Fritz Lang's Indian Epic [Blu-ray]

The snake dance by Debra Paget is worth the price of admission. Seriously, if Lang had not been forced to flee Germany in the early 1930's, and he could have continued his film career without Nazi oversight, he would now be generally considered one of the all-time great directors, along with Bergman, Kurosawa, et al.

This 2 disc epic is worth a look. Fans of Fritz Lang will want to check this one....and we have the lovely Debra Paget in color!

Enjoyed this Fritz Lang movie very much.

In 1958 and 1959, German director Fritz Lang left Hollywood and directed a two part, color, big budget film - both sides clocking in at 2 hours each - entitled THE TIGER OF ESCHNAPUR and THE INDIAN TOMB.Both films were shot on location in palaces and castles in India, with a few interior scenes filmed on sets made in Germany.The only known star was Debra Paget - an American actress, dancer, and entertainer. She is perhaps best known for her performances in Cecil B. DeMille's epic The Ten Commandments and in Love Me Tender, and for the risque cobra snake dance scene in The Indian Tomb. The other actors were all Germans of no note - or natives of India.Most of the lead parts were Germans, slathered in darker skin tone makeup to make them look "Indian". The actors all speak German throughout the film while the subtitles are in English - really messing with the viewer's mind - Indians speaking German being subtitled in English!Presumably because of the movies being shot in German language, the films were only shown in Europe (and were big commercial successes) but a rather notorious "cobra dance" scene with a very scantily clad Paget also made the films unsuitable for the American audiences which had very strict moral codes circa 1950s.Today, the film is considered a "cult" favorite in Europe, though few Americans have ever heard of them. I thought some great scenes were filmed, and a good plot, but overall the films were burdened with pathetic special affects (the cobra is simply laughable), poor choice of a male lead actor, weak fight scenes. On the plus side, Debra Paget is great as the dancer, the Indian castles and palaces are magnificent, several scenes are really quite tense (the leper scene, comes to mind), and the German actor who plays the head priest is excellent.One wishes that a high tech special effects company could revamp the tiger/cobra special effects which would surely help the film - and maybe replace the lead actor with a more masculine/manly male, but that's never going to happen.Still, the film is worth the time, even if just to watch Paget's great (and sexy) dancing scenes. I grad HARD: three stars.

Exotic and interesting adventure; even though, some special effects look, technically, weak.But still, love this film.Thanks.

What a wonderful packing with two memorable movies

Very good version of these films except for one thing. There is no English language version included. The extras are OK, including the trailers and a nice film biography of Debra Paget. If you want the English language version get the Fantoma DVD of each film, which was released in 2001. I believe they may still be available.

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