User Reviews

This is an okay adventure for kids, with opulent settings and costumes, but you have to wonder about the behavior of the lepers in the caves below the palace. Unlike their passive relatives in Ben Hur, these lepers are aggressive like we see zombies behave in innumerable horror films. Combat scenes are very fake, as well. And the chief antagonist's comeuppance occurs through a rapid sequence of very forced, but apparently random, consequences of his actions.

If you're familiar with Fritz Lang, particularly his silent epics like "Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler," "Metropolis" and "The Nibelungen," and you admire the intricate plotting, attention to detail and fully flesh out worlds, his two-part Indian Epic (of which "The Tiger of Eschnapur" is the first part) will probably turn out to be a splendid surprise. This massive production has a lot going for it, not the least of which are the remarkable locations, cinematography, Langian screen compositions and stunning costumes. This is eye candy to the max with one amazing image after another, but its modern day Adam and Eve storyline and supernatural microcosm are also noteworthy.

The first time I watched it, I think I found it rather slow and uneventful, but something about it brought me back about a year later. The second viewing was a very different experience. I saw things I completely missed the first time around. The clever irony, the emphasis on the spiritual world, the correlation of animals to the main characters and the Gods, the existence of a subversive underworld, and the interplay of opposing forces all came into focus in the most poetic fashion. I think it takes a second viewing to see how it all works. As someone else mentioned, the films are structured in a cliff hanger serial style, not unlike the Indiana Jones films. Unlike Spielberg, however, Lang's Indian Epic isn't afraid to take its characters seriously. There is humor, but the romance of character, locale, theme and story take a front seat. There is more going on here than just a fantastic adventure.

I must also mention Debra Paget, who plays Seetha, a half-Indian, half-Irish dancer. She basically runs away with the whole show. I hadn't ever fully appreciated her until I saw her in this. She never radiated more beautifully than she does here and her two dances (one in each part of the film) are without a doubt among the most erotic ever photographed. Yet, they equally expand the full drama of the story. Lang's compositions speak volumes about the characters and an entire essay could be written about them. Suffice to say, even if the meaning of the shots don't hit you, you'll still be blown away by the exquisite colors, production design, and costumes. The use of white is astounding.

Let me also mention the music by Michel Michelet. It's quite a stylish score, rich with exotic instrumentation, Indian marches and fanciful dances. Like the exquisite images, the score adds considerably to the alluring atmosphere.

If you're a Fritz Lang fan, and you don't mind silent film pacing, you're probably of an age and mind-set to appreciate this epic. It made me wonder what Lang would have done with "Metropolis" had he shot it in 3-strip Technicolor, like this epic. There are some negatives I must mention, however. Some of the visual effects are less than satisfactory and a few of the sets look like it. Also, some of the Indian characters (Chandra, for example) are not Indians but white actors in makeup. Such were the times, but even as recently as 1982's "Ghandi," white actors (Ben Kingsley) were playing non- whites. Nevertheless, the broad strokes performances work well in this kind of adventure.

The Fantomas DVD of Lang's Indian Epic has both German and English language available. Even though the dubbing is regrettable, the English version is preferable (unless you speak German), since the subtitles avert your eyes from the spectacular imagery. If you approach this with an open mind, Lang's Indian Epic will sweep you away to a wondrous world.

At the end of his career, Fritz Lang made two films in India: The Tiger of Eschnapur (1959) and its sequel, The Indian Tomb (also known as The Tomb of Love) starring Debra Paget, Paul Christian (billed as Paul Hubschmid), Walter Reyer, Claus Holm and Luciana Paluzzi. (In 1960, both movies were combined and edited down to a mere 94 minutes. The resultant hard-to-follow pastiche was then released as Journey to the Lost City). I thoroughly enjoyed The Tiger of Eschnapur. Admittedly, the plot is Boys Own Paper stuff, but on its juvenile level, it offers plenty of spectacular action – and typical Fritz Lang suspense – set against some truly magnificent backgrounds. And who could resist Debra Paget as she appears here, so lovingly photographed and so exotically attired? The only draw-back is that the movie ends like the chapter of a serial and you are then forced to view The Indian Tomb to see how it all comes out. I found this sequel a little tiresome, but many of my colleagues disagreed. To them, this chapter was even more exciting and colorful than The Tiger of Eschnapur. I would hazard that how you react depends to some extent on the interval of time involved. I watched the sequel straightaway. My colleagues viewed it at intervals varying from a week to six months. Both films are now available on excellent DVDs.

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.

While traveling to Bengal, invited by Maharaja Chandra (Walter Reyer) to build schools and hospitals for his people, the German engineer Harold Berger (Paul Hubschmid) rescues the servant of the half-breed dancer Seetha (Debra Paget) from the harassment of a group of men in a fountain. They travel together to Chandra's palace and Berger saves Seetha from the attack of a tiger in the road through the woods. The widower Chandra intends to get married with Seetha and thanks Berger for his heroic attitude, giving an emerald ring to him to express his gratitude and friendship. Chandra proposes Seetha, but Berger and she are in love for each other and have secret encounters during the nights. Meanwhile Chandra's elder brother Prince Ramigani (René Deltgen) is plotting a scheme to grab power and trying to convince Chandra's brother-in-law Prince Padhu (Jochen Brockmann) to join him. When Chandra is informed that Berger secretly meets his beloved Seetha, he plots revenge against the engineer, but he escapes with Seetha through the desert. Chandra sends his men to hunt the couple while Berger's sister and her husband and Berger's partner Walter Rhode (Claus Holm) arrive to the palace to begin the construction of the buildings. However, Chandra changes his mind and orders the engineer to develop a project of a monumental tomb to his lost love. In the meantime, Berger and Seetha's horses die, they run out of water and they are surprised by a sand storm.

"Der Tiger von Eschnapur" is the first of the two "Fritz Lang's Indian Epics" of the director Fritz Lang in his return to German. The exotic and mystic romance has many action scenes and engaging subplots of betrayals, with the gorgeous Debra Paget performing magnificent choreography with her dance. The colors are splendidly restored in the DVD released in Brazil by Continental in the beautiful locations and sets. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Tigre de Bengala" ("The Tiger of Bengal")

Some extraordinary sets, some spectacular scenery, and Debra Paget's mesmerizing beauty (along with her flexible, supple body) cannot compensate for a wooden lead and a meandering script that never really catches fire. With that said, there are a couple of memorable sequences: one in a hidden crypt full of lepers which is staged almost like a zombie attack, and one in which a fakir demonstrates magic tricks that first go very right....and then go very wrong. The story ends on an official "To Be Continued" note, and although it's not compelling enough, I've read good things about the sequel so I'll be watching it. ** out of 4.