The Tiger of Eschnapur (1959)

Better Late Then Never

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Blistering performances.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

This movie should have been so much better. Lang is capable of a lot more. Unfortunately, it did not live up to its creator's abilities. The writing was stilted and awkward with unrealistic dialogue. Whenever anyone spoke, they basically said whatever they needed to advance the plot regardless if it was believable. There were a few lines about the gods thrown in to remind us we are in India. There is absolutely no subtlety here at all. The worst part about this film was the acting. Not one of these actors was believable or natural. I realize acting styles have changed over the years. The prince with his bad Indian makeup and phony looking jewelry had two moods: bland or outraged. He marched in front of cages of tigers for no apparent reason other than that he's a prince who controls everything and because this movie has tiger in the title. Some of the other actors were caricatures of what they thought Indians should be like. Dark brown makeup with blue eyes and Nordic features? What was Lang thinking? Then we've got the two leads: the dancer and the German architect. Paget the dancer was beautiful to look at, but that's where her talent ended. If she's sad, she's sitting there with a huge frown. If scared, an exaggerated wide eyed look. It's ridiculous how badly she acts in this movie. Reminds me of acting from the 20s. At least then they had no dialogue to work with, so movement was everything. Another thing that is bound to make the acting awful is that the lead actress is not speaking the same language as her paramour... Literally. This makes it impossible for them to relate to and respond to one another. Her lines were overdubbed in German while she spoke them in English in the scene. Her lover spoke German throughout. I'm not sure why Lang chose to cast someone who didn't speak German. Finally, we come to the love interest for our dancer. He's not only creepy, but he's got zero charisma and is unpleasant to watch. At times he's yelling his lines just to inject some emotion into his scenes. It's the work of an amateur. Again, no subtlety. They all are behaving like a bunch of people who have never acted a day in their lives. Considering they are all experienced, i can only lay these errors at the director's feet. Even the costumes and props looked unrealistic and poorly constructed. Perhaps Lang was past it or maybe he just wasn't able to change with the times. Either way, it made for a very poorly constructed picture.

Harold Berger is an architect from Germany who has arrived to India to build a temple for Maharahaja Chandra.Then he meets a dancer called Seetha who becomes his destiny.He saves her from a tiger.The only problem is that Seetha is promised to the Maharahaja.Those two men become the worst enemies.Der Tiger von Eschnapur (1959) is the first part of Fritz Lang's Indian epic.It's a mighty entertaining movie from the great German director.Debra Paget does great work as the dancer.The exotic dance she does before the enormous female idol is quite amazing.Paul Hubschmid is terrific as Harold.Walter Reyer is great as Chandra.Harold's sister Irene Rhode is played by Sabine Bethmann and her husband Walter by Claus Holm.Luciana Palizzi portrays Baharani.René Deltgen plays Prince Ramigani, who wants to seize the throne from his brother.This movie still works, after 50 years since its making.The Irish tune that's heard in the movie sounds beautiful.The movie contains many good scenes.In one of them Seetha is being captured by Prince Ramigani and nearly gets raped by his men.It's pretty horrifying when Harold witnesses the leper colony.At the end there are some thrilling moments when the lovers are being chased and they get in the middle of a sandstorm.To be continued...

The second half of Fritz Lang's saga lives up to the promise of the first. Elaborate set pieces, sultry exoticism and moral reckoning all skillfully delivered by a proven film maestro. Delightful fun when all is said and done.

Der Tiger von Eschnapur looks like a silent movie with dialogue. The settings are magnificent and the story telling comes close to Der Müde Tod. Unfortunately the characters will speak and that breaks the magic in it. Especially for the lead actor playing architect Harald Berger: he is awful and it's even worse with the dubbing in the French version. I wonder why Fritz Lang had to make do with him. Perhaps his eyesight was starting to decline. Perhaps he was just not able to shoot his great tragedies of the 20s with dialogue although he prided himself on being a good script doctor. Well, he had to adapt to the American Motion Picture Industry then his Art would be stemmed, obstructed.The pity is Fritz Lang never topped himself after his marvelous silent works of the 20s. Metropolis is overrated but despite all the wooden sentimentalism in it we have insights of the German director at his best. With M he gave us the best out of the silent era but he never again reach the magic of his previous work. While it took twenty years to Hitchcock to come to the masterpieces he shot in the 50s Lang did not improve his visual mastering. And worst of all the scripts he was handed in Hollywood hardly appealed to his deepest talent whereas he closely engaged in the making of Thea von Harbou's screenplays.