Second of six films of early exploration introduced from the Royal Geographical
Society by Duncan Carse Pearls and Savages (1921) This film, some of the first shot in the South Seas, is the story of an early expedition to the 'vast mystery island of Papua, inhabited by savages, largely untrodden by white men'.
The expedition filmed pearl divers in action, and the arrival of the first seaplanes in Papua. They witnessed spectacular dance ceremonies, grotesquelymasked witch doctors and finally, pressing ever deeper into 'the lawless realms of cannibalism', they discovered a real bonanza - stuffed heads. Not just skulls, which were plentiful, but human heads!
Narrator BRUCE BARRY producer RICHARD ROBINSON (R)