dance for a figure wearing a monkey mask, who represents the Prince of Apes. Lucas relates that the motif of the ape wielding power over humans dates back to ancient times in the Khymer culture, and that monkeys are never tied up, caged or killed. When the natives learn that the adventurers want to go to Angkor, which is 300 miles inland, they refuse to rent boats, because they believe the jungle has been cursed. The men must buy two boats to visit the city, which, Lucas says, led the world in culture 1,000 years ago. After fifteen days, the men stop at a native village from where they must travel the remaining journey on foot. At night, they witness a man in an ape skin dance before a raging fire surrounded by dancing natives and learn that the main dancer, a demented Buddhist priest who imagines himself to be the reincarnated king of Angkor, has forbidden the native men to accompany the adventurers. They leave for Angkor, however, with a safari of twenty native women as porters, as the priest has not forbidden women to go. Knowing that no white hunter has brought back a giant monitor, a lizard that is almost extinct, the two adventurers shoot a monitor each and envision themselves decorated for their contribution to natural history. Convinced that an alien presence is watching them, the men discover it is the "Mad King" and chase him to a tree, where they find he is really a giant ape. At Angkor Thom, the men see a carved wall depicting monkeys and women that reminds them of the dance they witnessed at Phnom Penh. They see towers of Siva, the goddess of destruction, and Lucas relates that over 1,000 slaves lost their lives building the city. At night, a woman places fruit on a tree stump and kneels before it. A giant ape climbs down a tree, and as the ape stands over her with arms outstretched, Gene, one of the adventurers, takes aim, but his movement scares the ape who escapes with the food. The girl looks disappointed. The next morning, at the ruins of Angkor Vat, which have been called the most beautiful and elaborately carved buildings in the world, the giant ape heaves a large stone and barely misses the men. The men enter a well-preserved building, and when they see a carving of a dying ape with an arrow through his heart, who is supported in the arms of the queen, they think they have discovered the answer to their query. The men remember the story written by the thirteenth century Chinese ambassador who visited Angkor about a young queen who loved a captured prince. The men guess that the prince took advantage of the culture's monkey worship and disguised himself as a monkey to lead the slaves in a revolt. At night, they imagine events 1,000 years ago: after a spy shoots the prince with an arrow, the prince's maddened bodyguards, disguised as apes, carry off girls as booty. Back in the present, another woman porter goes into the jungle to meet the giant ape, and the men, despite the interference of the women, try to shoot the ape. The women then prepare to leave because they believe that the men are determined to kill the ape. The men, who have found the pipe and pouch belonging to the demented Buddhist priest, are thus compelled to leave Angkor. Lucas concludes his tale, and the film ends with an image of the face of Siva.