Latuko
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Edgar M. Queeny
Paul E. Prentiss
Lonuha
Lomiluk
Abolone
William K. Chulak
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In the village of Tirangole in Sudan, Africa, native boy Lonuha prepares to become a man of the Iago clan by joining in the annual hunt. While the women of the tribe care for the children, carry water from wells, prepare the food and gather wild herbs, the men perform traditional pre-hunt rituals. One of the tribe's many primeval customs involves Ibwoni, the "witch doctor," treating the ill by bleeding them and burying the blood in the earth. In another custom, children have their two front teeth "gouged out with a knife" as soon as permanent teeth grow in. Scars, collars and disfigurations are common adornments and badges of beauty. All the activities are watched over by Lomiluk, the rainmaker and spiritual head of Tirangole. This year, there is plenty of water and the cattle and goat herds are healthy. To prepare for the hunt, the men practice spear-throwing. The blacksmith creates a spear especially for Lonuha, and as tradition demands, the boy spears a cow in the jugular vein, then drinks the blood. Later, the "Father of the Land," a woman named Abolone who holds a hereditary position of great spiritual power, mixes a magic brew of charcoal, earth and saliva. Soon, about two hundred men from all of the clans of Tirangole gather for the hunt, the scars on their shoulders connoting how many men they have killed. Today, the warriors tell tales of past prowess, while Lonuha grows anxious to hunt. Finally, the hunting party fans out in a circle that will eventually span about ten square miles. They move past water buffalo, lions, scorpions, hyenas, snakes and crocodiles in their pursuit of giraffes, bush-bucks and antelope. Lonuha is able to prove his masculinity when he spears an antelope, and feels great pride when he brings meat back to his mother. Later, the women of the tribe gather fish from the river in nets while breaking into jealous arguments. Months later, the villagers work diligently to prepare food and supplies, but a dangerous drought moves in. Lonuha, his heart heavy with fear for his clan, notes the dry river bed and runs to Lomiluk for help. The rainmaker performs a ritual at the rain shrine, in which a goat is strangled and its stomach contents mixed with beer, earth and saliva to form a sacrifice to the ancestors. After a wild rain dance, Lonuha watches with satisfaction as a storm arrives, signaling a good year of peace and plenty.
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
In some articles, the film is billed as Latuko: We Saw Primitive Man. According to a February 2, 1952 Box Office article, in 1950, Edgar M. Queeny, then-chairman of the Monsanto Chemical Company, spent four months in Africa shooting footage for Latuko for the American Museum of National History. The Hollywood Reporter review notes that Queeny returned to America with 80,000 feet of film, shot in 16mm with experimental "natural" sound from Bell Telephone Labs microphones. According to a January 27, 1952 New York Times item, the film was never intended for theatrical distribution but instead was to remain in the museum's files as an anthropological record. However, the Box Office article explains that when Queeny showed the footage to his friend Harry Arthur, the exhibitor deduced its commercial potential. Arthur then hired William K. Chulak to edit the footage into a feature, transferred it onto 35mm film, and screened the resulting picture in the spring of 1951 in St. Louis.
According to information in the MPAA/PCA file on the film, contained at the AMPAS Library, after this successful screening, both RKO and Twentieth Century-Fox expressed a desire to distribute Latuko, but in a memo dated May 23, 1951, PCA director Joseph I. Breen stated that "it would be utterly impossible for us to approve it because most, if not all, the natives are stark naked." Later, Republic Pictures also became interested in distributing the film, and although Queeny appealed the Code's decision to deny the picture a seal, based on a 1929 regulation that allowed some exposure in travelogues, Breen refused to reconsider unless substantial cuts were made. The Catholic League of Decency also condemned the film because of the nudity, and the New York State Censorship Board labeled it "indecent."
Nonetheless, a Los Angeles theater booked the film beginning January 18, 1952, and the success of this screening prompted Producers Representatives, Inc., owned by Sol Lesser and Seymour Poe, to purchase distribution rights to the film. According to a April 9, 1952 Variety item, Producers Representatives then transferred some distribution rights to individual states to avoid further censorship issues. Jarville Studios, the production company, was owned by Queeny. Although the Variety review states that "the footage will be cut into three films, of which Latuko is the first," only one other film was made, the 1953 Jarville release Wakamba (see below). Despite the fact that the film was the subject of much controversy and the tone of the narration was considered patronizing, reviews pointed out its educational and cultural value, and San Francisco Chronicle called Latuko "a serious and absorbing ethnological study of a remote people."
