The Indian Tomb

Joe May – 1921 – Germany

 

I haven’t known much about the original Indian Tomb – (nor its director, Joe May) – beyond its connection to the 1959 Fritz Lang masterpiece.  It was not a big hit, nor has it been remembered as a particularly influential film.  Much like Lang, May specialized in exotic epics in the 20s before fleeing Germany for Hollywood in the 30s; whereafter he prospered making B-films for Universal.  The Indian Tomb – presented in two parts entitled The Mission of the Yogi and The Tiger of Bengal – was based on a script co-written by Lang and his wife and partner Thea von Harbou, who also wrote the novel of the same name and would later write Lang’s greatest German works, including Die Nibelungen (1924), Metropolis (1926), M (1931) and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933).  The biggest difference plot-wise that is immediately apparent in this version compared to Lang’s is the primacy of the supernatural.  A yogi who has been revived from a meditative trance by an Indian maharaja is sent to retrieve an architect from Europe to build a tomb for a still-living woman who has betrayed the maharaja.  The yogi character – (deleted entirely from the Lang remake) – teleports himself between continents, works magic on inanimate objects, and even resurrects the dead.  Lang has one or two suggestively magical moments in his film, but otherwise preferred a generally realistic tone.  Conrad Veidt, a mainstay in villainous roles in German and American films through the early 40s, plays the maharaja with effective menace.  Overall, the primitive filmmaking techniques and acting are alternately hokey and eerie.  It truly seems a relic from another world.