Forbidden Adventure (1935) / Beyond Bengal (1934) (DVD)

Forbidden Adventure (BW, 1935): At a black-tie-only meeting of the Los Angeles Adventurers' Club, "writer, world traveller, inventor, motion picture actor and director" Wilfred Lucas is lecturing. Our esteemed speaker relates the journey of a pair of explorers to the lost city of Angkor in Cambodia. Legend tells that the residents of this forbidden city worshipped a mythical race of half-man/half-monkey creatures. Encountering monstrous lizards and giant pythons on their sojourn, our intrepid adventurers need the help of breathtakingly beautiful, scantily-clad native girls to reach their destination. Upon arriving in Angkor, they discover a secret so shocking that it could alter the course of human history. In reality, Forbidden Adventure was created by notorious exploitation producer Dwain Esper after he obtained the rights to a previously unreleased 1912 travelogue shot by George M. Merrick. Feeling the footage needed something extra, Esper sent his colleague Marshal Gordon to Los Angeles' Selma Avenue to recruit the most voluptuous call girls he could find to play the topless "natives." (Trees and shrubbery are artfully superimposed in an attempt to preserve the young ladies' modesty, and only sometime succeed.) Wilfred Lucas was actually a Hollywood actor, but not as prestigious as his introduction infers (his other stated talents have yet to be confirmed.) He had small parts in Modern Times (1936) and Laurel & Hardy's A Chump at Oxford (1940). According to the film's opening scroll, Forbidden Adventure's theories on the secret history of Angkor have been praised by "numerous women's organizations and educators," though said groups are never identified by name. Directed by L.C. Cook, George M. Merrick.

Beyond Bengal (BW, 1934): Explorer/nature photographer Harry Schenck ventures deep into the heart of the Malaysian jungle in this 1934 "documentary." Along the way, he bears witness to man-eating alligators, elephants attacking a boat, and tigers mauling his camera man. Despite this, Mr. Schenck seems most concerned with the welfare of his pretty young female assistant and $2,000 camera. Reviewers of the time doubted Beyond Bengal's authenticity (one going so far as to refer to Schenck's aide, Miss Baldwin, as an "actress") and on contemporary viewing many of its sensational scenes do appear to be staged. The film was financed by "His Highness, the Sultan of Perak," who allowed himself to be photographed for the first time for its prologue.

• documentary