Weird Wide World, Volume 4: Rare Short Subjects From Around the Globe

CAMERA THRILLS IN WILDEST AFRICA (1938): The husband-and-wife team of Armand Denis and Leila Roosevelt traveled to the Belgian Congo, "the very heart of Africa's jungles", to make this short for Castle Films' The Sport Parade series. Gene Castle believed the word "thrills" was a lucky charm, and made sure it was in the title of many of the company's forthcoming releases (i.e., Fishing Thrills, Arctic Thrills, Sea-Going Thrills, etc.)

OLD SPAIN (1942): A picturesque portrait of the parts of Spain "undisturbed by war." "The world can be forgotten here," says our narrator, "and therein lies the charm and romance of Old Spain." Part of Castle Films' The World Parade series, Old Spain was only available to customers for one year.

EXOTIC BALI (1955): Another popular Castle Films release, Exotic Bali shows the indigenous people of Bali engaging in "a fantastic pantomime" to appease their god Hanuman, the Monkey King. The narrator never passes up an opportunity to discuss the "beautiful, firm bodies" of the Balinese women, who "are always busy" (and always topless, it seems!)

CAMERA IN THAILAND -- PEOPLE OF THE WATERS (1962): Mel London was a celebrated filmmaker (and cookbook author) best known for his Oscar-nominated short To Live Again (1963). Here he takes his camera to the floating markets of Thailand to show off Eastman Kodak's dynamic range of color film.

NATURAL RESOURCES OF SOUTHEAST ASIA (1967): Globe-trotting cinematographer Wayne Mitchell made this short about the importance of Southeast Asia to the world's economy during the height of the Vietnam War.

BONUS: EXPEDITION! "The Sacred Well of Sacrifice" (1961): For two seasons on ABC, the documentary series Expedition! took viewers to remote areas of the world. This episode, "The Sacred Well of Sacrifice", documented the then ongoing exploration of the ruins of the ancient Mayan city of Chichen-ltza on the Yucatan Peninsula, in Mexico. It is narrated by Paul Frees, the beloved voice-over artist known for, among other things, Walt Disney's Ludwig Von Drake and Rocky and Bullwinkle's Boris Badenov, as well as his small roles in the sci-fi classics The Thing From Another World (1951) and The War of the Worlds (1953).

• documentary