Of all the films we've watched, I would be willing to bet that this is the least-seen by people actually alive now, because it's a nearly four hour German silent movie! (And, according to Wikipedia, "upon its release, it was neither a critical nor commercial success".) And it was actually pretty fun! We did have to watch it in half-hour installments, but it really lent itself to that because it's very like the old adventure serials, or the Weissmuller Tarzan films. I don't know what on Earth moved Jami to get it (probably the involvement of Conrad Veidt - probably best known for playing Jaffar in The Thief of Baghdad, or maybe the murderous somnambulist in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, but I also love him in the lesser-known Michael Powell film, The Spy in Black), who has yet to let us down), but get it she did, and now we've watched it. It is notable in that it was co-written by Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou, who at the time was a very well-known and prolific German author, and who fell in love while co-writing this (which is an adaptation of one of the latter's many novels) and left their respective spouses. They were an item until the rise of Nazism prompted the Communist Lang to flee, but von Harbou to stay and even join the party (she had to go through "de-Nazification" after the war but Lang was irreconcilable with her). It was directed by a Joe May, which partly explains why the female lead is played by the (somewhat dumpy by today's standards) Mia May, who was, you guessed it, his wife. Lang had hoped to direct it himself, and never forgave May, but May, while the less-talented filmmaker, was established and even owned his own studio, and reasoned that he would not have got funding for an inexperienced director. (The Mays also fled the rise of Nazism, but had less success when they finally arrived in the US, although May did direct the second Invisible Man film, of which I am quite fond.) Lang eventually got his revenge when he remade this film (which is actually broken into two parts, as was his remake) in Hollywood in the 50s.
So why should you watch this? Well, the number one reason would be the sets, which are stunning.
They're huge and ornate, and you really believe that the film has to be on location somewhere exotic, because you can't believe that they actually made all of these giant edifices from scratch. (But they did, not far from Berlin, and out of concrete, no less!) And it also features just hundreds of extras, and a profusion of exotic beasts, from elephants, to tigers, to crocodiles. It also features Conrad Veidt,
of course, who is his usual amazing self, with eyes that pierce into your very soul. He does a (not untypical for silent films) mixture of wildly over-the-top "big" acting, combined with a face that is incredibly expressive and can convey subtle emotions with ease. In other words, he's like a great theatre actor, and is a magnetic presence as the despotic prince of the fictional country that is a stand-in for Bengal. But going toe-to-toe with him in the magnetism department is Bernhard Goetzke as Rami the Yogi. The film begins with the Prince bringing Rami back from the dead essentially to be his magic slave, and Goetzke is riveting as the granite-face mystic, who (through some very impressive-for-the-time special effects) manages to persuade "British" architect Herbert Rowland (the rather middle-aged looking putative protagonist) to come to the Prince's kingdom. Why they can't just write to Herbert, I'm not sure, but Rami instead magics on some new clothes, teleports across the world and, when it looks like his fiancee Irene might spoil things, he magics a telephone cord out of a telephone, reaches through space to grab a letter left for her and makes a tire fall off her car
as she pursues Herbert. It is never explained what's so special about Herbert, as by his own admission he hasn't completed many projects (which is why he's so easily lured away - it's not like business is booming) but the Prince wants him to build a magnificent tomb for his bride. The catch is, she's not dead yet! The prince is incensed because she's been caught giving "British" adventurer Mac Allan (I love the German idea of a British name) a big fat ring that the prince had given her.
This is the premise for the whole affair. Herbert (understandably) has reservations about his part in the prince's revenge plot. Meanwhile Irene follows her love to the kingdom, but is intercepted by the prince and told not to distract Herbert. The prince sends his henchmen to capture Mac Allan, who has been lured out on a "tiger hunt" on false pretenses,
but he puts up a hell of a fight, defending his hunting lodge with his gun until it is set on fire, then slipping the net and fleeing on horseback. He is eventually captured, tied to a kind of sled and dragged back by horse. Meanwhile, Irene wanders about the (incredibly impressive) palace grounds and is spotted by Herbert. He pursues her and she runs (not wanting to break the promise to the prince) - straight through a cave full of penitents. Herbert, on following, accidentally kicks one of them who is buried up to his head, and he curses him with leprosy. Then Irene stumbles into the tiger den and has to be rescued by the astral projection of Rami. Eventually both Herbert and Irene return to their respective parts of the palace without meeting, but it turns out that the curse is successful, and Herbert has leprosy! So he has to be sent off to live in a cordoned-off courtyard full of lepers. The prince confronts Irene with it
and how it's her fault, and she begs him to save Herbert. This requires her sacrificing herself. After initially refusing, and following a night's thinking it over, she agrees, impressing him with her loyalty (unlike his princess!). Then there's a scene where she dresses up in ritual garb and he (the prince) appears to her dressed in an amazing headdress and miniskirt and apparently painted gold
that I didn't quite understand. Anyway, Rami cures Herbert and the prince lets Irene off un-sacrificed, for some reason. (Meanwhile, Rami, knowing that the prince's deeds are only going to get worse, announces that his debt has been paid and vanishes, much to the prince's chagrin.) Irene and Herbert are reunited, and Mac Allan returns, and Irene and Herbert intercede to stop (or so they think) the prince executing both him and a faithful servant of the princess called Mirrjha, who has been interceding on behalf of Mac Allan,
the princess and Irene. The prince promises that "no man" will lay a hand on Mac Allan. He is led away to a familiar doorway and told that all he has to do is cross this courtyard and exit that door on the other side and he is free. Of course, this is the tigers' enclosure and both doors are quickly locked and... Mac Allan meets a grisly fate, which the prince forces the princess to watch. That surprised me, I must say - I mean, we were at least a couple of hours in and Mac Allan was pretty much the dashing star up to that point. Anyway, unaware of Mac Allan's fate, Herbert and Irene are having a posh soiree with the prince (who, educated at the best European schools, is dressed up in a dinner jacket, just complemented with his usual turban). Then he says that Mirrjha "will soon be leaving us" but will dance for us once more. Herbert and Irene sense something amiss but are powerless to help as, on the prince's signal, some snake charmers release a cobra that bites the dancing Mirrjha. As she dies she entreats the European couple to flee, and take the princess. That night they do, taking one boat and sabotaging others, which means that one of the prince's guards has to swim in crocodile-infested waters to get an adrift boat... and doesn't make it. But soon the prince and his men are in pursuit, and we get a tense standoff around a rope bridge... that leads to the princess sacrificing herself, and the prince realizing he loved her more than life itself. So Herbert does end up building the tomb (which is just as magnificent as all the other sets in this film), but the prince is a broken man in rags lying on its steps by the end.
Phew! What makes this film so easily watchable, I think, is that while it is so long itself, it cuts back and forth between the different characters very frequently, so if you're not particularly invested in one story line, you won't have to wait long for a change of scene. The camerawork is very basic - essentially the camera is fixed in each screen, the only movement being occasional zooms - but because the sets are so fantastic, it's enough just to capture the imagery. It's films like this that make it worth anyone's while to watch a silent film once in a while - there's just nothing like them since. I'm still wondering where they got all those elephants and tigers from in Germany...
No comments:
Post a Comment