User Reviews

After Jacques Feyder refused to make a sound version of his 1921 film L'Atlantide, G. W. Pabst stepped in to make three this, shot in English, French and German with three different casts yet always having Brigitte Helm (the robot from Metropolis) in the lead.

Based on Pierre Benoit's novel L'Atlantide, this movie has two French Foreign Legionnaires lost in the Sahara Desert when they find the very unlikely entrance to Atlantis, which is ruled over by Antinea. Yet this isn't a movie like Stargate or one of the many matriarchal spacewomen films that would come out in the fifties. Instead, it's a German Expressionistic dream-filled tale of what lies beneath the unexplored space of the desert and that is more unexplored space, because the Earth is vast and we are bored and yet there is so much that we have not done.

That said, the original novel is even more fantastic, with the queen presiding over a burial plot filled with the dead bodies of extinguished past lovers. Here, she's the daughter of a dancer from our world and a tribal leader and you know, maybe we want the unreal over the real sometimes.

Brigitte Helm would retire three years later, yet was once considered to be Frankenstein's bride. She moved to Switzerland and said that the Nazi takeover of the film industry sickened her; she made thirty movies in just seventeen years before that.

Pierre Benoit was then a famous writer :his extravaganzas seem out of time now but at the time his novels were transferred to the screen at such a speed it makes you feel giddy:think that it's the second version (there is one silent movie) and there's an Ulmer's version .And "Desert Legion"(1953) starring Arlene Dahl and Alan Ladd owes a good deal of its screenplay to Benoit's book too.

The first sequence is a lecture on Atlantis "since we found the ruins of Troy,why wouldn't we do the same as far as Atlantis is concerned?"Two legionnaires are listening to the radio :"I've been there,I've been to Atlantis" says officer Saint-Avit .And he begins to tell his tale to his incredulous mate.

Flashback: Once he discovered a mysterious city with subterranean where a queen,Antinea ,reigns.This queen seems to be fond of men because she is a woman to die for...or to kill for...Brigitte Helm (famous for her part of Maria in Metropolis) was an obvious choice but she has barely four lines to say and her appearance does not exceed fifteen minutes.Like in the famous Hotel California ,you can check any time you want in Atlantis but you can never leave .

Pabst's talent shows now and then: a weird sequence in les Folies Bergères in Paris complete with Can Can in that context becomes downright surrealist; the flight across the desert -I studied this part of the book when I was in sixth grade,nowadays nobody studies Benoit- includes a good scene when the two fugitives find the well which is dry.

But the last sequences set the record straight: Saint-Avit is out of his mind,so all that happened might possibly be a mirage ;anything is illusion anyway for the "Queen "might well be a former French Can Can dancer.

The landscape and Atlantis settings are interesting, the cinematography is effective, the acting fine and the story interesting with a good open ending. Did Lt. Saint-Avit perish in the desert or did he make his way back to Atlantis? All well and good but I would have given it a higher rating but for the absence of most of the film by Antinéa, played by Brigitte Helm. She is barely in it which is a shame as when she is onscreen Ms. Helm is riveting but you don't get to know her in any way. A good film anyway from director G.W. Pabst.

If you're expecting an action filled bit of camp desert adventure this isn't the movie for you. If you're happy with an almost surreal look backward into time and film making you're going to love this.

Every scene was worth capturing and putting into a frame on your wall. From the dreamy starkness of the desert to the marvelously vulgar flashback of the Paris dancers my eyes just couldn't get enough.

I've read several reviews that complained the story was slight and or incoherent but I didn't feel that way. Dreams don't have to be epic tales or follow a strict pedestrian logic and I was happy that this dream of a film allowed me to feast my eyes and wonder.

The score was almost as gorgeous at points as the camera work, flowing from one theme and bursting into another sometimes shockingly but always beautifully.

"Die Herrin von Atlantis" or "L'Atlantide" or "Queen of Atlantis" is a German/French co-production from 1932, so this film will have its 90th anniversary soon. It is from the really early days of sound filmmaking, which you can hear by the quality and frequency too and this film runs for slightly under 1.5 hours. If I see it correctly, there are no less than six writers credited with the film, which is really a lot, one of them being Pierre Benoit who wrote the novel. The most known name is probably Vajda and if you know a bit about old films and have seen some chances are high, this is not the first time you come across him. But even more known is director Georg Wilhelm Pabst for sure, one of the defining filmmakers from his era and this one is not among his earliest or latest works, also not one of his most known either. Of course, it is still a black-and-white film. I must say I am not too familiar with French old (silent) film actors, so I cannot comment on these, but the inclusion of Brigitte Helm is interesting for sure and had my hopes a bit higher than they should have been probably. This is self-explanatory if you have seen Metropolis (which I strongly assume, if you consider watching this one here) and know about her character there. Then you just have to be inevitably curious about how she will fare in this one for playing the main villain apparently. Anyway, I think I was rather underwhelmed by everything relating to her character. I think the idea and her talent could have resulted in a whole lot more. As for the two men, they were okay at best too, more forgettable than I liked. The general idea of having the old empire of Atlantis revived somewhere below the desert felt pretty strange. Sure opposite can attract each other, but it just doesn't make sense to have the definition of plenty in terms of water right near the Sahara. Oh my. But that is just a general point I am struggling with a bit. Next would be Helm's character. Maybe it is her sadistic mind that she lures one of the two into killing the other, but yeah well, she has all these servants, some of them warriors, below her, so it feels pretty strange that she takes the risk to get so close to one of them and be alone with him. Nothing a queen of her clibre would do in my opinion and it also goes a bit against her rise to the throne I must say where she has been governing ruthlessly and with a clean mind all kinds of certainly existent dangers. On a completely unrelated side-note, Pabst's Wife Gertrude acts in this one as well. You sure don't see her too often in Pabst's films despite how long they were married. And finally a few ords on the sound. I think they were overdoing it here on way too many occasions unfortunately. But that was a common problem back then and with this I am referring mostly to the music that was overly dramatic in scenes when they apparently failed to use visuals only to make the moment work. The best example are those desert scenes near the end again. That is also why I would not say overall that the desert frame (beginning and end) worked too well. So overall, this movie gets a thumbs-down from me. Could have been much better given the premise and cast. Watch something else instead.

At a French outpost in North Africa, Lieutenant Saint-Avit and his comrade listen to a radio broadcast concerning the lost city of Atlantis now believed buried under the Saharan sands. Saint-Avit confides to his friend that he'd once been there and proceeds to tell his bizarre story in flashback. He and a fellow Legionaire, Captain Morhange, were on a scouting mission for the war office in the desert when they came upon a Turgai warrior dying of thirst. They rescue him but are soon captured and taken to a series of catacombs deep in the mountains that are all that's left of the fabled city of Atlantis. It's ruler, Antinea, keeps all men in thrall; Saint-Avit falls under her spell but Morhange resists so Antinea orders Saint-Avit to kill him. He does but, shocked at what he's done, takes to drugs. The Turgai warrior they had saved helps him and Clementine, a native in love with Saint Avit, to escape the underground labyrinth but the woman later dies in the desert. After Saint-Avit tells his tale, his comrade writes to the home office notifying them that the battle-weary lieutenant has gone mad from the sun and heat while Saint-Avit wanders out into a sandstorm following a vision of Antinea...

Jacques Feyder was the first to film L'ATLANTIDE in 1921 and there have been many versions since, including one by Edgar G. Ulmer in the early 1960s. Pierre Benoit, author of the 1919 novel on which the films were based, was accused of plagiarism because of similarities between his adventure story and H Rider Haggard's "She" but director G.W. Pabst dispenses with most of Benoit's saga to create his own compelling tale. Pabst shot German, French and English language versions simultaneously with the same sets and cast using actual Sahara locations. Keeping dialog to a minimum, Pabst's vision is a cross between Haggard's "She" and THE CABINET OF DR CALIGARI. The fantastic yarn gives clues along the way that it's only a madman's hallucination: there's a foppish European fond of alcohol living in Atlantis along with a Swedish drug-addict; both were former lovers of Antinea who, apparently, was once a can-can dancer at the Casino de Paris. The female reporter at the beginning of Saint-Avit's journey is also Clementine and Atlantis itself is a mixture of modernity and maze-like ruins. The vistas of the desert with it's howling wind and shifting sands is visually striking and reminiscent of Josef von Sternberg's MOROCCO. Brigitte Helm, Maria in Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS, makes an icy and imperious Antinea whom no mortal man can resist and hope to live. The storyline is a little hard to follow on a single viewing but the film's dream-like quality and the many beautiful images will stay in the mind long after it's over.

Lieutenant Saint-Avit is lured into the lost city of Atlantis buried beneath the Sahara desert and is seduced by Queen Antinea. He escapes with his life when he realizes all her lovers come to a tragic end.

G.W. Pabst's film version of Pierre Benoit novel features good photography, good use of real North African locations, and very good use of sound. Brigette (METROPOLIS) Helm is memorable as Antinea. However, I found myself confused as to what was going on. I, like another commentator in this forum, got the feeling something was missing. It could very well be. The video version I saw had a running time of 78 mins., the official running time listed here at IMDB is 87 mins. Is nine mins of footage missing?

I'll be the first to say that this movie is worth seeing for its visuals alone. The dreamy black and white cinematography is gorgeous and evocative.

But as other commentors have noted, as good as the opening third is and as haunting as the closing 10 minutes of the movie are, something seems to missing in the middle of the film. Even though the "Mistress" is impressive and striking, in the version I saw,the movie just seems to grind to a halt and tread water and doesn't quite resolve the problems it set for itself. Part of it might be the deliberately mannered acting, part of it might be my alienation from the culture portrayed in the catacombs (since when is Atlantis a tuareg hideaway??), and part of it might be because I am reminded way too much of H. Rider Haggard's "She" (although this may not be the fault of the movie, just of my own viewing history and preconceptions.)

But I'm glad I saw it once.If you are a fan of "lost civilization" themes in films, and get a chance to see it, give it a view and see what you think.

So who exactly who is she, this mistress of Atlantis, this priestess with the leastest? She's Antinea, part Tondelayo and part Cobra Woman, living with a leopard by her side, and featuring a smile that could melt stone, yet one that only fools trust. A crafty game of chess shows her at her most sinister, repeating check over and over again like a leopard who has its prey trapped yet keels making it think that it is near freedom until it is too late. In the case of this game, he's the equivalent of both Randolph Scott and Ronald Colman, recently arrived and lost in the desert as he comes across a paradise both intriguing and sinister.

Bridget Helm isn't quite Helen Gahagan, but she is far from Shangri La's Margo. She is closer to a spoiled school girl used to getting her way no matter what. World culture (including Can Can dancers) are part of the regular culture there, managing to entrance everyone caught in its trap. I believe that it is John Stuart as the captured hero who longs to be escape even though he us intrigued by there. A strange performance by an actor whom I wasn't able to identify just giggles with sinister effeminate behavior yet is portrayed to be in love with a female servant.

Sometimes breathtaking to look at, this just gets furtherly more bizarre as the plot develops. The great G.W. Pabst shows that he had a true artistic sense that didn't always have a common appeal, often pretentious and too high brow. The conclusion made absolutely no sense. As others have suggested, this often seemed like bits and pieces of various ideas tossed together without the benefit of cohesion. I must refer to it then as an artistic let- down where nothing really comes together and the results are unsatisfactory all over.

Brigitte Helm (Antinea), John Stuart (Lieutenant Saint-Avit), Tela Tschai (Tanit Zerga, the serving girl), Gustav Diessl (Captain Morange), Florelle (Clementine, the dancer), Gibb McLoughlin (Count Bielowski), Mathias Wieman (the Norwegian), Georges Tourreil (Lieutenant Ferrieres), Gertrude Pabst (journalist).

Director G. W. PABST. Screenplay: Ladislav Vajda, Hermann Oberlander. English dialogue: Miles Mander. Based on the novel L'Atlantide by Pierre Benoit. Photography: Eugene Schuftan, Ernest Koerner. Film editor: Hans Oser. Art director: Erno Metzner. Costumes designed by Max Pretzfelder. Music: Wolfgang Zeller. Sound recording: Adolph Jansen. Producers: Seymour Nebenzahl, Wilhelm Lowenberg.

Shot on the Haggar Desert in North Africa and at the NeroFilm Studio in Berlin. London opening of the English version with John Stuart as Saint-Avit: 3 July 1933. Berlin opening of Die Herrin von Atlantis with Heinz Klingenberg as Saint-Avit: 6 September 1932. Paris opening of L'Atlantide with Pierre Blanchard as Saint-Avit and Jean Angelo as Captain Morhange (sic): 8 June 1932. The French version ran 94 minutes while the German and English versions ran only 87 minutes. Presumably, the role played by Captain Morange in the non- French versions was reduced. Jean Angelo played the same role in the 1921 silent, so one could argue that he was presumably given a few extra scenes to build up his part in the talkie. However, the detailed synopsis of the French version, published in The New York Times, is exactly the same in every degree to the story-line in the 87-minutes English version under review. This version, released in the U.S.A. in 1939, was never copyrighted and has always been in the public domain. (Mill Creek DVD rates 6 or 7/10).

COMMENT: A breathtaking mixture of fantasy and film noir, with the emphasis on the latter quality, filmed in the most extravagantly baroque style imaginable, amidst some of the most spectacularly atmospheric sets and locations ever captured on camera, this is the movie that inspired Orson Welles and that he tried so often to duplicate in films like Othello, Macbeth and Mr Arkadin but—hampered by limited budgets at every turn—with only partial success.

Mind you, the dubbing here is a slight distraction, and Gibb McLaughlin over-acts atrociously as the count of little account. I would prefer Vladimir Sokoloff. On the other hand, we see far less of Gustav Diessl than the plot requires to be really effective.

What we have here is the ultimate chick flick.

Nothing for the guys.

A story about Atlantis being a lost city in the desert is far fetched, so rationale goes out the window right away.

Two Europeans find this lost city.

There, they meet two other English speaking sorts, one a clownish fop, the other a drug crazed half wit.

For some reason, the one who tells this in flashback ignores all the beautiful dark skinned babes, and goes gaga over a plain Jane who is the chess playing mistress of Atlantis. Which is what makes this a total chick flick. No guy would ever buy into this. This is a world women want, where gorgeous girls meet tragic ends, and plain Janes are worshiped by guys who must be as gay as Paree.

She loves the other guy, so of course she wants him killed.

Meanwhile, the guy telling the story in flashback is so gaga over her, that he is willing to kill his friend. This isn't a spoiler. He admits this in the first minutes of the movie.

The only people we could possibly care about are in the background. And, like I said, this is done total chick flick style, in the final outcome.