Done with Hollywood by the mid 1950s, Fritz Lang returned to Germany and decided to remake THE INDIAN TOMB (reviewed elsewhere), a legendary German silent film from 1921 that he had originally been scheduled to direct (he was one of the film’s writers). Just as in the case of the first film, the remake was epic in scope and was divided into two features THE TIGER OF ESCHNAPUR and THE INDIAN TOMB. This time around the film was in color and definitely wasn’t a silent. It runs 201 minutes only 10 minutes shorter than the original.
The movie was butchered for its American release (it was reduced to 90 minutes) and released here as JOURNEY TO THE LOST CITY. I vaguely remember seeing it on TV as a young boy and I can see how it must have made an impression on future directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. I can also clearly see what was cut from the American release considering the year was 1959.
The film features a stalwart cast of German actors with one notable exception, the American actress Debra Paget. She was criminally underused in American movies and here gets a chance to shine in the pivotal role of Seetha the temple dancer around which the film revolves. Her 2 dances and costumes (or lack of them) are remarkably erotic in an old fashioned way yet they can still raise your spirits 50 years later.
Much has been made in other reviews about how cheesy some of the effects are (the Fakir’s decapitated head is especially bad although I thought the Cobra was deliberately meant to be unrealistic) but that’s unimportant. The overall look of the film and the way the narrative moves along are vintage Lang and it manages to draw you in despite its shortcomings. It’s also a first class look at a German production from around 1960 which is exceedingly rare.
The packaging by Fantoma is absolutely top notch and is how Criterion would do it in this country. Not only is the print beautifully transferred but you get the original German soundtrack along with the English dubbed one (the German is way better, trust me) and booklets in both DVDs that tell you all about each film. If you love old fashioned exotic adventures which are meant only to entertain then you can’t go wrong here. In fact you may be surprised at just how much you enjoy it.
The Capsule Critic 