I saw 'Flugten fra seraillet' in October 2006 at the Cinema Muto festival in Sacile, Italy; they screened an excellent print on loan from the Danish Film Institute. The credited male actors are Viggo Larsen, Gustave Lund and Valdemar Petersen. The credited actresses are Clara Nebelong and Maggi Zinn.
This movie's title would translate as 'Flight from the Seraglio', which sounds like a Mozart opera. Actually, this film reminds me more of 'Trapped by the Mormons', the notorious exploitation movie which portrays Mormon men as sex-crazed polygamists. On the positive side, I was impressed by the excellent photography and production design in this exploitative melodrama from Denmark.
Hopkins and his friend Jackson are Englishmen visiting Arabia. (We can tell they're Englishmen because they wear pith helmets.) Hopkins catches a glimpse of the beautiful young native woman Sulejma, and he straight away falls in love with her. Unfortunately, Sulejma happens to be the caliph's favourite wife. (Maybe if she was one of his less favourites, he wouldn't mind giving her away.) Undaunted, Hopkins sneaks into the harem, but gets chased away by the caliph personally. (His eunuchs aren't man enough for the job. Maybe they don't have the, erm, guts for it.)
Apparently not able to take a hint the first time, Hopkins sneaks into the harem again. (He keeps a getaway camel parked outside.) Sulejma, of course, is perfectly delighted to run away with this total stranger from a foreign land. She and Hopkins rush out of the harem, with the caliph and his minions in hot pursuit. This is the first movie I've ever seen that has (no kidding!) a climactic camel chase.
SPOILERS COMING. Well, folks, Hopkins and Sulejma are humping along on his getaway camel. They're escorted by Jackson on a camel of his own. But the caliph is closing in. (Caliph-ornia, here I come.) Quick as a flash, Jackson gallantly sacrifices himself (and his camel) as a delaying tactic. The caliph's men cut him down with a swish of their scimitars, while Hopkins and Sulejma escape. Happy ending, I guess.
This very ludicrous film benefits tremendously from its production design: not only live camels, but realistic costumes and weapons, and particularly realistic settings. 'Flight from the Harem' was filmed in Copenhagen's Tivoli amusement park; specifically, in the section with Arabesque buildings meant to evoke Morocco. I might actually have believed that this movie had genuinely been filmed in Arabian locations, were it not for the fact that everything here is too clean. That's not a wisecrack at the hygiene of Arabs; I'm referring to the fact that, in hot desert climates, there's plenty of dung and plenty of flies. There are no flies on this movie ... or rather, no flies IN this movie, and their absence definitely harmed its credibility for me.
During the climactic chase, when Jackson about-turns his camel to engage the pursuers, it's quite clear that he's deliberately sacrificing his own life so that the lovers (who have only just met) can escape. That must have been some friendship he had with Hopkins! When the caliph's minions cut down Jackson, I was annoyed that Hopkins and Sulejma merely rode on without giving him even a backward glance. In real life, with every second at stake, it might have made sense for them to do this ... but in a dramatic work, I felt that it made Hopkins seem ungrateful for his friend's sacrifice. I was also annoyed that these Danish film-makers chose to depict the European characters as Englishmen, thus making the ambiguous morals of the Hopkins character less important for Scandinavian audiences. My rating for this film: 5 out of 10, entirely for its production design.
This movie's title would translate as 'Flight from the Seraglio', which sounds like a Mozart opera. Actually, this film reminds me more of 'Trapped by the Mormons', the notorious exploitation movie which portrays Mormon men as sex-crazed polygamists. On the positive side, I was impressed by the excellent photography and production design in this exploitative melodrama from Denmark.
Hopkins and his friend Jackson are Englishmen visiting Arabia. (We can tell they're Englishmen because they wear pith helmets.) Hopkins catches a glimpse of the beautiful young native woman Sulejma, and he straight away falls in love with her. Unfortunately, Sulejma happens to be the caliph's favourite wife. (Maybe if she was one of his less favourites, he wouldn't mind giving her away.) Undaunted, Hopkins sneaks into the harem, but gets chased away by the caliph personally. (His eunuchs aren't man enough for the job. Maybe they don't have the, erm, guts for it.)
Apparently not able to take a hint the first time, Hopkins sneaks into the harem again. (He keeps a getaway camel parked outside.) Sulejma, of course, is perfectly delighted to run away with this total stranger from a foreign land. She and Hopkins rush out of the harem, with the caliph and his minions in hot pursuit. This is the first movie I've ever seen that has (no kidding!) a climactic camel chase.
SPOILERS COMING. Well, folks, Hopkins and Sulejma are humping along on his getaway camel. They're escorted by Jackson on a camel of his own. But the caliph is closing in. (Caliph-ornia, here I come.) Quick as a flash, Jackson gallantly sacrifices himself (and his camel) as a delaying tactic. The caliph's men cut him down with a swish of their scimitars, while Hopkins and Sulejma escape. Happy ending, I guess.
This very ludicrous film benefits tremendously from its production design: not only live camels, but realistic costumes and weapons, and particularly realistic settings. 'Flight from the Harem' was filmed in Copenhagen's Tivoli amusement park; specifically, in the section with Arabesque buildings meant to evoke Morocco. I might actually have believed that this movie had genuinely been filmed in Arabian locations, were it not for the fact that everything here is too clean. That's not a wisecrack at the hygiene of Arabs; I'm referring to the fact that, in hot desert climates, there's plenty of dung and plenty of flies. There are no flies on this movie ... or rather, no flies IN this movie, and their absence definitely harmed its credibility for me.
During the climactic chase, when Jackson about-turns his camel to engage the pursuers, it's quite clear that he's deliberately sacrificing his own life so that the lovers (who have only just met) can escape. That must have been some friendship he had with Hopkins! When the caliph's minions cut down Jackson, I was annoyed that Hopkins and Sulejma merely rode on without giving him even a backward glance. In real life, with every second at stake, it might have made sense for them to do this ... but in a dramatic work, I felt that it made Hopkins seem ungrateful for his friend's sacrifice. I was also annoyed that these Danish film-makers chose to depict the European characters as Englishmen, thus making the ambiguous morals of the Hopkins character less important for Scandinavian audiences. My rating for this film: 5 out of 10, entirely for its production design.
