Sarong of the South

The second half of Tiki Torch Night at the Starlight Six Drive-in Theatre was devoted to "White Savage," a 1943 tropical island adventure -- and the new print on view was Sabutiful.

I had never dared to dream I would ever see the actor Sabu in a drive-in, except, maybe, sweeping up after the Saturday-Sunday afternoon flea markets, but there he was in all of his ingratiating, wide-grinning splendor.

He had crash-landed his magical flying carpet into a South sea sand dune, forcing himself to trade-up his elephant for a fiddler crab named Simba Baba. (I wrote his back story during the show in order to not doze into my Twizzlers.)

Sabu shared the screen with white guy Sidney Toler, doing a look-alike, sound-alike of his celebrated Charlie Chan character. That's a velsatile actol.

The true star of "White Savage" is Maria Montez, alternately known as "The Queen of Technicolor" and "The Caribbean Cyclone." The crowd at the Starlight came to calling her, "Hey, Man, Where 'Scary Movie 4' Playin'?"

"White Savage" was directed by Arthur Lubin, the auteur behind the beloved Francis the Talking Mule pictures and television's talking horse, "Mr. Ed." Sharp eyes could see the peanut butter Lubin smeared on Miss Montez's gums to make her speak, too.

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