L'Atlantide

This film is a combination of a subtle adventure and love, mystery and revenge and abandonment in the unforgiving Sahara desert.The mystery queen Antinea, of the lost Atlantis, has a penchant for embalming her lovers and using them as ornamental statues in her gallery, until finally, she met a lover who could resist her charms. It is a real pity that this movie is not available on VHS or DVD.

This is the third movie version of Pierre Benoit's novel about sexual and drug obsession I have seen, and perhaps my impressions are colored by my understandings of the themes the other versions tried to explore. I see the sexual obsession clearly, with the emasculated men -- including Henry Daniell in a surprisingly lively role -- but the other themes seem lost, Maria Montez' impact muted even by the voluptuous camerawork of Karl Struss.

Perhaps the movie's other themes were lost to the Production Code, which somehow allowed the sexuality to shine through (Miss Montez and co-star Pierre Aumont were married until the lady's death by drowning at age 39), but at least one of the movie's three directors seems to have read the book, and at least one has not. There is at least one large gap in the print I saw, which comes in four minutes under the official running time. And of course, Miss Montez, as fabulous as she looked,was not the world's greatest actres, leaving a lot for Aumont and Dennis O'Keefe to fill in.

Perhaps it would be best to look at this movie and declare it a decent addition to Miss Montez' Arabian fantasy movies, with a couple of attempts to buck the Hays Office for more mature content. Over all, I find it inconsistent, but deserving, perhaps, of some kudos for that attempted maturity.... or, if you wish to look at it in another way, its prurient smuttiness.

Pierre Benoit was then a famous writer :his outlandish novels seem out of time now but at the time his novels were transferred to the screen at such a speed it makes you feel giddy:Feyder ,PW Pabst ,George Ulmer and countless others made their "L 'atlantide ". And "Desert Legion"(1953) starring Arlene Dahl and Alan Ladd is a rip off in disguise. Today,few people still read Benoit in his native land. His name is slowly fading.

Pabst 's movie (1932)outshines all the other versions, by introducing a down-to -earth explanation

Such is not the same is this exotic tale ,where mystery is kept till the very end ; it might be a mirage ,caused by the overwhelming blistering sun .

Jean-Pierre Aumont ,the French romantic young lead of the French thirties co-star with real-life wife Maria Montez ,whose acting talent does not match her beauty ,to put it mildly ; Aumont himself ,sometimes considered a bland thespian in his native France,has here a tendency to overplay, his eyes supposedly haunted by this cruel magnificent queen ;with its lascivious dances ,its duels ,its pasteboard palace , the film is actually a forerunner of the Italian peplum which would thrive ten years later.

Entertaining on a rainy day ,if you do not ask too much.

Maria Montez's biggest success was probably the film Cobra Woman". It was a terrific B-movie and really made her a star. Now, five years later, she's back with a very similar sort of film...but this time starring her real life husband, Jean-Pierre Aumont.

The story begins at a French Foreign Legion base somewhere in North Africa. After having gone missing for some time, Lt. Saint-Avit (Aumont) is discovered...barely alive and raving. Later, after he's had a chance to recover, he talks about having spend all that time in the lost city of Atlantis as well as that he killed his friend (Dennis O'Keefe) there. He then explains and there is a lengthy flashback sequence. What follows is a story about the queen of the Atlantians (Montez)...and what a manipulative and sadistic and beguiling woman she is.

The story is decent but lacks the crazy sets and originality of "Cobra Woman", though they were obviously trying to replicate the same type of tale. It's also funny because you only see about a half dozen of her subjects...again, probably due to the lower budge. It's enjoyable but slight....and perhaps might have been a bit better had they made the Queen not as insanely mean...and the Lieutenant not so in love with her...which didn't make a lot of sense.

By the way, early in the film someone mentions 'Arak'. If you don't know, it's an anise drink that tastes virtually identical to Greek ouzo.

Stangely, I had never seen this film and, stranger still, I had high hopes for it as some kind of 'discovery'. Yes, I knew its long history, its several directors, and its difficult production... yet, the mythic story always has held interest. Well, I finally obtained an only 'fair' copy, and, sigh, the film is really almost as poor as had been reviewed at the time. The wonderful surprise, however, is that Montez looks at her most beautiful in this black-and-white film! Jean Pierre Aumont and Dennis O'Keefe TRY to show some logic amidst a script that makes absolutely no sense. A fantasy about Atlantis can be fun, but this plodding, ill-written wreck shows its deficiencies too eagerly-- the mysterious entrance to the 'lost continent' (which seems to be one building, hardly even a city block) is easily reached. Where is the atmosphere coming from in the midst of the Sahara? And the water? And the people who know how to dance hoochi-koochi? There is a poetic fantasy screaming to come out, but it would require a good writer, ONE director, and some color. I was truly disappointed to find that I now believe all of the negative(s) that have been this film's historical document.