The Tiger of Eschnapur

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Der Tiger von Eschnapur

The DVD cover.
Directed by Fritz Lang
Produced by Artur Brauner
Written by Fritz Lang
Werner Jörg Lüddecke
Thea von Harbou (novel)
Starring Debra Paget
Paul Hubschmid
Walter Reyer
Music by Michel Michelet
Cinematography Richard Angst
Editing by Walter Wischniewsky
Distributed by American International Pictures
Fantoma
Omnia-Film
Polyband GmbH
Release date(s) Flag of Germany January 22, 1959
Running time 101 min.
Country Germany
Language German
Followed by Das Indische Grabmal
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Tiger of Eschnapur, or in original German, Der Tiger von Eschnapur, is a 1959 German adventure drama film directed by Fritz Lang. It 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 returned to Germany 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.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details about Der Tiger von Eschnapur follow.

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]

Spoilers end here.

[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.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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