The title refers to Pola Negri's eyes. Captured by the evil Arab, Radu, (well played by Emil Jannings) Negri, as 'Queen Ma,' is forced to be his slave and trick tourists in an Egyptian pyramid by hiding within a sarcophagus with her live eyes showing through its eyeholes. A visiting painter, Albert Wendland, (Harry Liedke) supposedly the hero, falls in love with her and takes her back to Europe.
The film works as a kind of proto- 'Hammer Films' melodramatic thriller, as Radu follows her to Europe tracking her down and stalking her to seek his revenge on her having left him. Jannings is darkly made up, but we still get to see his menacing eyes and gestures that made him such a super star in the next decade after the film was made. (For some reason, it wasn't released in the United States until 1922.)
Pola Negri does a good job showing her gratitude, devotion and love to Wendland, as well as her alienation from her new European environment and hesitation to participate in it. It's only when she performs a 'native' dance at her coming out party that she relaxes and begins to mix and fit into her new culture (as a popular exotic dancer). Woo! But her dancing! You haven't seen anything this funny since the Babylonian dancers in 'Intolerance' (1916)! All jerky hootchie kootchie motions which briefly profile the curves of her cello shaped body (actually this type of female body was popular in films and soft core during the teens and twenties).
The action really picks up as all the coincidences have Radu closing in on Ma. The whole movie is pretty well edited, but the last fifteen minutes are especially well done. While the hero tries to rush to Ma's rescue, Radu exerts his hypnotic Svengali power over her, kills her, and then, after kissing her, out of remorse, kills himself. The hero rushes in, but...too late! This is the kind of tight little thriller / tragedy that Hammer would do so well in the sixties.
The Alpha Video DVD I have features a continuous piano soundtrack by Rachel Guches that has some interesting dissonances, but also the pop tune 'My Reverie' (?).
Even though the silent miming is a little too much, the film tells an interesting story, moves along at a good clip, and features good acting by Pola Negri and Emil Jannings. I give it a five.
The film works as a kind of proto- 'Hammer Films' melodramatic thriller, as Radu follows her to Europe tracking her down and stalking her to seek his revenge on her having left him. Jannings is darkly made up, but we still get to see his menacing eyes and gestures that made him such a super star in the next decade after the film was made. (For some reason, it wasn't released in the United States until 1922.)
Pola Negri does a good job showing her gratitude, devotion and love to Wendland, as well as her alienation from her new European environment and hesitation to participate in it. It's only when she performs a 'native' dance at her coming out party that she relaxes and begins to mix and fit into her new culture (as a popular exotic dancer). Woo! But her dancing! You haven't seen anything this funny since the Babylonian dancers in 'Intolerance' (1916)! All jerky hootchie kootchie motions which briefly profile the curves of her cello shaped body (actually this type of female body was popular in films and soft core during the teens and twenties).
The action really picks up as all the coincidences have Radu closing in on Ma. The whole movie is pretty well edited, but the last fifteen minutes are especially well done. While the hero tries to rush to Ma's rescue, Radu exerts his hypnotic Svengali power over her, kills her, and then, after kissing her, out of remorse, kills himself. The hero rushes in, but...too late! This is the kind of tight little thriller / tragedy that Hammer would do so well in the sixties.
The Alpha Video DVD I have features a continuous piano soundtrack by Rachel Guches that has some interesting dissonances, but also the pop tune 'My Reverie' (?).
Even though the silent miming is a little too much, the film tells an interesting story, moves along at a good clip, and features good acting by Pola Negri and Emil Jannings. I give it a five.