Oldest Falconry Film?

I have the Craighead film of their months with an Indian prince just before WWII, which is not unlike having films of Emperor Frederic in Medieval Sicily, or of being able to step into the print of Vadim Gorbatov's "Kublai Khan's Hawking Party" hanging to my right. But this short film, made before the first World War in Algeria in 1909, and sent by several readers, may be the oldest hawking ever filmed if not the most elevated (a friend cracked "just like you guys-- throwing (implying "wasting") peregrines at bunnies". Brief saluki glimpses too...

PLF and John Huston

Leigh Fermor's one venture into movie writing was with my favorite (and most literary) director, John Huston, but apparently it was not a success (although there were still some good times enjoyed by the pre- PC group.

As the only available version of the movie is in Spanish, in Euro format, and subtitled in English, I wrote to fellow writer and falconer Tony Huston to see if there were any others available. He knew of none, and confirmed that the otherwise brilliant PLF never quite "got" screenwriting; he thinks his father rewrote it, though even that didn't save the film from the critics.

In gratitude for our efforts, Tom Sawford of the PLF Blog sent this splendid photo of Huston, Paddy, and Darryl Zanuck en route to Africa. Damn Leigh Fermor still looked the same at 90!


If any reader has a lead to any English version, we would love to see it.