Der Tiger von Eschnapur
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Der Tiger von Eschnapur (The Tiger of Eschnapur) is the first of two films comprising what has come to be known as Fritz Lang's Indian Epic; the other is Das Indische Grabmal (The Indian Tomb). Fritz Lang came back to Germany in 1959 to direct these films, which together tell the story of a German architect, the Indian Maharahaja for whom he is building a temple, and the half-breed dancer who comes between them.
Lang's Indian epic is based on work he did forty years earlier on a silent version of Das Indische Grabmal. He and Thea von Harbou co-wrote the screenplay, basing it on von Harbou's novel of the same name. Lang was set to direct, but that job was taken from him and given to Joe May. Though Lang did not control the final form of that earlier version, it is one of his most revered films.
Released in 1921, the original version of Das Indische Grabmal had a running time of 3 1/2 hours. For the remake, Lang divided the story into two parts that each run about 100 minutes, a length modern audiences can more easily accept.
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[edit] Plot summary
The tale begins when architect Harold Berger (Paul Hubschmid) arrives in India to meet with Maharahaja Chandra (Walter Reyer), for whom he will build a temple. En route to the Maharahaja's palace, Berger meets a dancer named Seetha (Debra Paget) and saves her from a tiger. Seetha is promised to the Maharahaja, but she and the architect begin to fall in love. Predictably, this leads to a buildup of tension between Chandra and Berger, helped along by scheming palace courtiers. The film is also filled with action, and a highlight of it is Seetha's first ritual dance. At the end of Tiger, Seetha and Berger are imprisoned but escape into the desert just as Berger's sister, also an architect, arrives with the team of architects hired to continue his work. Chandra informs her the plans have changed; she will now be building a tomb.
This cliffhanger unfolds against a sweeping backdrop incorporating lavish but relatively spare and open sets, a trademark of Lang's work. He also made extensive use of on-location shots. Having lived for a number of years in India, he was able to get permission from the Majaraja of Udaipur to shoot at many locations that were normally barred to Western film crews. One of these was the floating palace seen much later in Octopussy. [1]
The two films were edited down into one 95-minute feature courtesy of American International Pictures and released in the US in 1959 as Journey to the Lost City—with Seetha's dance scenes heavily trimmed, courtesy of the Hays Office. The negatives of Fritz Lang's original films were thought to be lost, but recently a set was rediscovered. Fantoma Films restored them to DVD format, producing one disc for each film. The discs contain both German and English dialogue tracks, plus other extras. They were released by Image Entertainment in 2001. [2]
[edit] Complete cast
The last four cast members, shown here in the yellow rows, were not credited.
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Debra Paget | Seetha |
| Paul Hubschmid | Harold Berger |
| Walter Reyer | Chandra |
| Claus Holm | Dr. Walter Rhode |
| Luciana Paluzzi | Baharani |
| Valéry Inkijinoff | Yama |
| Sabine Bethmann | Irene Rodhe |
| René Deltgen | Prince Ramigani |
| Jochen Brockmann | Padhu |
| Richard Lauffen | Browana |
| Jochen Blume | Asagara |
| Helmut Hildebrand | Ramigani's servant |
| Guido Celano | General Dagh |
| Victor Francen | Penitent |
| Panos Papadopoulos | Kurier |
| Angela Portaluri | Bäurin |
[edit] Trivia
- Another film titled Der Tiger von Eschnapur was released in Germany in 1938. It too was based on Thea von Harbou's novel Das Indische Grabmal (The Indian Tomb). The film was directed by Richard Eichberg and written by him along with Hans Klaehr and Arthur Pohl.
