Cinematic adventures gave wings to my imagination

SABU. Faithful aide.

Part of my earliest cinematic memories was East Indian actor, Sabu, along with the likes of sexy Maria Montez, virile Turhan Bey and the swashbuckling Jon Hall. The quartet appeared in exotic adventure films replete with poisonous snakes, flying carpets and desert oases.

Going to the movies with the maids in Iloilo was as much an adventure as Sabu’s films. Bey and Hall always played heroes who came in the nick of time, just before poisonous cobras bit Montez, while Sabu, their faithful aide, deftly abetted their fine deeds.

Beauty, brawn and good intentions won over evil schemes, lurking sheiks and dangerous animals. The movies then only played for two to three days, but “Robin Hood,” starring Errol Flynn, lasted a full week –as did Gene Kelly’s “Three Musketeers.”

Afternoon treks

Those adventures were far-fetched, but they gave wings to my imagination. I also enjoyed those Saturday afternoon treks to movie houses because they “connected” me to the shoeshine boys and drivers who openly booed villains and cheered the heroes — and I thought that was the way to react to movies! I was only 9 years old, so tales about flying carpets, oases and exotic dancers gyrating with snakes made my week!

Sabu represented adventure — and he was also one of Lana Turner’s lovers. By the  ’50s, he had disappeared from the movie scene altogether. As for Montez, she  died of a heart attack; her husband, Jean Pierre Aumont, later married Pier Angeli’s twin sister, Marissa Pavan.