East of Borneo (dir. George Melford, 1931) served as the raw material for Joseph Cornell’s collage film Rose Hobart. It concerns a desperate but determined Linda Randolph (Rose Hobart) on the hunt for her long-lost husband on a remote island of Marado just east of Borneo. Although Hobart is warned that the Marado’s jungles are “entirely too dangerous,” she persists through perilous raft rides and encounters with wild crocodiles, only to discover that her husband has been working as a personal physician for the island’s enigmatic prince. The prince lusts for Hobart almost immediately, and a love triangle ensues.
In a 1931 review, the New York Times wrote, “Whatever may be said against the plausibility of the story of “East of Borneo” […] there is no denying that it has its full quota, in fact a plethora, of jungle thrills.”

Watch the film here.