Fritz Lang is one of those directors who managed the transition from silent film to sound film, even if most people will probably argue that his best works come from the days when there was still intertitles in films to tell us what the characters were saying. "Der Tiger von Eschnapur" is one of the final career efforts from Lang and he was already in his late 60s when he made this one and it's actually a remake of a film that Lang already made considerably earlier in his career. "Made" in the sense of "wrote" as he did not direct back then in the 1920s. There is another version from briefly before WWII, bt the time gap between those and this one here is pretty gigantic. But he was a part of these old(er) films. And not just him. This is also why Thea von Harbou, a couple years dead already by 1959, is listed as the writer. She also worked on the script of the original black-and-white films. This one here is in color, which is not a given for 1959, and the first 100 minutes from a duology that continues with "Das indische Grabmal", another 1959 film. The cliffhanger ending also indicates this. So maybe, if you have the patience for over three hours, then watch both films at once. Or just skip it after this first film because this one here is not great already and it's probably not getting any better really with the sequel. Not only because I liked tigers. Then again, the tigers also are beautiful in here, but they are rarely on the winners' side. Early on, they are hunted away and eventually even killed in life-or-death struggle. This fight near the very end already is certainly among the more memorable scenes, even if the actual battle is incredibly short. The entire build-up with the proagonist talking to the maharaja as well as with the tiger walking around and getting ready to attack is much longer. But I still think this scene was executed nicely, also in terms of how the protagonist, even if he killed the large animal, jumps away from him (let's presume it is a male) to be on the safe side. But this is already almost the only fairly memorable sequence for me and as an animal lover, I am also not too amazed by the specific contents. You see I did not say a lot here about the actors. Well, I mean many of them are experienced, actually almost all of them, but no big names really. Maybe British actress Paget (who looks fine, but is also not the stunning beauty they want us to think she is and I am saying this as somebody who definitely prefers dark-haired girls) comes the closest to a degree of elevated fame and popularity, but she was also not a big star. At least not in America or anything. So this film here feels more like an oriental version of Winnetou than anything. Apparently, they also made a French version for our western neighbors. I see they invested no less than four million D-Mark into this movie. I mean it does not sound a lot (well, actually it does) cimpared to today's productions, but keep in mind that this is from over 60 years ago and money just had a different value back then inflation-wise. Yozu can also kinda see that this was not a cheap production in terms of costumes, sets etc. Cinematography too. Actually, I would have liked to be there, but not back then, but now during more peaceful times. Are they really? Maybe just a different kind of antiquated, which is pretty say. Anyway, as for this film, I think it is a pity that all these visually fine efforts cannot really make up for the relatively bland screenplay.
I personally did not enjoy the watch too much. It starts off fairly solid, the characters are interesting, but sadly it does not stay this way for the entire film. I quickly lost interest in the story of an architect falling in love with a dancer, a woman that the local Maharajah also has an interest in. It's a tale about love, power and deceit, but it's nowhere near as good as it could have been. It feels fairly generic for the most part and a bit schmaltzy here and there too. Or take the cave down there packed with dead people and also protected by a corpse. It is creepy yes, but this could have been so much more haunting with better execution. Looks like Lang already had his best days behind him looking at how inspired some of his earlier works were and I cannot say I have a whole lot of interest in seeing the sequel, although I probably will soon and I hope it's actually 100 minutes that are improved to the 100 minutes we have here. As for the 1959 version of "The Tiger of Eschnapur", I do not recommend watching it unless you're a Lang completionist. It's not a failure, especially in terms of the visual production values (man all the jewellery is really stunning, some of the dresses too, so glad we got color here), but also it's not a good film. Thumbs down. To me it also feels here as if they really had the ambition to come up with something gigantic, maybe even epic (the budget fits the assumption), but the outcome cannot really fool anybody. I already listed a few examples of individual scenes where this film came short, but there are many others. If you decide to watch this film, you will know what I am talking about. Just take the entire core story dealing with friendship and betrayal because a woman got between these two men. I never really saw a great lesson in there. Was it even real friendship? It felt more like make-believe, but then again maybe the bad guy is just exaggerating things to justfiy his gruesome actions. You can see that he is not one to be fooled with by the shot early on that shows us the men he gave a whipping to. Well, not him personally of course. He has the power to delegate less pleasant tasks like this. Overall this film is definitely a wasted opportunity, even if I am not sure if the issue was the story itself or what the new writers made of it. Might have to check out the old film(s) for that at some point. Oh yeah and a quick note about the cast: Do not be fooled by the characters in the film and the dark skin makeup because pretty much the entire cast is German. Of course the clean speaking with no accents in this film also gives them away. But there are also new Caucasian characters introduced in the end and those seem to be taking the place of the initial protagonist from the architecture perspective. Honestly, they seem fairly bland as well, which does not include my hopes for the sequel that got released approximately 1.5 months after the first film in West Germany. But at some point you can check out my review for said sequel too over the at the corresponding film's title page. If you care. Nobody is forced to read. All voluntary. As for this first movie here, I give the outcome a negative recommendation with no hesitation. Still it's not a failure, never really sucks or anything, but I suggest you watch something else instead.
I personally did not enjoy the watch too much. It starts off fairly solid, the characters are interesting, but sadly it does not stay this way for the entire film. I quickly lost interest in the story of an architect falling in love with a dancer, a woman that the local Maharajah also has an interest in. It's a tale about love, power and deceit, but it's nowhere near as good as it could have been. It feels fairly generic for the most part and a bit schmaltzy here and there too. Or take the cave down there packed with dead people and also protected by a corpse. It is creepy yes, but this could have been so much more haunting with better execution. Looks like Lang already had his best days behind him looking at how inspired some of his earlier works were and I cannot say I have a whole lot of interest in seeing the sequel, although I probably will soon and I hope it's actually 100 minutes that are improved to the 100 minutes we have here. As for the 1959 version of "The Tiger of Eschnapur", I do not recommend watching it unless you're a Lang completionist. It's not a failure, especially in terms of the visual production values (man all the jewellery is really stunning, some of the dresses too, so glad we got color here), but also it's not a good film. Thumbs down. To me it also feels here as if they really had the ambition to come up with something gigantic, maybe even epic (the budget fits the assumption), but the outcome cannot really fool anybody. I already listed a few examples of individual scenes where this film came short, but there are many others. If you decide to watch this film, you will know what I am talking about. Just take the entire core story dealing with friendship and betrayal because a woman got between these two men. I never really saw a great lesson in there. Was it even real friendship? It felt more like make-believe, but then again maybe the bad guy is just exaggerating things to justfiy his gruesome actions. You can see that he is not one to be fooled with by the shot early on that shows us the men he gave a whipping to. Well, not him personally of course. He has the power to delegate less pleasant tasks like this. Overall this film is definitely a wasted opportunity, even if I am not sure if the issue was the story itself or what the new writers made of it. Might have to check out the old film(s) for that at some point. Oh yeah and a quick note about the cast: Do not be fooled by the characters in the film and the dark skin makeup because pretty much the entire cast is German. Of course the clean speaking with no accents in this film also gives them away. But there are also new Caucasian characters introduced in the end and those seem to be taking the place of the initial protagonist from the architecture perspective. Honestly, they seem fairly bland as well, which does not include my hopes for the sequel that got released approximately 1.5 months after the first film in West Germany. But at some point you can check out my review for said sequel too over the at the corresponding film's title page. If you care. Nobody is forced to read. All voluntary. As for this first movie here, I give the outcome a negative recommendation with no hesitation. Still it's not a failure, never really sucks or anything, but I suggest you watch something else instead.