Joe May's spectacular "The Indian Tomb" captivated audiences in 1921, and was one of the biggest successes of its day. This lavish adventure thriller transported cinemagoers to an atmospheric India of the romantic imagination, with elaborate temples and palaces, exotic yogis and dancing girls, roaring tigers on the prowl and hissing cobras. Thea von Harbou's colorful plot stretches over two feature-length films, with twists and turns worthy of a serial. Ayan, the powerful Maharajah of Eschnapur, has lost his beloved wife, the beautiful Princess Savitri, but not through death. He plots revenge against Savitri and her lover MacAllan, an English officer. Ayan vows to build a tomb to his dead love; he'll supply the mausoleum's occupant. A yogi, Ramigani, prophesies that revenge will ruin the prince's life. Ayan sends the yogi to Europe to hire an architect, Herbert Rowland, who is sworn to secrecy about his commission. Rowland's fiancee Irene follows him to India, and the adventure begins. "The Indian Tomb" features a fantastic star-studded cast, topped by the legendary Conrad Veidt, who has a field day as the charismatic, sadistic Maharajah. Sumptuously photographed by Werner Brandes with a beautiful new score compiled and orchestrated by Eric Beheim, this is the most complete version available.
Fritz Lang wrote the script to this exotic epic adventure with the intention of directing it himself, but when producer Joe May (a pioneer of German silent cinema himself) read it, he nabbed it, and did the work proud. Conrad Veidt (the stalking somnambulist of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) stars as a vengeful maharajah with a diabolical plot against his unfaithful wife and her haughty British lover. His plan involves a monumental tomb dedicated to his lost love, a spell-casting yogi (revived from his underground tomb in a riveting prologue), and a world-famous architect (Olaf Fonss), who is secretly whisked away to Bengal. Close behind is his fiancée Irene (Mia May, the director's wife and frequent star), who follows him to the maharajah's grand palace. With his piercing eyes and gaunt, hawklike face, Veidt cuts a majestic figure and makes a fascinating villain, his menace tempered with a haunted sense of sadness.Working with magnificent sets and simple but graceful special effects, May creates a sense of wonder and grandeur in the first half of the film, and then kicks it into high gear for a swiftly paced second half of deadly tiger pits, crocodile-infested moats, cliffhanger escapes, and mountaintop chases, straddling both high adventure and dramatic melancholy. The 3.5-hour production doesn't drag for a second. --Sean Axmaker
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