Gagak Item

Gagak Item aa itm Vernacular Malay for Black Raven, also known by the Dutch title De Zwarte Raaf is a 1939 bandit film from the Dutch East Indies now Indonesia directed by Joshua and Othniel Wong for Tans Film. Starring Rd Mochtar, Roekiah, and Eddy T. Effendi, it follows a masked man known only as Gagak Item Black Raven. The blackandwhite film, which featured the cast and crew from the 1937 hit Terang Boelan Full Moon, was a commercial success and received positive reviews upon release. It is likely lost.

Saeroen, a journalistturnedscreenwriter for Terang Boelan and Fatima, returned to write the script to Gagak Item. The film, a love story, followed a girl and a masked man known as Gagak Item Black Raven and was set in rural Buitenzorg now Bogor. a The titular bandit was similar to Zorro, a character popular in the Indies at the time such figures had been a staple of travelling theatre troupes beginning in the early 1930s. When writing the script Saeroen continued the formula he had used in Terang Boelan, including action, music, beautiful vistas and physical comedy. The film had six songs performed by Hugo Dumas musical troupe Lief Java the troupe was known for its keroncong performances, mixing traditional music with Portuguese influences. Gagak Item featured vocals by kroncong singer Annie Landouw.Gagak Item was released in late 1939 and was screened in Batavia now Jakarta, the capital of the Indies Medan, North Sumatra and Surabaya, eastern Java. Some screenings of the film, also advertised under the Dutch title De Zwarte Raaf, had Dutchlanguage subtitles. b A novelisation of the film, published by the Yogyakartabased KolffBuning, soon followed. Gagak Item was one of four domestic productions released in 1939 the film industry had undergone a significant downturn following the onset of the Great Depression, during which time cinemas mainly showed Hollywood productions, and had only begun recovering following the release of Terang Boelan. ........

Source: Wikipedia