Sabu Filmography

Born:: January 27, 1924 in Karapur, Myrsore, India
Occupation:: Actor
Birth name:: Saby Dastagir
Biography:: The son of an Indian mahout, or elephant driver, Sabu spent much of his adolescence as a stable boy for the Maharajah of Mysore. At age 11, Sabu was discovered by documentary filmmaker Robert Flaherty, who cast the youth in the title role of the 1937 feature Elephant Boy. The personable Indian lad...Read More

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A Tiger Walks

Actors: Brian Keith, Vera Miles, Pamela Franklin, Sabu, Edward Andrews

Synopsis: After a dangerous tiger turns on its trainer and escapes from the circus, a small town in Texas finds itself in an uproar over its capture. As it is hunted by numerous parties, a young girl begins protesting and starts a nationwide movement to plead for the tiger's safety. As the situation gains Read More

1964
Rampage

Actors: Robert Mitchum, Elsa Martinelli, Jack Hawkins, Sabu, Cely Carrillo

Synopsis: In this South Seas adventure, an internationally renowned big-game hunter is engaged by a German zoo to find and capture a rare Malaysian cat that is half-tiger and half-leopard. He is accompanied by another hunter and his young mistress. The other hunter is much older and subject to bouts of Read More

1963
Herrin der Welt

Actors: Martha Hyer, Carlos Thompson, Micheline Presle, Lino Ventura

Synopsis: In this film based on an earlier German silent serial, a Swedish scientist (Gino Cervi) has invented a device which can alter the control of gravity. Soon after, Chinese spies intervene and try to swipe the machine, while the Swedish government sends help in the form of two agents (Lino Ventura, Carlos Thompson Read More

9/1/60
Sabu and the Magic Ring

Synopsis: East Indian actor Sabu plays "himself" in this inexpensive Arabian nights farago. First we see him rescuing a abducted princess from thieves. Next we see him make like Aladdin when he recovers a magic ring. The twin plotlines are only tenuously connected, mainly because Sabu and the Magic Ring is Read More

1957
Jaguar

Actors: Sabu, Chiquita, Barton MacLane, Jonathan Hale

Synopsis: Though Mickey Rooney is listed as coproducer of Jaguar, the star of the proceedings is East Indian actor Sabu, here cast as a young South American. Though raised in a civilized atmosphere, Juano (Sabu) cannot quite shake the savage instincts of his jungle-bred forefathers. When he is falsely Read More

1956
Jungle Hell

Synopsis: Jungle natives are treated by a physician who goes against the wishes of a witch doctor to provide burn healing methods. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

1955
The Treasure of Bengal

Synopsis: In this exotic adventure, young hero Sabu is living in a remote Hindu village. There he must protect the town treasure, the world's largest ruby, from being traded for ammunition. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

1953
Buongiorno, Elefante!

Actors: Vittorio De Sica, Sabu, Maria Mercader, Nando Bruno

Synopsis: It hardly takes a linguist to figure out that the title of this whimsical Italian comedy translates to Bonjour, Elephant! Vittorio de Sica plays Garetti, a Roman schoolteacher with nary a sous in his pocket. Nothing, however, dampens Garetti's joie de vivre. Eventually, the teacher's sunny Read More

1952
Savage Drums

Actors: Sabu, Lita Baron, H.B. Warner, Sid Melton, Steven Geray

Synopsis: Presumably, Savage Drums was an attempt by Lippert Studios to launch an adventure series along the lines of "Jungle Jim" and "Bomba the Jungle Boy". The inimitable Sabu stars as Tipo, a native of a tropical island who returns home after establishing himself as a boxer in the U.S. Tipo soon Read More

1951
Song of India

Actors: Sabu, Gail Russell, Turhan Bey, Anthony Caruso, Aminta Dyne

Synopsis: East Indian actor Sabu goes through his usual paces in Columbia's Song of India. Sabu plays Ramdar, prince of a jungle tribe, who comes into conflict with Indian maharajah Gopal (Turhan Bey). At the behest of the British government, Gopal has been trapping wild animals and selling them to zoos. Read More

1949
Man-Eater of Kumaon

Actors: Sabu, Wendell Corey, Joanne Page, Morris Carnovsky, Argentina Brunetti

Synopsis: East Indian actor Sabu heads the cast of the location-filmed Man-Eater of Kumaon. While the film's romantic plotline is carried by native couple Naraian (Sabu) and Lali (Joanne Page), the main story concentrates on the regeneration of American society doctor John Collins (Wendell Corey). Despite Read More

1948
Black Narcissus

Actors: Deborah Kerr, Sabu, David Farrar, Kathleen Byron, Esmond Knight, Flora Robson, Jean Simmons

Synopsis: British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger once again deliberately courted controversy and censorship with their 1947 adaptation of Rumer Godden's novel. Deborah Kerr and Kathleen Byron play the head nuns at an Anglican hospital/school high in the Himalayas. The nuns' well-ordered Read More

1947
The End of the River

Actors: Basil Appleby, Dennis Arundell, Nicolette Bernard, Antoinette Cellier, Maurice Denham

Synopsis: East Indian actor Sabu is consistently better than his material in the sociological melodrama End of the River. The story concerns Mancel (Sabu), an Akuna Indian youth living in the forests of Brazil. Betrayed by a treacherous tribal chieftan, Mancel is branded an outlaw and exiled from his Read More

1947
Tangier

Actors: Maria Montez, Preston S. Foster, Robert Paige, Louise Allbritton, Kent Taylor

Synopsis: A rare black-and-white Maria Montez vehicle, Tangier can be described as a second-echelon Casablanca. Montez plays a Spanish dancer named Rita, who is determined to bring Nazi collaborator Colonel Jose Artiego (Preston Foster) to justice. Artiego is at presently working incognito, as military Read More

1946
Cobra Woman

Actors: Maria Montez, Jon Hall, Sabu, Edgar Barrier, Lon Chaney, Jr., Mary Nash

Synopsis: On the eve of her wedding to Ramu (Jon Hall), the beautiful Tollea (Maria Montez) is spirited away from her tranquil South Sea island to the mysterious, forbidden place of her birth, Cobra Island. Ramu follows and, with help from his young-but-not-too-bright friend Kado (Sabu) and their chimp Read More

1944
White Savage

Actors: Jon Hall, Maria Montez, Sabu, Don Terry, Turhan Bey

Synopsis: This frothy fantasy adventure centers upon the exotic romance between a shark fisherman (the sharks he captured are used for the manufacture of vitamin A) and the beautiful princess of Temple Island. They meet when the fisherman asks a young boy with royal connections to introduce him to the Read More

1943
The Arabian Nights

Actors: Jon Hall, Maria Montez, Leif Erickson, Sabu, Billy Gilbert

Synopsis: In a harem in a Middle Eastern palace, the guardian leads the women he protects in telling the tale of Halroun-Al-Raschid (Jon Hall), the Caliph of Bagdad, who found himself an enemy close to home in the form of his half-brother Kamar (Leif Erickson), who was ineligible for the throne because of Read More

1942
The Jungle Book

Actors: Sabu, Joseph Calleia, John Qualen, Frank Puglia, Rosemary de Camp

Synopsis: The Jungle Book isn't always faithful to the Rudyard Kipling original (in fact, it seldom is), but 1942 audiences swept up in the grandeur of the production values and the lush Technicolor photography didn't mind at all. Indian juvenile-star Sabu plays Mowgli, who having been lost in the jungle as Read More

1942
The Thief of Bagdad

Actors: Conrad Veidt, Sabu, June Duprez, John Justin, Rex Ingram

Synopsis: In ancient Bagdad, the young prince Ahmad (John Justin) is betrayed, deposed, and imprisoned by his vizier Jaffar (Conrad Veidt), an evil and calculating man who is also a master of the Black Arts. But Ahmad is saved from prison, and certain execution, by Abu (Sabu), a young thief who has made his Read More

1940
The Drum

Actors: Sabu, Raymond Massey, Roger Livesey, Valerie Hobson, David Tree

Synopsis: The Drum is an opulent Technicolor "British India" epic, based on a story by A.E.W. Mason (of Four Feathers fame). Teenaged actor Sabu stars as a young East Indian prince educated in England. By rights, his loyalties should lie with his countrymen, but in typical "Sun Never Sets" fashion most of Read More

1938
Elephant Boy

Actors: Sabu, Walter Hudd, Allan Jeayes, W.E. Holloway, Bruce Gordon

Synopsis: The unusual amalgam of documentary maven Robert Flaherty and pure-entertainment producer Zoltan Korda resulted in the 1937 money-spinner Elephant Boy. In his screen debut, eleven-year-old Indian-born Sabu plays the title character, a mahout named Toomai. When his father is killed by a tiger Read More

1937