The Tiger of Eschnapur (1959 film)

Prior works

Lang's Indian epic is based on work he did forty years earlier on a silent version of Das Indische Grabmal. He and Thea von Harbou co-wrote the screenplay, basing it on von Harbou's novel of the same name. Lang was set to direct, but that job was taken from him and given to Joe May. Though Lang did not control the final form of that earlier version, it is one of his most revered films.

Released in 1921, the original version of Das Indische Grabmal had a running time of 3 ¹⁄₂ hours. For the remake, Lang divided the story into two parts that each run about 100 minutes, a length modern audiences can more easily accept.

Plot

The tale begins when architect Harold Berger (Paul Hubschmid) arrives in India to meet with Maharaja Chandra (Walter Reyer), for whom he will build schools and hospitals. En route to the Maharaja's palace, Berger meets a dancer named Seetha (Debra Paget) and saves her from a tiger. Seetha, whose father was European, is promised to the Maharaja, but she and the architect begin to fall in love. Predictably, this leads to a buildup of tension between Chandra and Berger, helped along by scheming palace courtiers. The film is also filled with action, and a highlight of it is Seetha's first ritual dance. At the end of Tiger, Seetha and Berger are imprisoned but escape into the desert just as Berger's sister and her husband, also an architect who works with Berger, arrive in Eschnapur. Chandra informs them the plans have changed; he now wants a tomb to be built.

Production

The film was shot on location in India with a predominantly German cast. Lang was able to get permission from the Maharana of Udaipur to shoot at many locations that were normally barred to Western film crews. One of these was the floating Lake Palace seen much later in Octopussy.

Releases

The two films were edited down into one 95-minute feature courtesy of American International Pictures and released in the US in 1959 as Journey to the Lost City—with Seetha's dance scenes heavily trimmed, courtesy of the Hays Office. The negatives of Fritz Lang's original films were thought to be lost, but recently a set was rediscovered. Fantoma Films restored them to DVD format, producing one disc for each film. The discs contain both German and English dialogue tracks, plus other extras. They were released by Image Entertainment in 2001.

Trivia