The Tiger of Eschnapur / The Tomb of Love - 2-DVD Box Set ( Der Tiger von Eschnapur / Das indische Grabmal ) ( Le tigre du Bengale / Il sepolcro indiano )

The Tiger of Eschnapur / The Tomb of Love - 2-DVD Box Set (DVD) (*)

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Original Title: Der Tiger von Eschnapur / Das indische Grabmal
Alternate Title: Le tigre du Bengale / Il sepolcro indiano
Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Italian ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Italian ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Italy ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
193 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
2-DVD Set
Box Set
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Booklet

Movie filmed in 1959 and produced in:
France ( France, Benelux )
Germany ( Germany, Central Europe )
Italy ( Italy, Greece )

Directed By:
Fritz Lang

Written By:
Werner Jörg Lüddecke
Thea von Harbou

Actors:
Debra Paget ..... Seetha the Sheeva dancer
Paul Hubschmid ..... Harald Berger
Walter Reyer ..... Maharadjaj Chandra
Claus Holm ..... Dr. Walter Rhodes
Luciana Paluzzi ..... Baharani - Seetha's servant
Valéry Inkijinoff ..... Yama
Sabine Bethmann ..... Irene Rodhes
Angela Portaluri ..... Bäurin (credit only)
René Deltgen ..... Prince Ramigani
Guido Celano ..... General Dagh (credit only)
Jochen Brockmann ..... Padhu - Ramigani's ally
Richard Lauffen ..... Browana
Jochen Blume ..... Asagara - the Engineer
Helmut Hildebrand ..... Ramigani's servant
Victor Francen ..... Penitent (credit only)
Panos Papadopulos ..... Kurier (credit only)
Debra Paget ..... Seetha
Luciana Paluzzi ..... Seetha's servant (credit only)
Sabine Bethmann ..... Irene Rhodes
Angela Portaluri ..... Peasant
Guido Celano ..... General Dagh
Panos Papadopulos ..... Dagh's messenger
Victor Francen ..... Penitent

Synopsis:

The Tiger of Eschnapur (1959)
The tale begins when architect Harold Berger (Paul Hubschmid) arrives in India to meet with Maharahaja Chandra (Walter Reyer), for whom he will build schools and hospitals. En route to the Maharahaja'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 Maharahaja, 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.

The Tomb of Love (1959)
Seeta is captured and Berger is reported dead after a cliff fall. Berger's sister and her husband are suspicious and the latter is commissioned under false pretences to build a tomb where Seeta will be buried alive after her marriage to Chandra. The attempted overthrow is short-lived. Berger escapes and Chandra permits the couple to leave.

The Tiger of Eschnapur (1959)
After his long and prolific Hollywood career, Fritz Lang (M, Metropolis) returned to his native Germany at the behest of producer Artur Brauner and embarked on an ambitious two-film project that would eventually become known as his 'Indian Epic.' The source material was the novel The Indian Tomb by Thea von Harbou, a book Lang had initially been hired to direct as a silent film in 1921, before being fired and replaced with Joe May. In the first of the two films, The Tiger of Eschnapur, Lang tells the story of a German architect (Paul Hubschmid) who arrives in India to build a temple for a Maharaja, whereupon the he promptly falls in love with the Maharaja's intended bride (Debra Paget), whom he narrowly saves from becoming the titular tiger's latest meal. Impeccably directed on a modest budget, en route to a thrilling cliffhanger ending, Lang's late-career triumph proves the old adage that the enemy of art is the absence of limitations.

The Tomb of Love (1959)
Harald Berger and his Indian lover, the temple dancer Seetha, desperately flee from the shikaris (cavalry) of Eschanapur's maharajah Chandra, who burn a whole village just for letting them pass invoking traditional hospitality. A spider weaves a web so the trackers won't look for them in a Shiva temple, but she is caught outside, he left for dead after a steep fall into a crocodile-infested water. Meanwhile his sister Irene and brother-in-law Dr. Walter Rhode, the architect who refuses to build a tomb to bury Seetah alive for scorning the ruler's love before the hospital he was asked for, guess the truth, and try to make their assigned Indian servant Asagara talk, who dreads incriminating his sovereign. She can't believe Chandra's claim Harald was killed on a tiger-hunt, and the architect finds the bloody shirt he produces doesn't have the button she mended. Prince Ramigani plots seizing Chandra's throne with rajah Padhu, courtiers and the corrupt General Dagh, as soon as Chandra gives offense by marrying the unworthy dancer, which would turn the Hindu priests and ordinary people against him. Seetah dances to charm a cobra in the temple by way of oracle of the goddess, but when she trips Chandra kills the beast, is accused of blasphemy but decides to wed her anyhow, intending to bury his unwilling queen as soon as the monumental tomb is ready. Irene overhears Ramigami forcing Seetah to accept the loveless marriage for the life of Harald, whom he has secretly incarcerated in the palace's vast subterranean, and plans with her and Walter to find him and flee, using dynamite to create a diversion...

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 05 February, 2013.