The Garden of Allah (1936)

Calificación de los usuarios:

5.9/10   

Director:

Richard Boleslawski

Escritores:

Robert Hichens (novel)
W.P. Lipscomb (screenplay) ...

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

19 noviembre 1936 (USA)

Género:

Drama | Romance

Frase comercial:

They loved each other with the fierceness of those who have been denied love!

Plot:

The star-crossed desert romance of a cloistered woman and a renegade monk.

Plot Keywords:

Desert | Oasis | Monastery | Secret | Monk

Premios:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 win

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Glamour and Romance To The Max.....Surrender!

Reparto

Marlene Dietrich	...	Domini Enfilden
Charles Boyer	...	Boris Androvsky
Basil Rathbone	...	Count Ferdinand Anteoni
C. Aubrey Smith	...	Father J. Roubier
Joseph Schildkraut	...	Batouch
John Carradine	...	Sand diviner
Alan Marshal	...	Capt. De Trevignac
Lucile Watson	...	Mother Superior Josephine
Henry Brandon	...	Hadj
Tilly Losch	...	Irena

También conocida como:

El jardín de Alá (Argentina) (Spain) [es]

Duración:

79 min | West Germany:75 min

País:

USA

Idioma:

Inglés

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Relación de Aspecto:

1.37 : 1

Sonido:

Mono (RCA Victor High Fidelity System)

Clasificación:

West Germany:12 | Australia:G | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #2405)

Locaciones de Filmación:

Buttercup Dunes, Imperial County, California, USA

Compañía:

Selznick International Pictures

Trivialidades:

Among the actors David O. Selznick considered and tested for the role of the monk Boris Androvsky before casting Charles Boyer were Robert Taylor, Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone, George Brent, Laurence Olivier, Fredric March, Brian Aherne, Noel Coward, Maurice Evans, Robert Donat, Ivor Novello, John Gielgud and Jean Gabin.

Citas:

Father Roubier: Take care! You've come to a land of fire. And I think you are made of fire.

Conexiones de Película:

Apareció en Cyndi Lauper: 12 Deadly Cyns... and Then Some (1994) (V)

Banda de Sonido:

No One But God and I Know What is in My Heart

Glamour and Romance To The Max.....Surrender!

Much abuse has been heaped upon this film in users' comments here ("tripe," "hokum," etc.) and, yes, in later years even Marlene herself called it "twash," (along with most of the rest of her movies). But it's gweat twash and, in all fairness, much-loved weepies like "An Affair To Remember" have got nothing on this picture. The fabulousness (that's definitions 1 & 2 in Webster's) of the plot, the emphatic performances, the overblown dialogue and the sheer absurd audacity of full silver service and "dressing for dinner" in a tent in the middle of the Sahara; these are the very things for which you watch a film like this. After all, if life was never like this anywhere, at any time, it sure should have been.

The user who suggested the "right mood" is necessary is absolutely correct, and it helps to remember the perspective of audiences of the time who, while the Depression dragged on, desired escapism that bore no resemblance to their real lives. We certainly have our escapist fare today and, believe me, "Spiderman," "The Matrix" and "The Fast and the Furious" are going to look at least as ridiculous (if not more so) after a half-century (if not before). So, please, let's not have any more carping about implausibility.

The aspects that have garnered the most criticism are some of the very elements that make it so much fun, but you must abandon your jaded cynicism and surrender yourself to the experience. I'd never recommend this film to everyone I know, but of those to whom I have done - people I knew could appreciate it - not one has gotten all the way through it without choking back a tear or two (if not outright bawling like a baby).

One thing everyone does seem to agree on is the ravishingly beautiful look of this picture, and they're oh-so-right about that. The DVD from Anchor Bay is particularly stunning - there are scenes that look like they were shot yesterday - so, if you decide to see the film, try to get your hands on a copy of that release.

Incidentally, this was not the first Technicolor picture in the three-strip process (as opposed to the two-strip, which goes back to 1922) shot on location, as one comment said. That honor most likely belongs to "Trail Of the Lonesome Pine," which was shot and released a few months earlier.