Tigress of Bengal (1959)
(Der Tiger von Eschnapur)
Country: GER/FR/IT
Technical: col 101m
Director: Fritz Lang
Cast: Debra Paget, Paul Hubschmid, Walther Reyer, Luciana Paluzzi
Synopsis:
A German architect employed by a Maharaja to build a hospital unwittingly rescues and falls in love with the temple dancer invited by his host, in the hope that she will succeed the late Maharani.
Review:
Lang's exotic masterpiece is like an answer to Powell's The Thief of Bagdad, with nary a cast member not a brown-faced European. Actually part one of a diptych (The Indian Tomb followed to complete the story), it is in ravishing Technicolor, but Academy framed, like some luxurious silent film, the locations and sets contending equally for appeal to the senses. Meanwhile, although the leaping tiger may leave something to be desired, the same cannot be said of Paget's highly proficient dancing displays. Hubschmid, a Teutonic Anthony Steel, is serviceably handsome and redoubtable as the ethical hero; Reyer is the enlightened despot who succumbs to imperiousness when he is not universally adored, and is also caught in a Nibelungen-style conspiracy between princes.
(Der Tiger von Eschnapur)
Country: GER/FR/IT
Technical: col 101m
Director: Fritz Lang
Cast: Debra Paget, Paul Hubschmid, Walther Reyer, Luciana Paluzzi
Synopsis:
A German architect employed by a Maharaja to build a hospital unwittingly rescues and falls in love with the temple dancer invited by his host, in the hope that she will succeed the late Maharani.
Review:
Lang's exotic masterpiece is like an answer to Powell's The Thief of Bagdad, with nary a cast member not a brown-faced European. Actually part one of a diptych (The Indian Tomb followed to complete the story), it is in ravishing Technicolor, but Academy framed, like some luxurious silent film, the locations and sets contending equally for appeal to the senses. Meanwhile, although the leaping tiger may leave something to be desired, the same cannot be said of Paget's highly proficient dancing displays. Hubschmid, a Teutonic Anthony Steel, is serviceably handsome and redoubtable as the ethical hero; Reyer is the enlightened despot who succumbs to imperiousness when he is not universally adored, and is also caught in a Nibelungen-style conspiracy between princes.
(Der Tiger von Eschnapur)
Country: GER/FR/IT
Technical: col 101m
Director: Fritz Lang
Cast: Debra Paget, Paul Hubschmid, Walther Reyer, Luciana Paluzzi
Synopsis:
A German architect employed by a Maharaja to build a hospital unwittingly rescues and falls in love with the temple dancer invited by his host, in the hope that she will succeed the late Maharani.
Review:
Lang's exotic masterpiece is like an answer to Powell's The Thief of Bagdad, with nary a cast member not a brown-faced European. Actually part one of a diptych (The Indian Tomb followed to complete the story), it is in ravishing Technicolor, but Academy framed, like some luxurious silent film, the locations and sets contending equally for appeal to the senses. Meanwhile, although the leaping tiger may leave something to be desired, the same cannot be said of Paget's highly proficient dancing displays. Hubschmid, a Teutonic Anthony Steel, is serviceably handsome and redoubtable as the ethical hero; Reyer is the enlightened despot who succumbs to imperiousness when he is not universally adored, and is also caught in a Nibelungen-style conspiracy between princes.