BY JOHN M. WHALEN
The setting is early 20th Century India-- the
location, an ancient burial site. Workmen dig up a grave and discover what
appears to be a corpse of a man, sitting huddled over in the dirt with his head
tucked down between his knees, his arms wrapped around his shins. The workmen
lift the body out of the grave carefully, slowly, delicately and place it in a
palanquin and carry it to the entrance of a cave. They carry the body down a
long flight of steps, past an endless row of statues of ancient Indian gods.
They arrive in the bowels of a temple and climb up to the top of a huge altar
hundreds of feet high and begin the process of unlocking his limbs from their
knotted positions, pull nose plugs from his nostrils, and ear plugs from his
ears. They open his mouth and slowly pull his tongue loose. They pour water into
his mouth and it begins to foam. Slowly the corpse’s eyes open. Thus does Yogi
Ramagani (Bernhard Goetzke) return from the Land of the Dead.
He looks up and sees Prince Ayan III, Maharaja of Bengal
(Conrad Veidt), standing over him and says: “You have brought me back from the
dead. I am bound to obey you. What is
your command?” The maharaja replies: “You are omniscient, Rami. You already
know what you must do.” With that the Yogi proceeds to walk slowly, ever so
slowly, along the edge of the high altar on which they stand and takes a step
into empty space. Instead of falling, the Yogi simply fades from view. And
thus, with this 12-minute sequence, in which everything moves as if in a
slow-motion dream, begins “The Indian Tomb,” one of the strangest, most
engrossing, if not mesmerizing, films, you will have ever seen.
Based on a novel by German novelist Thea von Harbou, who
co-wrote the screenplay with the legendary Fritz Lang, “The Indian Tomb,” was
directed by Joe May, who directed “Homecoming” (1928), and “Asphalt” (1930) during
the heyday of German cinema but who is little known today. May, like Lang and
Harbou, emigrated to America to escape the Nazis, but, unlike Lang, failed to strike
pay dirt in American films—some sources say, because of his dictatorial style
of direction and his refusal to speak English. Perhaps his best known American
film was “The Invisible Man Returns.” But in 1921, May was big in Germany and was able to raise
a budget of 20 million Deutschemarks for “The Indian Tomb,” the most money ever
spent on a movie in Germany up until that time. And every mark is right up there
on the screen. The sets May built for the film are gigantic. The maharaja’s
palace is a huge structure, with towers reaching high into the sky. The set
includes an amphitheater for the prince’s pet tigers to play in. There’s a cave
below the palace housing a torture chamber, where the maharaja’s enemies lie
chained up in painful-looking positions. There’s another cave for lepers, and a
high mountain location with an Indiana Jones-style rope bridge that gets some
spectacular use by the picture’s end. Over the one hundred years that have
passed, the sets have crumbled into ruins, but pieces of it can still be found
in the German countryside.
The plot of “The Indian Tomb” is as outsized, bizarre and
spectacular as the setting. The film was originally presented as two separate
features: “The Mission of the Yogi” and “The Tiger of Eschnapur.” The mission the
maharaja sends Yogi Rami on takes him to Great Britain, where he suddenly
appears out of thin air in the study of Herbert Rowland (Olaf Fonss), an
architect who dreams of one day designing something as grand as the Taj Mahal.
By sheer coincidence, the yogi has come to offer Rowland a huge sum of money to
come to India and build a tomb that will honor the beauty of the maharaja’s
lady love, Princess Savitri (Elena Morena). Rowland jumps at the chance even
though it means his planned wedding to Irene Amundsen (Mia May) will have to be
postponed. The only condition the yogi puts on his offer is that he must leave
for India within the hour and can tell no one where he’s going. Rowland agrees,
but secretly leaves Irene a note explaining everything. The yogi’s not fooled,
however. While he and Rowland take off on a steamship for the Orient, Ramigani’s
ghost-like hand appears in Rowland’s study and grabs the note. But Irene,
fearing for her fiancee’s safety, is not a woman to be trifled with. She still manages
to find out where he’s gone and takes the next steamship east.
Bernhard Goetske, an actor totally unknown today, gives
an amazing performance as Yogi Ramigani. His stone-faced expression and blazing
eyes, somehow lit up by cinematographer Werner Brandes to look like they’re on
fire, make you believe he could in fact walk through walls and impose his will
on others hundreds of miles away. Mia May, who was Joe May’s real life wife, is
also convincing as the determined bride-to-be who overcomes numerous obstacles
to find her man.
Conrad Veidt (perhaps best known as Col. Strasser in
“Casablanca”) gives a powerful performance as Prince Ayan, a man with a
magnetic presence who is both passionate and obsessed by the woman he loved.
The pieces of the plot finally come together when Rowland discovers that Princess
Savitri isn’t dead and that the prince wants him to build the mausoleum not to
entomb a dead princess, but to bury her alive for betraying their love. She had
an affair with Mac Alan (Paul Richter) an English military man, whose hobby is hunting
tigers.
It’s a complex tale that takes four hours to come to a
resolution. One of the reasons for the film’s length is the glacial pace with
which May directed it. Everything is done with meticulous attention to detail,
with the actors moving at half speed. The camera is stationary most of the
time. The soundtrack, recorded in 2019 by Irena and Vojtek Have,l consists of
exotic droning instruments, gongs and percussion. Some reviewers dislike the
slow pace of the film and complain about the monotony of the soundtrack. But I
found it a refreshing contrast to the lightning-fast speed of most films today
with the emphasis on action coming at you at the rate of 100 different shots a
minute. If you accept the film for what it is, and have your favorite
refreshment handy, you can almost have a nice out of body experience with “The Indian
Tomb.”
Kino Lorber has done a remarkable job of putting the 2K
transfer of both parts of “The Indian Tomb” on a single disc. The picture is
sharp and clear. The soundtrack is in Dolby stereo. Also included on the disc
is “Turbans Over Waltersdorf,” (2022—45 minutes) a visual essay written by
David Cairns and Fiona Watson that reveals much about the historical
significance of the film. “The Indian Tomb” is highly recommended.
(Note: If searching for the film on IMDB, look under "Mysteries of India", an alternative title for the movie.)
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