The Indian Tomb

A caravan finds two people in the desert. Seetha is a temple dancer and Harald Berger a European architect. The two were running. The Maharaja Chandra is looking for them; he had meant to marry Seetha and her running off with a foreigner is counted an insult. They are brought to the palace. Harald had been called to build a tomb and now understands that the tomb is being prepared for Seetha. The Maharaja's brother, meanwhile, is planning to take the throne. There are tunnels under the palace and lepers are kept there. Fritz Lang directs. Debra Paget plays Seetha, Paul Hubschmid plays Harald and Walther Reyer the Maharaja. It is a German, French and Italian co-production, made in 1959. This film is the second half of a pair; the first part is Der Tiger von Eschnapur, made the same year. Lang returned to Germany after years of working in America and made these two films there; the first version of the screenplay had been written in the thirties and filmed by someone else. Debra Paget's dance in the temple is the most remembered scene and was argued over at the time. Part of it was shot in India and the palace scenes were built in a studio. The narrative stands between melodrama and adventure; the plot is simple and the characters conventional. The matter it treats is absolute power; the Maharaja counts refusal a crime. The film was not taken seriously on release and was reassessed by the next generation of directors. Its limit is its outlook; India is used as decor and the characters are drawn from outside. Who it is for: viewers who like Fritz Lang's cinema and classic adventure. Who it is not for: it is conventional, orientalist, and the narrative simple.