The succeeding versions of The TIGER VON ESCHNAPUR are milestones in the development of movies. This is the middle one, following the silent Joe May got away from Fritz Lang which fitted into the Line of CALIGARI and METROPOLIS and preceding Lang's entry in the Eurotrash cycle of the sixties. It was a major hit for the Third Reich film industry and one of their most ambitious undertakings. It's pretty hard to look at it without remembering the politics.
This 1938 version is lifted by extensive location filming - snapping crocodiles, Maharadscha Philip Dorn / Frits van Dongen and so blonde Kitty Jantzen riding in the triumphal parade, locals pelting the cage of the captured killer tiger, two elephants battling it out as an entertainment.
The drama that this is slotted into, played by blacked up Europeans, is another matter. Dorn understandably takes a dim view of Russian intruder Gustav Diessel making off with so gorgeous Maharani La Jana and once the couple become fugitives in Europe he mounts murderous revenge.
Unaware of this, German architect Hans Stüwe is commissioned to build a new city - waving of blue prints and one shot of workers pounding earth by hand). Think Chandigarh. The work includes a tomb for the still living La J.
Throw in Theo Lingren's comic relief, La Jana's splendid hoochy coochy dancing and lots of extras in turbans in elaborate studio decors and you have the Maria Montez formula which will flourish in Hollywood post WW2
The dance numbers are highlights of all three versions. The theater fire which ends part one coming on top of La Jana's Indira routine is a hard act to follow and while the production values persist part two is a bit on the scrappy side.
This chaotic exotic-erotic adventure movie gives anything in it's area a run for the money. You watch it with a mix of sit back and enjoy it pleasure and unease about the underlying attitudes.
