O Tigre da Índia

The story is dull, but the sets are beautiful and visually appealing. Staring hilariously tacky but cute puppet of a tiger. The main entertainment value is admiring Debra Paget's costumes and her horrible lip-sync.

I was wary of purchasing Fantoma's 2-Disc Set of "Fritz Lang's Indian Epic" after being somewhat let down by the 1921 Silent original (co-scripted by Lang himself) and also its less-than-stellar reputation. For this reason, when the second part of the saga turned up on Italian TV a couple of years ago, I decided to check it out just the same so as to get an inkling of what to expect! I recall thinking it pretty kitschy and unworthy of Lang's enormous talent, but Fantoma's sale (through their website) of their entire DVD catalog a few months back made it an irresistible acquisition! Well, having now watched the entire saga (with dialogue and in color, as opposed to the rather static Silent version directed by Joe May - although hearing the Indian-garbed characters talking in German took some getting used to), I was pleasantly surprised by how genuinely engaging and sheerly enjoyable it all was! Though it was sold as an epic production (to the point of concluding ESCHNAPUR with the promise that Part II would feature greater thrills and even more spectacle) at a time when such films were all the rage, the saga was actually a pretty modest undertaking by eclectic (and prolific) German producer Artur Brauner. Despite the two films' exotic, handsome look (not least in the provocative dances of Debra Paget), the budgetary constraints were painfully obvious in the special effects department, especially the hilarious appearance of a 'ropey' cobra which is intended to 'test' (the scantily-clad) Miss Paget's faithfulness to the Maharajah!! All in all, even if these films hardly constitute Lang's greatest work (though he harbored an evident affection throughout his life for this particular tale, which was originally conceived by his former wife Thea von Harbou), they have great - and enduring - appeal for aficionados of old-fashioned, serial-like adventure stories tinged with romance and mysticism.

Even so, while I don't subscribe to that school of thought myself, there are some film critics (Tom Gunning, Jean Douchet and Pierre Rissient among them) who think very highly of Lang's Indian diptych - the first considering it one of Lang's towering achievements and the last two numbering it among the ten greatest films of all time!!

Fritz Lang's last American work " beyond a reasonable doubt" was a commercial failure and it was panned at the time -nowadays ,and mainly in Europe ,critics are inclined to reverse their opinions.Actually "beyond a reasonable doubt " could easily be "remade" (God preserve us!) today because its screenplay with the unexpected final twist is trendy(1) .Afterward,Lang returned to Germany and began to film what was an old plan of his (it was filmed ,but by other directors),written by his ex-wife Thea Von Harbou.

The gap between "Der Tiger von Eschnapur" and "beyond a reasonable doubt" (and "human desire" "while the city sleeps" "clash by night" "the big heat" etc) seems so wide that a lot of people did not recognize "their " Fritz Lang.One could answer them that ,already in the mid-fifties ,Lang had adapted for the screen "Moonfleet" ,his first color experiment with startling results .And "Moonfleet" too did not seem to belong to Lang's canon."Moonfleet " was a tour de force because it was a whole story seen through a child's eye.Something magic was born ,and it's this magic we find again in "Der Tiger von Eschnapur".

"Der Tiger von Eschnapur" is a 4 million marks movie and the most accessible of all Lang's works:it can appeal to a child as much as to a professor .At first sight,it appears as an adventure yarn ,close to comic strip ,some kind of "Fritz Lang and the temple of doom" ,but a director like him cannot be brought down to only that.

"Der Tiger von Eschnapur" is a visual splendor ,with an unusually inventive use of color,which is not unlike his British peer Michael Powell (Black orchid,thief of Bagdad).Lang was an architect ,and it's impossible not to feel it,here more than in his entire American period. It's no coincidence if his hero (Henri Mercier/Harald Berger) is an architect too;they are always holding and studying plans .Lang's camera perfectly captures the space it describes .Mercier (Paul Hubschmid)is often filmed in high angle shot,in the huge palace of the Maharajah,in the tiger pit ,or later,in the second part ,in the dungeon where he's imprisoned.Actually,and it's obvious,it takes us back to Lang's German silent era ,particularly "der müde Tod" "die Niebelungen" and "Metropolis".

"Der Tiger von Eschnapur" is essentially a movie of exposition:some scenes which seem overlong (Paget's dance),irrelevant(the lepers ) are actually necessary to prepare the stage for part two.And this leads us to one of Lang's permanent features:the coexistence of two worlds.

Behind the lavishly furnished palace,the sumptuous clothes,the sparkling jewels ,there's another world beneath.The scene when Mercier meets the lepers scrawling on the ground ,and in a simpler but no less harrowing ,Baharani's blood seeping out of the basket are hints at a darker side of the luminous magic world of Chandra.

There's a lot to say about "der Tiger von Eschapur" :the flight through the desert recalls sometimes Henri -Georges Clouzot's "Manon" (1949),as Mercier's madness breaks out and he begins to fire at the sun.

"Der Tiger von Eschnapur" is a must.

(1) it was finally remade and as expected it was a disaster

Fritz Lang's two part Indian Epic made up of the films The Tiger of Bengal and The Tomb of Love is, to put it lightly, a cinematic enigma. While Lang is no stranger to both pulp fiction and long films, he oddly fails at both in this two-part travesty.

Watching a film like Lang's Metropolis or his five hour epic of Die Nibelungen is a magical experience. The films flow at such a brilliant pace, drawing in the viewer and creating a world of high drama and excitement amidst some of the most lavish and beautiful sets of the silent era. Yet, somehow, this magic is lost in his Indian Epic, as the nearly three and a half hours that comprise both films drags for what seems like an eternity. While the first film, The Tiger of Bengal, starts off like a pleasing, pulpy adventure story, it soon peters off nearly halfway through, setting the pace for what will be the rest of the first and the entire second film.

Production was evidently a very expensive and impressive one, complete with jewel-studded clothing, immense and desolate dungeons, and large and grandiose palaces, stocked with every little intricate detailed imagined; yet, these impressive settings are hardly utilized in to making this the film(s) it could have been, for they remain nothing more than eye-candy in what is ultimately a theatrical play of the most dire sort. Stilted, bland dialogue and scenes that drag and repeat play out almost cyclically: Where is the princess? She's over there. Where is the foreigner? He's over there. What should we do? We should do this... and so on, ad nauseam, until nearly three and a half hours of a film still unrealized is completed.

Even in some of Lang's previous minor failings he never achieved such a monotony as this. In his canceled pulp-adventure project, The Spiders, Lang was able to pull off an exhilarating tale of adventure in a foreign land for the first film, which would be canceled shortly after just the second Admittedly, the second and last entry of The Spiders almost seems to set a precedent for what would go wrong with both The Tiger of Bengal and The Tomb of Love: hardly anything happens.

I simply just don't understand what Lang went in to this project imagining. After reading this was a remake of the Indian Epic that he originally produced earlier on in his career I was so excited to finally sit and view what I imagined would be a wonderful adventure. I assumed it was one of his last, final great works; a tale of intrigue and adventure and lavish sets, and a film I could rely on for years to come to go back to and relieve the magic all again. Such a disappointment on so many levels, both as an adventure film, and arguably one of Lang's worst.

This is a Lush production. The costumes and extravagance of the exterior sets for the various parades is intoxicating. This film captures the allure that India held for many decades. The story is clear cut, and there are many simplistic plot motivations. The film is the premier example of the Cliffhanger style, as the story unfolds from peril to peril. While some effects are of grade A cheese (a poor tiger in the beginning) The dance scenes Really do open the eyes. Of Star Trek note... the second dance scene MUST have been the inspiration for Vina, the Orion Slave dancer of "The Cage" fame... many of the same exotica is there. Fritz Lang was indeed a crafty teller of tales.