Chang

Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness

United States

1927

69 Min

Black and White

1.33:1

Silent

Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
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DIR Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack

PROD Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack

SCR Ernest B. Schoedsack, Merian C. Cooper, Achmed Abdullah

CAST Kru, Chantui, Nah, Ladah, Than

In the directors’ own words, Chang is a “melodrama with man, the jungle, and wild animals as its cast.” Kru, the farmer depicted in the film, battles leopards, tigers, and even a herd of elephants, all of which pose a constant threat to his livelihood. As filmmakers, Cooper and Schoedsack attempted to capture real life with their cameras, though they often re-staged events that had not been captured adequately on film. The danger was real to all the people and animals involved. Tigers, leopards, and bears are slaughtered on camera, while the film’s climax shows Kru’s house being demolished by a stampeding elephant. —wikipedia

Director

Merian C. Cooper

American producer and director Merian C. Cooper met his partner Ernest B. Schoedsack in Poland just after serving as a lieutenant colonel with the Kosciusko Flying Squadron during World War I. Together the two went on to co-direct two documentaries. Their success lead Cooper and Schoedsack to begin working in fictional features notable for their exotic backgrounds. Their most famous film is the classic King Kong (1933), in which Cooper also acted. In 1933, he gave up directing in favor of full-time producing when he succeeded long-time friend David O. Selznick as vice president in charge of production at RKO. Selznick then appointed Cooper the vice-president of Selznick International Pictures in 1936. Cooper entered the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II where he became a colonel and chief of staff to General Claire Chennault in China. When he finally retired from the military, he was a brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force. In 1947, he and director John Ford formed Argosy Pictures… read more

Ernest B. Schoedsack

Six-foot-six Iowa-native Ernest B. Schoedsack was fascinated with the mechanics of film photography long before taking his first movie job with the Keystone Studios in 1914. During World War I, he worked as a Signal Corps cameraman, and after the Armistice he labored mightily on behalf of Polish war relief, helping thousand of Poles escape the Russian occupied territories. While in Ukraine in 1920 he met Captain Merian Cooper, who, like Schoedsack, was a fervent anti-Bolshevik — and also an aspiring film director. The men renewed their friendship after the hostilities, collaborating on a brace of documentary films, Grass (1926) and Chang (1927). Still in partnership with Cooper, Schoedsack co-directed the fictional adventure film The Four Feathers (1929), then, after another documentary, the Cooper-Schoedsack team helmed RKO’s The Most Dangerous Game (1932), which featured Four Feathers leading-lady Fay Wray. Concurrently with Game, Schoedsack and O’Brien launched their most ambitious… read more