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The Indian Tomb / Das Indische Grabmal (1959) [The Masters of Cinema Series #107] [REPOST]

Posted By: Notsaint

Date: 12 Oct 2013 20:46:11

A jealous Maharajah discovers that the girl he loves is in love with a visiting German architect, captures her, and threatens to bury her alive as punishment.

Director: Fritz Lang
Cast: Debra Paget, Paul Hubschmid, Walter Reyer, Claus Holm, Luciana Paluzzi, Valery Inkijinoff, Sabine Bethmann, Angela Portaluri, Rene Deltgen, Guido Celano, Jochen Brockmann, Richard Lauffen, Jochen Blume, Helmut Hildebrand, Panos Papadopulos, Victor Francen, Willy Friedrichs

Fritz Lang returned to Germany on the eve of the 1960s to direct this enchanted penultimate work, a redraft of the diptych form pioneered in such silent Lang classics as Die Spinnen; Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler.; and Die Nibelungen. Although no encapsulating title was lent at the time of release to what is, effectively, a single 3-hour-plus film split in two, the work that has come to be referred to in modern times as “the Indian epic” (consisting of Der Tiger von Eschnapur and Das indische Grabmal) proved to be one of the legendary director’s most adventurous achievements. It was also one of the most popular successes Lang was to experience in his native land.
A German architect (Paul Hubschmid) is commissioned by an Indian maharaja (Walter Reyer) to construct a temple on his palatial grounds. After saving the life of a bewitching dancer (Debra Paget) on whom the maharaja has spousal designs, the hero is pulled ever deeper into a hazardous maze of traps, perhaps the purest realisation of Lang’s obsession with a labyrinthine ‘house of death’ – that is, Man challenging Fate.
Like Lang’s following final work Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse, the Indian epic charts new territory for the director, as it strikes out into the uber-melodramatic tenor of his early silents while inciting the colours of the emulsion into adopting a lurid, sometimes gaseous palette. Arriving in the wake of The River (Renoir), India matri bhumi (Rossellini), and Black Narcissus (Powell & Pressburger), Lang’s Indian epic stands among the remarkable mid-century contributions of Western filmmakers who have contemplated India. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Lang’s films on DVD in the UK for the first time.

pecial Features
- Beautiful, newly restored transfers of the films in their original 1.37:1 aspect ratio
- Two soundtracks: the native German-language track, and the English-language dubtrack made for overseas distribution
- Newly translated optional English subtitles
- New and exclusive feature-length audio commentaries by film scholar David Kalat
- The original French trailers

IMDb

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…
~ KGF Vissers

Seetha and Harold Berger are rescued from the desert by a caravan and brought to a small village. However, the greedy owner of the house where they are lodged betrays the law of hospitality and reveals their location to Prince Ramigani. The couple tries to escape but is hunted and captured by Ramigani and his men. Meanwhile Irene Rhode and her husband Walter Rhode suspect that Maharaja Chandra is not telling the truth about Harold's destiny. The conspirator Ramigani forces Seetha to accept to get married with Chandra to provoke the wrath of the priests and get the alliance of Prince Padhu and his army. In the meantime, Harold succeeds in escaping from the dungeon and seeks out Seetha to save her.
~ Claudio Carvalho

Eureka Video

Fritz Lang returned to Germany on the eve of the 1960s to direct this enchanted penultimate work, a redraft of the diptych form pioneered in such silent Lang classics as Die Spinnen; Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler.; and Die Nibelungen. Although no encapsulating title was lent at the time of release to what is, effectively, a single 3-hour-plus film split in two, the work that has come to be referred to in modern times as “the Indian epic” (consisting of Der Tiger von Eschnapur and Das indische Grabmal) proved to be one of the legendary director’s most adventurous achievements. It was also one of the most popular successes Lang was to experience in his native land.

A German architect (Paul Hubschmid) is commissioned by an Indian maharaja (Walter Reyer) to construct a temple on his palatial grounds. After saving the life of a bewitching dancer (Debra Paget) on whom the maharaja has spousal designs, the hero is pulled ever deeper into a hazardous maze of traps, perhaps the purest realisation of Lang’s obsession with a labyrinthine ‘house of death’ – that is, Man challenging Fate.

Like Lang’s following final work Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse, the Indian epic charts new territory for the director, as it strikes out into the uber-melodramatic tenor of his early silents while inciting the colours of the emulsion into adopting a lurid, sometimes gaseous palette. Arriving in the wake of The River (Renoir), India matri bhumi (Rossellini), and Black Narcissus (Powell & Pressburger), Lang’s Indian epic stands among the remarkable mid-century contributions of Western filmmakers who have contemplated India. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Lang’s films on DVD in the UK for the first time.

DVDTalk