Description:
After more than two decades of exile in Hollywood, master filmmaker Fritz Lang triumphantly returned to his native Germany to direct the lavish two-part adventure tale The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb from a story he had co-authored almost forty years earlier. With incredible precision, Lang crafts a blend of color, decor, movement and montage that, in the twilight of his career, once again proves him a virtuoso of film form. Previously available in America only as Journey to the Lost City, a 90-minute condensation of the two films, these exotic masterpieces are presented restored and complete for the first time in th
After more than two decades of exile in Hollywood, master filmmaker Fritz Lang triumphantly returned to his native Germany to direct the lavish two-part adventure tale The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb from a story he had co-authored almost forty years earlier. With incredible precision, Lang crafts a blend of color, decor, movement and montage that, in the twilight of his career, once again proves him a virtuoso of film form. Previously available in America only as Journey to the Lost City, a 90-minute condensation of the two films, these exotic masterpieces are presented restored and complete for the first time in the U.S. Western architect Harold Berger (Paul Hubschmid), called to India by Chandra, the Maharajah of Eschnapur, falls in love with the beautiful temple dancer Seetha (Debra Paget), although she is promised to the Maharajah. Their betrayal ignites the wrath of a vengeful Chandra, who is fighting his own battle for power with his scheming half-brother, and the lovers are forced to flee into the desert. Featuring breathtaking location photography and cliff-hanging suspense, the first part of Lang's epic is highlighted by Paget's erotic temple dance and Hubschmid's battle to the death with a man-eating tiger.
Long dismissed as the last gasp of a great directing career, Fritz Lang's two-part saga of India needs to be rescued from the movie dustbin. While it has clear limitations, notably the listless actors and shoddy special effects (hard to overlook the fake tiger), this opus is marked by an awesome sense of formal design, immaculate camera composition, and the creeping sense of fate messing up the characters' lives. In part one, The Tiger of Eschnapur, we delve into the political and personal intrigue that results from a Maharaja's infatuation with a temple dancer (sawed-off, sexy Debra Paget). Lang's pacing is deliberate; sometimes the movie resembles an Indiana Jones yarn slowed to a stroll. But as Lang brings the many threads together, the scheme emerges, and the crisp location shooting in India presents a storybook exoticism that, admittedly, has little to do with reality. It ends with a cliffhanger, solved by part two, The Indian Tomb. --Robert Horton
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Manufacturer: Fantoma
Release date: 16 October 2001
Number of discs: 1
EAN: 0014381123821 UPC: 014381123821
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