(dramatic fanfare)
(upbeat groovy rock music)
♪ If you wonder why ♪
♪ You were born upon this earth ♪
♪ Where you live and love and die ♪
♪ What is it worth ♪
♪ Well I fought it all in vain ♪
♪ Not worth years of pain ♪
♪ Standing on this cold terrain ♪
♪ Then I met you ♪
♪ Our world ♪
♪ What a crazy place we dwell in ♪
♪ Our world ♪
♪ It's a globe we (mumbles) ♪
♪ A sea ♪
♪ Of despair that I once fell in ♪
♪ But I reached the golden shore ♪
♪ When I fell in love with you ♪
♪ Now I see ♪
♪ Wide horizons blue and shiny ♪
♪ My dreams ♪
♪ Have a heavenly design ♪
♪ We kiss ♪
♪ And my heart goes Valentine-ing ♪
♪ Because we're so in love ♪
♪ Our world ♪
♪ Is regently new ♪
♪ Because we're so in love ♪
♪ Our world ♪
♪ Is regently new ♪
(tense instrumental music)
(singing in foreign language)
- [Narrator] In my career of nearly four decades
in motion pictures, I've played every monstrous role
it was possible for writers to create.
But as you will see in the exciting film to follow
nothing invented by the human mind
can be as macabre, grotesque, and thrilling
as the behavior of people in so called real life.
(upbeat instrumental music)
(singing in foreign language) (upbeat rock and roll)
Now this fella's name is Franz Drago,
he's 27 inches tall and weighs 130 pounds.
His father was Spanish and his mother was Sicilian.
They were in Tokyo when Franz was born
and as Japan is the land of miniatures,
you can see what pre-natal influence did to Franz.
(energetic rock and roll)
Franz Drago is terrific in his specialty
of imitating internationally famous popular singers
but he has to hide his great talent
under the 27 inch bushel of his body
because the public is more entertained
by Franz Drago's dimensions than by his imitations.
(scatting) (energetic rock and roll)
♪ I ♪
♪ Aint got nobody ♪
♪ Oh darling ♪
♪ Nobody ♪
♪ To kiss and hold me ♪
♪ Nobody ♪
♪ To kiss and hold me ♪
♪ I'm ♪
♪ So sad and lonely ♪
♪ Oh lonely ♪
♪ Lonely lonely ♪
♪ Won't some sweet mama ♪
♪ Come and rescue me ♪
♪ 'Cause I aint so bad ♪
♪ And I know ♪
♪ We lucked out ♪
(energetic rock and roll music)
♪ She wanted me ♪
♪ Oh no no no no ♪
♪ Baby ♪
♪ How much sugar ♪
♪ Dollars ♪
♪ I aint got ♪
♪ Nobody ♪
♪ And nobody ♪
♪ Nobody ♪
♪ And nobody ♪
♪ Nobody ♪
♪ Aint no one ♪
♪ (Singing in foreign language) ♪
♪ Over there ♪
♪ Nobody ♪
♪ No no one ♪
♪ Nobody ♪
♪ Nobody cares for me ♪
Atlas was a strong man and he was reincarnated
as a book of maps.
Ajax was a powerhouse and he came back as a detergent.
But Hercules, mightiest of all strongmen,
has dozens of reincarnations.
All of them working in historical, Biblical, colossal films.
Performing superhuman exploits against the bad guys.
(tense adventurous music)
- [Man] Stop...
- [Narrator] But the real heroes are the studio laborers
who, at the end of each scene,
have to carry away on their shoulders, without effort,
uprooted columns, mountains that have been split in two
and the remains of erect temples.
- One, two.
- [Narrator] For generations, English ladies
have disdained to compete with foreign beauties
in putting up a front but if Mr. Paddy Hoose
is to have his way, they will soon come up from behind.
Mr. Hoose's method combines physical and vocal gymnastics
which help develop the figure divine
by giving new lymph and youth
to bosoms that were limp and old.
(vocalizing)
- One, two, three, four, five.
(vocalizing)
(singing in foreign language)
(energetic foreign dance music)
Bedouins, the once fierce warriors of the Sahara desert,
are now accenting the first syllable of their tribal name,
B-E-D, bed.
(upbeat dance music)
To interested tourists,
who watch the ancient tribal entertainments
and wandering carnivals,
they offer something more than a simple variety show.
For a price, mister tourist follows the manager Bedouin
into the tent of the owner Bedouin
to make contact with the call girl Bedouin.
Faithful to long established principles,
the Bedouins have given up their flocks of sheep
for flocks of girls.
For them, it's better to live but briefly in this trade
than a hundred years of herding sheep.
(upbeat indigenous dance music)
(energetic jazzy rock music)
As you can easily see, sometimes the culture
of America achieves brilliant results
by following the most astonishing paths.
- Good evening, I am very happy to express to you
in the name of the organizing committee,
warm thanks for accepting our demand.
Your presences here, though numerous and compact,
testifies how sensible you are
to the universal problems of culture and art.
As you already know, our contribution
will serve a great cause,
the safety of the more ancient and important ruins
of a remote civilization which are threatened
by the exigencies of our modern life.
Ladies and gentlemen, in the name of and on behalf
of the American Committee for the the Safety
of the Luxor Valley Monuments,
I open the curtain on the showing organized by this town.
(applause)
(energetic instrumental music)
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, Miss Virginia,
Miss North Carolina, Miss South Carolina,
Miss Louisiana, Miss Oregon, Miss California,
Miss Utah, Miss Colorado, Miss Oklahoma,
Miss Arizona and Miss New York.
- [Narrator] The eminent and artistic sense
completes the beauty prizes, swings along the runway,
and gets inside the girl's sweaters.
Contrary to the Europeans, the Americans make use
of outstanding beauties as a pretext
to get at artistic and cultural results
while Europeans, in cases only apparently similar,
make use of artistic and cultural pretexts
to get at the outstanding beauties
or naturally any references to persons
or movie producers is purely coincident.
(upbeat energetic music)
- Miss California, 38.
(applause)
Miss Utah, 36.
(applause)
Miss Colorado, 36.
(applause)
Miss Oklahoma, 34.
(applause)
Miss Arizona, 36.
(applause)
Miss New York, 36.
(applause)
Miss Oregon, 36.
(applause)
Miss Louisiana, 34.
(applause)
Miss South Carolina, 34.
(applause)
Miss North Carolina, 36.
- [Narrator] With the selection of the beauty queen,
the picturesque competition comes to an end.
The money raised by these girls, in well filled sweaters,
will help to preserve the pyramids of ancient Egypt.
Money thus flows from the temples of luxury in Las Vegas
to the temples of Luxor in Egypt.
(sultry music)
All beauty contests, whether ennobled by cultural intentions
or not, generally have one common characteristic.
They start a great many of their winners
on the road to careers in the lively arts.
Like this Asiatic girl, for instance,
who's job requires to get along without a sweater,
or anything else for that matter.
The audience is Chinese and it's only right
that it should be.
We're in Hong Kong, the doorway to China
and the port of all the temptations of the Orient.
The girl, however, is of mixed blood.
In her veins there flows, and rather rapidly
we'd say from the way she moves,
the blood of the various races
who've enthusiastically given in
to the thousand of temptations of Hong Kong.
A splendid example of cross breeding
at a great world crossroads.
The crossing at which anyone,
whether he comes from the right or left,
be sure to find a freeway wide open before him.
(sultry piano music)
(tense drum music)
The knots that bind the delicate charms
of these two Chinese maidens are not difficult to untie.
The man who tied them is only meeting the requirements
of the staging and his slight tendency to sadism
was balanced by his worry
that he might damage the merchandise.
We're still in Hong Kong in the studio of a photographer
who's business is supplying layouts for magazines
published for readers with special tastes.
The fans of this kind of photography are very numerous
in the Orient and make it possible for publishers
of these specialized publications
to amass fat profits that are practically incalculable.
Each week, through a well organized distribution system,
the timid sadists of Hong Kong receive narration
of eroticism and torture.
(tense instrumental music)
Always on the lookout for new acts suited
to the tastes of the most sophisticated customers,
the inexhaustible imagination
of some Chinese night club owners
has no bounds or limits
and every night, in very private rendezvous,
new kinds of diversions are offered
to the insatiable curiosity
of seekers of forbidden sensations.
(sultry jazz music)
(tense instrumental music)
At first sight, these two girls seem to be engaged
in a innocent and playful wrestling match.
In reality, their movements, which seem to be
for defending themselves against their opponent,
are carefully worked out to give the rich
and offbeat spectators suggestive views
and torrid prospects, calculated to arouse
once more in their weary memories,
ancient and nebulous recollections.
(tense drum music)
They are two males and they are fighting
for the domination of the herd
and for the possession of the female.
Ignorant of the old proverb,
when two are fighting, the third enjoys the show.
They are unaware of the danger lurking in the undergrowth
of the Savanna.
The lord of the jungle is out hunting.
The zebra has paid dearly for his lust
for power and love.
Now his carcass, with all the ambitions that were inside it,
has become dinner for the king of beasts
and his royal family.
(tense triumphant classical music)
Three tons of bone, muscle, and flesh on the move.
It's an old male, who all alone
confronts the thousand enemies
that always lie in ambush for every wild animal.
One shot from a modern rifle is enough
to bring down the huge beast.
The negro bearers, proud of their white hunter,
are at the highest pitch of excitement and joy.
The rich prey represents for them and their whole tribe
a week of substantial and abundant meals.
The great white hunter, on the other hand,
will go away content with tails of his butchery,
completely satisfied with his brilliant achievement,
without forgetting, that is, to take with him
is a modest and well deserved souvenir.
The two precious ivory tusks of the fallen elephant.
(upbeat instrumental music) (men shouting)
(birds squawking)
(organ music)
(applause)
The bride is 24, the groom, 81.
It's not a love match.
The dominative, almost imperious presence
by the bride's side
of the vigorous best man,
bears mute witness to the fact
that in the case of this couple
the eternal triangle was formed
even before the wedding journey.
She is a professional prostitute.
The groom is an inmate of an old man's home.
The best man is the bride's steady companion
and shares with her the profits from the oldest profession.
The idea of having the young woman
marry the agreeable old man for a modest compensation
came from the best man.
It being the only way of eliminating the danger
of the girl's being sent back to the town of her birth
by a police order.
A measure the authorities do not adopt
if the girl can write Mrs. in front of her name.
(singing in Italian) (upbeat jazzy swing)
(speaking Italian)
(singing in Italian) (upbeat jazzy swing)
(upbeat instrumental music)
This is the dream place of those women.
The amusement quarter of Barcelona,
the ill famed Barrio Chino.
Every night, these dark streets, barely illuminated
now and then by the colored signs of night spots
of every type, become the meeting place
for a sampling of humanity
almost always on the fringes of the law.
Specimens often enriched by gentlemen of the hunt
for forbidden emotions.
Sometimes, by a kind of instinctive self defense,
the gentlemen who go hunting
for forbidden emotions in the Barrio Chino,
conceal their true identity beneath
a very definite disguise
and is certainly is nobody's fault
if afterwards, through so many searching
for forbidden sensations every night,
even they can no longer distinguish
between their original personality
and the one beneath the disguise.
(upbeat swing dance music)
(drunken singing)
We are in Munich.
A group of students from the local university
throw themselves in the delights
of a typical German beer hall party.
Student songs, beer, and a little spontaneous music
are the ingredients of this get together
which is the prelude to a ceremony
that's far more cruel and stupid
than the innocent and peaceful images
we are viewing would suggest.
The youthful hopes for the culture
of the Germany of tomorrow and it's governing class,
draw from their signs the courage necessary
to confront a test which the ironclad rules
of their association has rendered traditional.
A battle against fear in their faces
bear the permanent signs of the fight that they endured.
(drunken singing)
It's the ill famed Mensur.
Every self respecting German student
must have his face carved by a wound received
in a duel with a school mate.
It is a wound which every self respecting German student
will show off later with pride as the undeniable proof
of his courage and a maturity achieved.
(metal clinking)
(gasping)
(singing in German) (sultry parlor music)
This is a nightclub in the old quarter of Berlin.
Which every evening gathers within it's ancient halls
the aristocracy of the transvestites of half Europe.
In fact, it was in this club at the beginning of the century
that the first exponent appeared of that fashion
for wearing the opposite sexes clothes
that later spread like a spot of oil
to every corner of the world
until it has reached its present frightening proportions.
(singing in German) (sultry parlor music)
(applause)
(soft whimsical music)
Behind this door, hidden in the back room
of the modest neighborhood restaurant in Hamburg,
there exists a small world of unsatisfied women
who founded a club for those with special tastes
where they can meet once a week
and find in companionship the courage to break away
from a moral and social reality
which they do not share.
They are students, regularly married wives,
members of the industrial middle class.
There's every type in every category
and each one of them in this room,
covering 50 square yards every Saturday night,
searches for what the outside world can never grant.
The freedom to consider themselves apart, from,
and above every moral rule.
(soft whimsical music)
(energetic jazzy carnival music)
A humorist once said that the carnival
is a strange world in which the freaks
are not the people inside the booths
but the one who buy tickets to go and see them.
Perhaps by taking their queue from this truth,
the organizers of the Luna Park
of the city of Northern Europe,
have invented some attractions that are absolutely original.
Here is one of the novelties.
The game consists of trying to pin one's opponents shoulders
to the mat, but victory is not complete
if the balloons, which the contenders have tied
behind their backs, do not explode.
The game had immediate success.
Also because all the feminine spectators
who so desire are free to get into the fight.
The German men's passion of wrestling
shows rising, un-arrestable progress every night.
(shouting) (whimsical carnival music)
This is a novelty at Luna Park, too.
It comes from France and is called the bridge of marvels.
The mechanism is very simple.
A wind pipe connected to a perforated boardwalk
vibes a powerful air jet upwards
with scenic results of spectacular interest.
Visitors, generally young couples,
are more and more numerous
and amid the rippled laughter of the spectators here, too,
the sports loving Northern's continue their healthful custom
of catching a breath of fresh air.
For the fisherman on the island of Solan,
today is a day of celebration.
Their catch yielded all four of the great sea turtles
whose tasty and juicy flesh
is an exquisite delicacy to gourmets allover the world.
With their forthcoming profit in mind,
the men work rapidly and accurately.
In a few minutes, their work is done
and the same men, thinking of the turtle,
mild and innocent symbol of slowness,
observe that he who goes slow goes safe and far
and doesn't come back.
In this corner of Africa at the southern part
of the dark continent, white men are permitted
to hunt upon of paying a fee but Negros are not.
The decaying carcasses of animals
with the flesh cut away and marks left by primitive men
stealing the bodies of surviving beasts,
bear witness, however, that among the natives
the urge to break the restriction is stronger
than their fear of consequences.
But actually it is more likely
that the natives are driven not so much
by the love of hunting as by the necessity for finding food.
The only ones who do not hunt in this area are the English
to whom the still confused political situation
gives the right to keep watch that the local tribes
do not slaughter the wildlife.
In compensation, however, now and then they can
have the thrill of an exciting manhunt among the Africans.
After all, it's the only hunting permitted by law.
(energetic drum music)
On the coast of Malabar India
a man is gravely ill and his relatives
have called in a group of specialized healers.
Here they are.
Their (mumbles) following an ancient
and spectacular ritual,
is intended to drive the spirits of evil
out of the sufferer's body.
(tense drum music)
We are near the end,
not only of the sick man but also of the rite.
Now the sorcerer will take a chicken,
donated by the patients family, and devour it then and there
as a symbol of the defeat of evil.
It's the only moment in which the sick man displays
any sign of interest.
For in that chicken or in the broth he expected
will be made of it, the poor patient had placed
all his hopes for recover.
These people will never recover, either.
Their vices, which pass with complete indifference
from smoking to drugs, are much stronger
than their will to live.
One man's vice may be another man's necessity.
Cocaine, a dreaded word in decent society,
is the stuff of life to the Indians of Ecuador.
By chewing coca leaves, thoroughly toasted
and treated with lime, they are able to sustain any labor
and forget food and the misery and sacrifice
of their dreary existence.
Even children learn to use the leaves
before they learn to walk.
(soft classical music)
The primordial theories concerning the coca
of the underprivileged Indians of Ecuador
received dramatic confirmation
also in the slums of well ordered
and civilities great cities.
These two women in Hong Kong,
by now resigned to be captives of the vice,
go through the horrors of waiting
for their daily supply of cocaine and morphine.
Today, the peddler is late.
(tense jazz music)
But most of the time, the distribution of the drug
is carried out with sinister exactness and punctuality.
In this Chinese opium den, the little pellets
have arrived in time to assure the customers
a brief sojourn in their artificial paradise.
A paradise these men acquire at the price of their lives,
which would drift away piece by piece
and day by day along with the smoke of the drug
they draw through the pipe stems.
(tense jazz music)
This is the Maharaja of Mysore
who is venerated by his subjects as a divine being
because once a year he preforms the miracle
of making rain fall.
In the minds of his subjects,
the Maharaja has a continuous, direct connection
hot line with the supernatural.
Even if the supernatural is the office
of the weather bureau in Calcutta.
But his subjects are only interested in the rain
swelling the water of the sacred Ganges,
in which they may purge themselves of their sins
and those of the Maharaja.
It's not the water of the sacred Ganges
but that of a swimming pool in Munich.
Nevertheless, this too is a religious ceremony.
It's the baptism of the new converts
to the sect of Jehovah's Witnesses.
The men in the white undershirts
are brothers of long standing
appointed by the community to baptize the new witnesses.
(crowd chattering)
The religious movement called Jehovah Witnesses,
very popular in Northern Europe, grows more powerful
and solid everyday.
Today in Munich, their highly organized annual congress
is in progress.
Upon this broad pasture gathered more than 150,000 people.
(Man speaking German)
(singing in German)
All Jehovah's Witnesses are firmly convinced
that each one will have his special place in the new ark
which will save them from the imminent universal flood.
The one thing they forget is that
to save the entire congregation,
the ark would need to be more or less
the same dimensions of the world
that is about to be destroyed.
(singing in German)
Here it looks as if the universal flood
had already taken place.
We're on to Halian the archipelago of desolation.
Where every form of live has been extinguished
since time immemorial.
The natives who eek out an existence
along the edges of the sinister swamp
speak vaguely of an object which fell from the sky
ages ago and plunged into the depths of the water
and since then, all plant life has withered and died
and the human inhabitants have disappeared
from the region like the victims of some mysterious sorcery.
(tense music)
It's the Berlin Wall.
It is several miles long
and stretches like a sinuous and evil snake
across the entire city, dividing at one at the same time
the hearts of the German people and two civilizations
in perpetual discord.
The wall was constructed several years ago
in a single night by thousands of soldiers,
police, and citizens of the Eastern sector.
It's a little less than two yards high
but it is impassable.
On the Eastern side, from which the most frequent
escape attempts are made,
armed sentinels stand guard day and night,
under orders to prevent, at whatever cost,
any East Berliner from passing over
to the Western sector.
(tense music)
During the years that the war has divided the citizens
of the same city and sometimes mothers
from their children and brothers from brothers,
the chronicle is rich and desperate
in courageous episodes.
One of these which occurred recently boarders
on the prestigious.
A young man carried his fiancee and his future mother in law
to the western sector by hiding them in the trunk
of an automobile.
A topless sport model selected purposely
because of it's low slung body.
He approached the checkpoint
and dashed through the various obstacles in the car
from which he had removed the windshield.
With a lightening like maneuver,
he drove under the barrier and into the Western sector.
Since that time, the authorities have added vertical bars
to the barrier to discourage
other desperate escape attempts.
Sometimes, however, lady luck is not so generous.
In Bernaur Strasse
where the war cut several buildings in two
silence reigns as in places dedicated
to the most sacred memories.
Here, where the possibilities for escape
offered by windows and roofs seem greater,
fate has a taken a more bitter tone
of those who with an act of rebellion,
have tried to free themselves
from the most fatuous limitation imposed by man
upon his brothers.
That of human liberty.
(tense music)
There is a wall here, too.
It was erected by the city government of Naples
so as not to offend the eyes of tourists
and the fastidious inhabitants of the elegant neighborhoods
with the sight of this shanty town founded some years ago
by a group of homeless citizens.
In contrast with the Berlin Wall, though,
there are no sentinels standing guard
at the one in Naples.
Anyone may pass in at will through it's various reaches
and take a look at the shanty town and it's inhabitants
and up to now, numbers of curious visitors
have penetrated its barrier.
With the exception, perhaps, of those who should
of done so as an official duty.
(upbeat music)
Signor Antonio, up to a short time ago,
he confesses it himself.
Followed the difficult
and dangerous profession of smuggling.
His activity, which, if we don't go in for subtleties,
might be regarded as an affirmation
of free enterprise against monopoly.
Reassured a rapid and regular source of supply
to all the cigarette black market in Naples.
Now, he says, he's given up his dangerous profession
and if he carries out one of his operations once more
it is only, he says,
to serve the cause of cinema entertainment.
In fact, Signor Antonio agreed to reconstruct
one of his operations for us
and show us the salient phases of the complex activity
which kept the smuggled cigarettes
pouring into the booming Neapolitan markets.
The packages, naturally for this demonstration,
do not contain cigarettes.
(speaking Italian)
(water sloshing)
He says, "You see, I left the sacks here.
Three or four days later when things calm down
I came and got them.
The revenue has passed but their boats were too high
to come in here."
What do you say?
With that face, do you believe he won't come back
in three or four days this time, too?
The merchandise brought into Naples
by the various Antonios ends up in the Forcella market.
One of the busiest and best stocked in southern Italy.
Here one can find just about everything
but it's highly probable that the foreign ministers
of the various interested nations
got the first idea of the common European market right here.
In fact, the way the common market functions
is merely an imitation
and not even a completely successful one
of the modern and extremely well stocked market of Forcella.
(energetic music)
In Naples, the cult of the dead is very lively.
When a difficult situation arises
the Neapolitans have recourse to the dead.
They call upon them for everything.
The success of a business deal, the recovery of a friend,
the death of an enemy, a happy marriage.
Well, the most frequent request is for three numbers
to play the lottery.
As a matter of fact, in Naples when a loved one dies
the idea of mourning is closely tied
in with playing the lottery.
(praying in Italian)
This widow still expects her husband to support her
though he's long since dead.
She's imploring him to put her on the track of money.
Once they are interpreted and technically selected
the Neapolitans dream have transformed to numbers
and then if the numbers are not drawn,
there's no great harm done.
A week passes quickly, one can always play again.
Nothing in the world could prevail on the Neapolitans
to give up their weekly ration of illusion.
The attempt to solve personal problems
with a winning lottery ticket
becomes a reason in some cases to go on living.
Naples is the home of the evil eye.
The fairly common profession is that of the incense spreader
who goes about the streets entering houses
and shops with his improvised tin censer
spreading perfumed smoke.
(energetic tense music)
(speaking Italian)
In Naples, many people believe in the evil eye
but out of evil comes good,
for those who earn their livelihood by spreading incense
against the ominous awe.
Ridiculous as it may seem,
some superstitious people think
that luck can be theirs by breaking a wishbone.
Others come across a hunchback
and are asking to rub his spine to bring them luck.
(energetic music)
(speaking Italian)
We're on the stage of a small vaudeville theater.
The company, almost complete, is rehearsing the numbers
for a new show.
(energetic music)
They're very proud of their featured dancer, Rudy.
He believes that he is the living reincarnation
of Rudolph Valentino.
He was born the night that Valentino died
and nightly, in this small theater,
he performs the legendary lover's famous tango.
(sultry tango music)
His smug expression seems to assume
that a sigh will rise from females in the audience
and he won't be happy until a woman in black
throws flowers on his grave.
(sultry tango music)
It's dawn in a southern Italian town.
In this town in the deep south, attachment to the earth
has deep almost legendary origins.
(singing in Italian)
Aware of the necessity for fertilizing the fields,
entire families cooperate during the night
in accumulating a considerable quantity of fertilizer
which will help towards the production
of a more bountiful annual harvest.
The service for collecting
the raw material works to perfection.
For these people, the word plumbing is an abstract meaning,
almost suggesting science fiction.
So, for the present, this is the only method
of solving the needs of the south.
(singing in Italian)
Here too, day by day,
private enterprise makes notable progress.
This boy prefers to ignore the public collector
and perhaps, without being aware of it,
applies the sound commercial principle
which eliminates any middle man
between producer and consumer.
(speaks Italian) the street of the Roman artists,
modern bohemians with automobiles and bank accounts.
Every year, opens its courtyards,
full of garages and attics with central heating,
to poor artists, to those who have yet achieved success
or at least an exhibit at a stylish gallery.
So, every year for several days in this famous street,
the so called artists fair is held for painters
still struggling upwards.
Among these men and women, who sometimes
are men and women only by virtue
by their birth certificates,
are hidden the future talents which will enrich
tomorrow's culture with their words
and while they write their names
in the great album of glory,
the refine their sensibilities and gatherings
for the high cultural level.
It's well known that artists are always considered
free of the prejudices and inhibitions
which restrain the instincts of ordinary people.
For some time, however, the youthful dissipation
of the past is given way to manifestations
which resemble less and less an affirmation
of rebellion against conformity.
Since the time of the existentialists,
the path of modern art passes more and more often
and more willingly through experiences like this.
Certain works of modern art, as all know,
hardly have to go on sale before they are snapped up
and the snapping up is generally down by the members
of the vice squad.
(energetic drum music)
With the most absolute respect for the proverb
which says that dog is man's best friend
and woman is the dog's best friend,
the modish ladies of the capitol
are noted for the particular attention
they devote for their charming and faithful canine friends.
(dogs barking)
If the faithful canine has the symptoms of a tumor,
especially if it is far advanced,
its mistress, without a thought of expense,
has an operation performed at once.
No ordinary veterinarian will do.
The dog must have the attention of a medical man
of at least the status of Dr. Casey.
When this Casey goes to bat,
the result is a miracle cure.
(tense instrumental music)
Meanwhile, these wait for their turn
in the well equipped dormitory of the specialized clinic.
All of the purest thoroughbreds.
They are lovingly cared for
by the nurses of their mistresses
who see to it that they keep warm
and as comfortable as possible.
They've caught cold or have a slight inflammation
of the stomach or perhaps the measles and the mumps.
The old saying, a dog's like is losing its bite
is enough to consider that every day
the existence of these charming little beast
is becoming more like that of human beings.
Among other things, even men are sometimes
run over by an automobile.
(dog whimpering) (somber classical music)
And here are a few almost too obvious demonstrations
that the difference between men and animals
is in some cases, at least from a formal
and external point of view, very subtle and problematic.
(ethereal tense music)
(energetic jazzy music)
(jazz music)
(upbeat jazzy music)
You see, what did we say?
Before this cage, what difference is there
between this sprightly, but possibly dutied old gentlemen
and the immensely dignified elk?
(soft tense music)
In the heart of Arabia, camels are useful
not only as tireless bearers of men and merchandise.
The abundant consequences of their boundless thirst
are collected in special receptacles
and used by the local hairdressers
as an effective rinse to make the young
and pretty Arab girls turn blonde.
(soft tense music)
(speaking foreign language)
(upbeat energetic music) (speaking foreign language)
The miracle is accomplished.
The delicate operation is completely successful.
(soft tense music)
The Indians have not yet discovered
the liquid generosity of the camel
and in dressing their hair
they make use of the dyeing propensities
of a certain type of berry.
(soft tense music)
Before laughing at these hairdos
think well upon modern hairstyling
and the faces of the young people in our country.
When a young Papuan decides to get married,
he must ask his future mother in law
instead of his sweetheart's father
for the hand of his bride.
These Papuan villages are matriarchies,
therefore the women rule the roost.
We are witnessing a wedding ceremony.
The bridal couple is subjected to ritual treatment.
They are both greased and thoroughly massaged
by the oldest woman in the village
who has previously instructed the bride
as to the significance of the nuptial rite
and the duties it imposes.
Not an easy task when one considers
that the marriageable age
for Papuan girls ranges from eight to 12 years.
Here, an 18 year old unmarried girl
is already a sour old maid.
When the matrimonial ceremony is over,
the married couple withdraw into the hut
with the old folks for company
while the rest of the village abandons itself
to frenzied celebration of the wedding feast.
Two women begin the dancing with a ritual ballet,
the movements of which signify that women is queen
because she conceals within her the mystery of life.
Immediately afterwards, it's the men's turn,
with the permission of the old women,
today the Papuan husbands can go off the leash for awhile.
Men and women masked by these strange headdresses,
dance together in couples
without knowing the identity of their partners.
(upbeat rock and roll)
These are native dance customs.
It all depends on what part of the world
you are a native of.
In the wilds of the island of Haiti it's the Macumba.
In a modern night club, it's rock and roll.
Can we, from the height of our civilization,
truly call one primitive and the other cultivated?
(energetic rock and roll) (man scatting)
(singing in foreign language)
In the Jamaican quarter of London,
a usage prevails which can only seem eccentric
to our eyes used to more severe customs.
When a man cannot support a woman by himself,
he forms an association with several friends
to make a kind of consortium.
Thus a woman will have four or five husbands
who support her together and enjoy her charms by turns.
In order not to disturb the intimacy
of the little Jamaican family,
we pointed our lens through the window.
Domestic peace reigns serenely
and the woman feels perfectly at ease
beneath the gaze of her four husbands.
Until a short time ago, this woman had five husbands.
But it's not easy to look after five men
and the poor creature was driven by necessity
to give up the fifth.
(soft reflective music)
And here's another way of showing a love for nature.
The tourists say that life in the open
has its advantages.
You sleep in the pure air of the pinewoods,
you breathe the fresh ozone of the sea
and you're not a captive of the demands of city life
and more important, you don't have to pay a hotel bill.
(laughing) (upbeat jazz music)
For their part, the young people,
who no doubt agreed reluctantly
to follow their aging parents on the rough trail
of camp life, always find a way to keep boredom away.
Here's a group of them engrossed
in a recently invented game.
A blindfolded fellow must recognize the girl he has kissed
by the touch of her lips and her personal technique.
If he guesses wrong he loses and must pay a forfeit.
But if he recognizes both the technique and the girl,
then, well.
We can't say exactly what his prize will be.
When we asked the girls about it,
they blushed without reply.
However, there's one consolation,
at least they blushed.
(upbeat swing jazz music)
If kids take their spicy game seriously,
imagine how grownups behave.
Watch.
This pastime is the craze of England.
It's called Hoodwink and the players have
to guess the identity of the girl
who's been chosen from among the feminine acquaintances
of the male contestants.
When one of the players guesses the name of the girl,
she has to take off her hood
and with a wink she goes off with the lucky man.
As in all parlor games the quiz has its weak point, too.
Sometimes it happens that the same girl
is called by two, three, or even four spectators.
But this only makes it more interesting.
(laughing)
- It was mine, now give it to me.
(upbeat swing jazz music)
- [Man] Could be my wife.
(laughing)
- [Man] That's the clip that I always,
that's the clip--
- [Man] Now, she's getting more familiar
and the gesture and the movement.
(laughing)
- Joan.
- [Man] No, it's Carol.
- [Man] Not Joan then.
- [Man] I don't think she knows who it is.
- [Man] Let's see who it could be.
- [Man] What (mumbles) did we meet?
You don't know?
(laughing)
- I must confess, she fooled me completely.
I couldn't understand who she was.
Another hangman's lady.
- [Man] The return of the hangman's lady.
- [Man] Well, let's see if she looks a little bit
more familiar than the other ones.
- Yes, she does. - She's good, I like her.
- Very (mumbles) slip.
As I always say.
Many a slip between the cup and the lip.
(laughing)
- [Man] I hope you don't say it very often.
- [Man] Not too often.
Now let's see.
- Ah, now. - This one begins
with the lifting.
- [Man] Oh well, now my wife always gives
the right leg.
- [Man] So this is not your wife?
- [Man] Couldn't be.
(laughing)
- Oh, no that's mine.
- Here we go.
- Oh no, you had.
You had the last one.
That is mine.
(swing jazz music)
- [Man] Oh, I think looking more familiar.
- [Man] Where did we meet this one?
Was it the (mumbles)?
- [Man] Could of been there, yes it could of.
- [Man] I think I recognize that back.
- [Man] Boy, what a back.
- Oh wait, I see something familiar.
Joan. - Joan!
(swing jazz music)
(laughing)
- [Narrator] This time, everything was fine.
Out of three customers, only two guessed right.
(laughing)
Luckily, man's great moving force love
still keeps its romantic flavor against all odds.
Though times have changed
and is no longer the rattling of a carriage
but the muffled purr of a motor
that forms the background
to the murmurings of sweet nothings.
The sight of two lovers whispering tender phrases
has remained unchanged.
A truly moving and heartwarming sight,
which however, is spied upon from time to time
by some stealthy spectator.
Here you see some of them caught by our lens
after a long and patient wait.
They are voyeur or watchers.
The unfortunate outsiders looking in on love.
(upbeat music)
As opposed to the professional,
the amateur voyeur, even if no longer young,
can satisfy their taste at very little cost,
naturally, they can't expect much.
This kind of show might bear the slogan
if you like it, enjoy it.
(upbeat jazzy music)
Those little machines don't have many customers
in the summertime.
Then the amateur voyeur wants something
with more life, something more tangible
and they go looking for it on the beaches
always full of pretty girls.
There they go, swinging their hips
with every moving part in tip top
or tip bottom condition.
Their easy movement puts to shame
the finest mechanical device assembled by man.
The rhythmic motion has a hypnotic effect.
They attract all eyes,
their conquest is complete.
They dominate the scene.
Sometimes after the ingenue the special attractions show up.
(upbeat jazz music)
When the muscle boys and more or less genuine tourists
reach an agreement, they need only to choose
a base of operations.
It's not really a difficult problem.
When they go home, the girls from the northern countries
will tell their friends that in Italy
the problem of the relations between the sexes
is still all it seemed.
Like this gentleman, for instance.
(upbeat jazz music)
Inspiration for painters, who try mostly in vain
to capture the astonishing colors on canvas.
Muse of songwriters, who voice their despair
at ever finding another place its equal.
Attraction for tourists who revel in its sun,
sea, and sensuous splendor.
The island of Capri beckons to visitors
from both hemispheres to shed the problems of reality
and to escape in the fantasy world created by nature
in a generous mood in the bay of Naples.
(soft classical music)
None of the many elements of an unforgettable vacation
is lacking here
and they are carefully listed in the folders
distributed by the travel agencies.
Sun, sea, local color,
the Faraglioni, the looks hotels
of the typical narrow streets.
(soft classical music)
In addition, here there are the fisherman
and famous fisherman of Capri.
Hello, what are you doing?
- I take the American tourist ladies out for a boat ride.
- [Narrator] You, too?
- Sure.
- [Narrator] With a woman?
- Of course.
- [Narrator] Thank you.
- Okay.
(swelling classical music)
- [Narrator] At dawn the boats return.
Tonight they didn't go fishing
but their nights work was just as hard
even though well paid.
For the young Capri fisherman, it was a normal business deal
a job just like any other, not worth bragging about
to his friends at the bar.
But for her, it's a different matter.
Something of this night on the sea will remain.
In time, she will idealize the boy from Capri.
She'll think of him as handsome, strong,
and above all less commercial.
(swelling classical music)
As she recounts her adventure to her friends,
what was little more than a casual encounter
will lose much of its brutality
and become a wonderful night of love
beneath the starlight sky
of the most beautiful island in the world.
(shouting)
This too is a safety barrel for modern man.
Here after a week of self control,
personal discipline, inhibitions, and repressions,
men and women finally abandon themselves
to their instincts and give free reign
to the charge of physical and nervous energy
accumulated during the rest of the week.
But even the passion of the sport,
like all man's other pastimes
moves aside and bows low before agreements
of greater weight and substance.
(crowd shouting)
(upbeat fanfare)
Ah yes, the eye demands its share, too.
(energetic fanfare music)
(speaking foreign language)
There you have it.
As they say in Italian, Mondo Bolardo.
It's really a crazy world.
Sincerely, Boris Karloff.
(singing in Italian) (upbeat music)