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Date: 12/20/2019
Frequently, understanding the context that gave rise to a film makes the viewing experience richer, and that is certainly the case for the great director Fritz Lang’s movies “The Tiger of Eschnapur” and “The Indian Tomb.”
Film Movement has released both films in a gorgeous Blu-ray package with great extras.
I am an unabashed Fritz Lang fan. Lang was a huge figure in German silent cinema with his “Dr. Mabuse” films, his adaptation of Teutonic myths with “Die Nibelungen,” and “Metropolis.” His first sound film, “M,” stands today as a seminal crime thriller.
Escaping Nazi Germany in the early 1930s, Lang came to this country where he continued his directing career. He worked within the studio system and became known for a cynical edge. His temperament was built for the film noir era to which he contributed several classics.
He also became known as being difficult with both studio executives and actors and served as the basis of the caricature of the autocratic German film director, complete with monocle.
By the end of the 1950s, Lang’s career was essentially over in this country, but German producer Artur Brauner was able to convince him to come to Germany to direct a pet project. At the beginning of his career Lang was cheated out of directing a script he had developed with his then wife. Brauner gave him the opportunity of finally making the film himself, only now in sound and color.
That “film” was these two films. They are actually a two part serial depicting a story about an architect hired by an Indian maharaja to build schools and hospitals in his kingdom. The architect meets and falls in love with an Indian temple dancer, the same woman who has attracted the attention of the maharaja.
At the same time the rule of the maharaja is being threatened by his brother and other noblemen, who are also insulted the maharaja is interested in the lowly temple dancer.
Like a classic Republic Pictures serial, there are twists and turns in the plot with plenty of surprises. Unlike a Republic Pictures serial, there is quite a love story here, as well as two still-blisteringly erotic dances performed by the under-appreciated Debra Paget.
While the film proved popular with European audiences in 1959, the two films never had a proper release in this country. American International Pictures edited the two films down into one calling it “Journey to the Lost City.” Interestingly, the films became a Christmas tradition on German TV for many years.
Although there has been a DVD release of the two films in 2001, this new Blu-ray set has a superior transfer and insightful extras.
If you’ve seen some of Lang’s much grittier, cynical work, these two films will be a puzzling revelation. How did this material appeal to someone with an artistic vision as dark as Lang? It clearly did, as reportedly Lang was happy to have the opportunity to direct the films.