L'Atlantide

Upon hearing theories that Atlantis wasn't buried in the sea but rather under the sands of the Sahara Desert, the French send two army officers by the names of "Captain Morhange" (Gustav Diessl) and "Lieutenant Saint-Avit" (John Stuart) to try to locate it. Unfortunately, once they get close to their destination the tribesmen they hired betray them and turn them over to the evil queen of Atlantis named "Antinea" (Brigitte Helm). Surprisingly, Queen Antinea falls madly in love with Captain Morhange while at the same time Lieutenant Saint-Avit becomes attracted to her. But because he is a loyal French officer, Captain Morhange is more concerned about the health and welfare of his subordinate and this results in severe consequences for both of them. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this is one of those old and rare films that is probably better appreciated from an historical perspective than from a more modern context. Yet even with certain allowances made it is still undermined by the rather bizarre plot and abrupt script. Of course, the fact that it was translated into three different languages (English, German and French) no doubt affected that to an extent. In any case, although it was not without its flaws I still found the movie to be somewhat entertaining and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

This is the 3rd, and most recent, in the three films I've seen by controversial director G.W. Pabst, after his extraordinary silent classics, 'Pandora's Box' and 'Diary of a Lost Girl', both starring legendary screen goddess Louise Brooks. It's the English-language version of 'L'Atlantide', itself a sound-remake of the '21 silent film by Jacques Feyder, and, by being mostly shot on location in the Sahara Desert, went against the grain at the time of shooting movies exclusively in studio.

In Brigitte Helm, mainly known for her starring role of Fritz Lang's sci-fi magnum opus, 'Metropolis', he had a stunning villainous female, who would have made a great femme fatale, had she continued on the following decade in film noir. The script is nondescript and a tad melodramatic, and the other actors are decidedly pedestrian, but Pabst's visual elan and directorial genius shines through and lifts an otherwise drab picture. Worth your time if you're a fan of adventure films of the era, however.

One of, if not the first version of the novel L'ATLANTIDE, concerns the story of two French Legionnaires who stumble upon the remains of Atlantis under the Sahara desert. There they meet various people including the Queen, played here by Bridgette Helm (Maria in Metropolis).

There have been at least six versions of the story brought to the screen and this is the second version I've seen.(The first on I saw was Siren of Atlantis and its pretty awful). Clearly filmed on location on the desert this movie is interesting to watch for a while, however once the pair ends up underground the film seems to get lost. I don't know if its because the print I saw is some 10 minutes shorter than the official running time on IMDb, or if there is something missing from the novel, either way the movie just sort of stops and runs in circles while I tried desperately to figure out what I was seeing. While it never gets really bad, it does get discouraging since its clear that there is a story here that would draw film makers back again and again, unfortunately what ever that quality is is missing. Running some 78 minutes this version feels twice as long.

I can't really recommend this movie since it just sort of misses the target. However if you're interested in old fantasy movies or ones that have been filmed repeatedly I'd give it a shot, if nothing else Bridgette Helm is easy on the eyes. 5 out of 10.

COMRADESHIP (1931) can be said to have marked the relative end of the most fruitful period in the career of renowned German film-maker G. W. Pabst that had seen him create a handful of classics of World Cinema; in fact, his next venture was a very ambitious undertaking – an adaptation (in distinct German, French and English-language versions) of Pierre Benoit's epic adventure novel L'ATLANTIDE – but one that, in hindsight, would prove only partially successful. Another distinguished film-maker, Frenchman Jacques Feyder, had already made a celebrated stab at the material as a 3-hour Silent epic in 1921 and, over the years, other established film-makers – John Brahm, Frank Borzage, Edgar G. Ulmer, Vittorio Cottafavi, George Pal, Ruggero Deodato, Bob Swaim and even "Walt Disney" – would find themselves attracted to the subject of the mythical lost empire. Admittedly, I have never read Benoit's original source and this 1932 English-language version is the first cinematic adaptation of it that I am watching but, is not Atlantis supposed to be an undersea kingdom? In fact, a recent study even went so far as to imply that the island of Malta (from where I hail) might well have formed part of Atlantis centuries ago! How come, therefore, that here (and, reportedly, likewise the other adaptations) it is situated in sandy desert dunes? A criticism leveled at the Feyder film had been that his choice of leading lady (the entrancing Queen of Atlantis) was all wrong but Pabst certainly got that bit down perfectly when he cast Brigitte Helm – best-known for playing the two Marias in Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS (1927) as Antinea. The plot has a little of H. Rider Haggard's SHE about it as two legionnaires stumble onto Atlantis in the Sahara desert and lose themselves within its labyrinthine dungeons replete with Antinea's past male conquests that have either gone mad or been mummified! The two male leads seemed slightly overage to me but, in any case, whatever acting capabilities they might possess would essentially have been dwarfed by the awesome sets and imaginative camera-work. As a matter of fact, this is where the film's main fault lies: the protagonists' plight never moves us as it should, even when one kills the other over Antinea or when, after her terrible secret is revealed to him, the survivor decides to go back to Atlantis anyway. The fleeting appearances of an eccentric 'prisoner' of Antinea (who speaks with a distinctly upper-class British accent and sports a Daliesque moustache) adds to the fun quotient but, overall, the stilted rendition of the dialogue (even Helm utters her own scarce lines in English) is on a par with other films from the early Talkie era. For the record, although every listing I have checked of this film gives its running time as 87 minutes, the version I watched ran for just 78! Incidentally, a movie I should be catching up with presently – DESERT LEGION (1953) with Alan Ladd, Richard Conte and Arlene Dahl – is said to have been partially inspired by Benoit's L'ATLANTIDE itself!

Two French Legionnaires discover the lost city of Atlantis in the middle of the Sahara Desert located in magnificent halls below the surface of the Earth.

This German-French co-production was a remake of a silent epic and was unusually shot in English, German and French in three different versions. This being an early solution to the language barrier problem the early talkies found themselves up against. It has more than a little in common with the film adaptions of 'She', in which an evil queen resides in a mysterious opulent place in the desert. The title character here was played by Brigitte Helm who has over the years achieved eternal iconic fame due to her earlier double role in Fritz Lang's sci-fi classic Metropolis (1927), her appearance as the android Ava being especially timeless. Needless to say, The Mistress of Atlantis is considerably less famous or good but it is quite an interesting production nevertheless. It benefits quite a bit from having elaborate sets and costuming, as well as on location photography. It also has some memorable individual scenes such as the chess game where one of our heroes plays against the queen while escalating Arabic music plays and dancers cavort in the background intensifying the drama; while it also benefits from the appearance of the eccentric mustachioed elderly English fop who bizarrely resides in this strange place. Overall, though, it is an interesting film which is middling on the whole. The reason for this is chiefly down to its slow pacing and uninteresting/interchangeable two central male characters, whose plight it is hard to care about very much. But it is nevertheless a film with some ambition and interest.