The Garden of Allah (1936) User Reviews

Dietrich and Boyer in Technicolor heaven...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 3 October 2006]

Early Technicolor, subdued and with shadows playing over the wide stretches of sand and silk (Dietrich's wide array of costumes), is the real star of this desert opus that should fascinate any student of cinematography interested in exploring David O. Selznick's use of color a few years before GONE WITH THE WIND.

MARLENE DIETRICH strikes some awesome poses and looks stunning in all of her close-ups and CHARLES BOYER is a suitably romantic figure as he copes with a secret unknown to her--he's a man hiding his past as a monk. She's searching for true love after a girlhood devoted to her sick father and Boyer seems to be the living embodiment of her ideal.

It's all so unreal and yet it's hard to turn away from the gorgeous colors and not be drawn into the story. When things get too dull, there's always Basil Rathbone, Joseph Schildkraut and C. Aubrey Smith in the supporting cast to bring some added color to the tale.

It's Technicolor heaven for Dietrich's fans and to top it all there's a nice Max Steiner score in the background. None of it can be taken seriously but it has its compensations from a visual standpoint.

unusual film

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 8 January 2013]

If you did "The Garden of Allah" today, you'd have to play it for camp. As produced in 1936, it nearly is anyway.

Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Basil Rathbone, C. Aubrey Smith, and Joseph Schildkraut star in this David O. Selznick Technicolor production. The story concerns a religious woman, Domini, who is in mourning for her father and visits the convent where she lived as a child. The Mother Superior encourages her to go out and live, as she was her father's caretaker and didn't get out into the world.

She meets Boris Androvsky, and he seems even more unfamiliar with the world than she. What she doesn't know is that he was a Trappist monk and has left the order. The two fall in love and marry. However, someone eventually recognizes him, and his secret is revealed.

I have to say, I feel sorry for any ex-Trappist monk running into gorgeous Marlene Dietrich, especially under a desert sky. The atmosphere of this film is very moody, the color beautiful, and the photography sensational. Filmed in California and Arizona, it looks for all the world like an exotic desert setting.

Even with all this, and a young, handsome Charles Boyer, the film comes off as melodramatic and slight. Partly I blame the overly-dramatic music, but let's face it, the script isn't very good.

Marlene Dietrich is very good and underplays her role; Boyer's role is really impossible. He's confused and miserable through most of it. He was an excellent actor and pulls it off, though. Rathbone doesn't have a big role, nor does Schildkraut, but they were two of the best character actors around.

"The Garden of Allah" is definitely worth seeing - it's wonderful to look at, and when you see the Cyndi Lauper video of "Time after Time," this is the film she was watching in the beginning of the song.

Visually impressive romantic melodrama

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 18 March 2021]

Domini (Marlene Dietrich) is a rich woman who has spent many years taking care of her ailing father. When he finally dies, she realizes that she has missed much in her own life, and sets out to North Africa to find herself. Boris (Charles Boyer) is a Trappist monk who has taken vows of poverty and silence, but he can no longer bear the burden of either, and so he heads to North Africa to find himself. The two spiritually conflicted people meet and fall in love, but their sad ending is foretold.

This was a wild mix of beauty and camp that will appeal to some viewers but leave others rolling their eyes in disbelief. I can't recall many films of this period that were as openly spiritual and as concerned with the burdens of the soul, and yet the two leads are among the most vain and superficial of movie stars, both with acting talent, but both better known for their looks than their depth. Dietrich especially looks more like a studio creation than a living human, with her almost comical artificial eyebrows and professional-grade makeup design.

The movie looks amazing, a word that perhaps gets overused in amateur criticism, but it is most deservedly used here. The color cinematography, coupled with masterly use of shadow and color, and terrific use of locations, create a film that is a joy to behold even if the story and performances may leave you cold. There's a sequence early in the film involving dancer Tilly Losch as a local Arab dancing girl that made me think I had mistakenly wandered into a Maria Montez camp classic (that's a good thing). Schildkraut as a shady Arab, Brandon as his companion, and Carradine as a creepy street person promising psychic readings, are all enjoyable. This earned a pair of Oscar nominations, for Best Assistant Director (Eric Stacey) and Best Music - Score (Max Steiner), and won a special honorary Oscar for the color cinematography (W. Howard Greene & Harold Rosson).

Beautiful to See and Hear, but that's all

[jkogrady · 31 March 2003]

This is, I believe, only the second movie to be made in the gloriously new three-strip Technicolor process, and it must be said that cinematographer Howard Greene and Selznick's always reliable crew of art directors turned in a stunning performance. At a time when color was not well understood by most technicians, these guys pulled off a virtuoso turn. The thing looks fabulous from end to end; lovely desert shots under all kinds of lighting conditions, and a generally underplayed and painterly use of color.

Then there is the music: one of Max Steiner's most magical scores, although unfortunately renters of the video will not quite be able to appreciate it as it deserves to be. Max wrote nearly two hours of music for what turned out to be a 79 minute picture; a good deal of it was lost and Selznick's sound engineers had a tendency to mix it under in such a way that its distinctiveness is much muted. This problem is exacerbated in the usually reliable Anchor Bay's VHS issue; they went overboard with the noise reduction filters and the result in many places is a blurry mush that does scant justice to Steiner's often piquant scoring. (Later: In the DVD this has been largely rectified). Some of the best passages were left on the cutting room floor altogether... All of this visual and audible loveliness has been lavished on a story of truly astonishing triviality, which is a pity, as the Robert Hichens novel had rather more depth. (Count Antioni, for instance, is a converted Muslim in the book; but 1936 Hollywood would not tolerate that. Would they today, I wonder?) Marlene Dietrich has to be the only woman on earth who would wander about the uncharted depths of the Sahara in high heels and a Travis Banton silk confection of a gown; the most horrendous sandstorms fail to displace a single hair of her coiffure. Charles Boyer strives manfully with awful dialogue and almost brings it off. Second tier characters like Joseph Schildkraut and the ever stalwart C. Aubrey Smith fare better, and Basil Rathbone is always good to see. Tilly Losch's hoochie- koochie dance in the Arab dive is positively embarrassing. The whole thing was definitely a miscalculation on Selznick's part, and he lost a bundle. Nevertheless it is well worth a look if you are a student of early color. Film music aficionados will have to take my word for it on the superb qualities of the score; the existing movie barely hints at them. This music cries out for a good new recording, like the many others that are coming out these days of classic picture scores.

Riveting Visually and Skillful Artistically

[marcin_kukuczka · 7/10 · 26 February 2012]

"Sunshine all the time makes a desert." (an Arab proverb).

A viewpoint that great visuals and skillful performances are enough to turn even a dull screenplay into an entertaining motion picture seems too much simplified. However, in some instances, such perspective occurs to make sense. Seldom may it occur as relevant as in THE GARDEN OF ALLAH directed by Richard Boleslawski and produced by David O. Selznick. The strengths of the movie do not lie in clever storyline but in amazing camera and lighting work as well as performances.

As one of the first three strip Technicolor films after BECKY SHARP and long before THE WIZARD OF OZ, the colors of THE GARDEN OF ALLAH have much to boast of. In many of its scenes attempted at purely visual experience, the aesthetic impressions are in no way dated. Clarence Slifer, collaborating with other artistically innovative people, does a wonderful job. Just to note the effective use of red (one of the most beloved colors in the period of color experimentation) symbolizing the land of fire and desire where the protagonists' destinies meet, the shots of the desert as backdrop with persons and caravans in silhouettes as well as the interiors. The elaborate visuals are particularly memorable in a little scene of Domina and Father Roubier when he tries to warn her against the man she loves. Consider the particular detail as she leaves the sacristy. Besides the cinematographic pearls of location shots and camera work, what strongly contributes to the memorable impressions are costumes by Jeannette Couget and music by Max Steiner (in particular the use of Schubert's "Ave Maria" and the atmospheric song "No One But God and I Know What is in My Heart"). But let me now develop, perhaps, the most striking feature of the film – performances, which I am not going to divide into main roles and supporting characters since this is one of the movies of the 1930s which cannot be treated as 'a vehicle' for Marlene Dietrich solely. Single individuals deserve unique praise for making the hardly believable content still communicative.

Marlene Dietrich, freed from the guidance of her tutor Josef Von Sternberg) portrays a character whose mind and dreams are occupied by the search for happiness, for finding herself. As a young, beautiful actress with subtle presence on the screen and girlish movements she is nothing but outstanding. The effect of her screen presence is, of course, multiplied by the use of colors and a number of costumes she wears. Ms Dietrich reminds me a lot of her earlier role (also away from Sternberg) in THE SONG OF SONGS. However, she is not Garbo who proved to be 'a queen on her own' preferring to be left alone to go on with her lines and cooperation with the camera. Dietrich was more generous with her co-stars. Consequently, Ms Dietrich cannot be considered fully without her leading men. And one is truly captivating. That is...

Charles Boyer. Although his character lacks logical sense of his motifs and may be less communicative with audiences, he proves unbelievable acting skills. His performance is filled with extravaganza, rebellious attitude, self-imposed, almost blasphemous ignorance of the hard past, neurotic struggle for materializing his inner desires. It is all a great insight into the tormented, almost tortured character who does not seek refuge in loneliness but in the arms of a woman. Having experienced the extreme silence and hermit-like life as a Trappist monk, his tortured soul strives for passions (to fulfill them) and the fire of lust (to extinguish it). While Ms Dietrich's scene is the memorable finale (after she received the harsh test she prayed for), his moment is the speech scene when teary eyes and sweaty forehead manifest the most inner struggles. Although it does not necessarily work so logically, the moment is worth seeing thanks to his compelling performance. Even the liqueur would not taste that good... Although Boyer worked with the various female stars of the time, including Garbo and Bette Davis, there is a strong chemistry between him and Marlene Dietrich. Their scenes are sweet, fussy and overly sensitive but worth seeing. The finale is also something of a genius collaboration of the leading protagonists. Joy, tears, smile evoke.

Joseph Schildkraut has particularly witty and charming moments as Batouch, a sort of character no one will be after but everyone will like. C. Aubrey Smith with his specific strength and rhetoric in his performances crafts the role of Father memorably. I particularly sympathized with his sweet dog that seems to perceive sometimes more than humans do. Basil Rathbone carries the restrain and appeal as Count Andreoni. Apart from them, there are two of the cast who, though given just a minimum time on the screen, and yet appear to be truly memorable: John Carradine as a seer who, in a haunting moment, foretells Domina's future and Tilly Losch as a dancer who, in her Salome-like lustful crush, provides the movie with one of the most erotic sequences ever found in motion picture. And finally, who contributes to the entertainment and mood are great extras who speak gibberish in the backdrop.

But who is in the lead? No one so much as the title garden of Allah itself with its endless attraction and cleanliness of catharsis, with its oases of fresh water and the heat of vast loneliness where you can hear the whisper of your inner self, the desert.

All is touched by the search of happiness that the protagonists struggle to find. The desert seems to be a perfect place for that target and yet...do they find it? The unforgettable finale seems to answer this question where the religious and the secular, where purity and desire reach the heights of their mutual, though fairy tale, collaboration. But if you seek something thought provoking, search for it elsewhere...enjoy the visuals and performances offered by THE GARDEN OF ALLAH.

"it's best to ignore the story,..."

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 1 February 2007]

After watching this film on Turner Classic Movies, the host, Robert Osborne, said that "it's best to ignore the story" and just enjoy the film! This is a great way to sum up this odd little film. In some ways, it's a terrific film--it's one of the prettiest color films of the 1930s and is a real artistic triumph. However, despite the masterful color filming, it's an incredibly dull and uninspiring film--thanks to a very tepid script.

In a bit of a departure, Marlene Dietrich plays a rather decent and chaste woman instead of her usual 1930s vamp. Oddly, however, the magnetic Charles Boyer is given the limpest and least interesting role in the film. He plays a monk who has left his order, but instead of a man searching for SOMETHING outside the monastery, he just looks rather constipated and confused--mostly staring into the camera or looking rather depressed. How Marlene fell for this dull yutz is beyond me! Because of this character, the film itself just seemed silly and trivial. BUT, combined with the great camera-work, it is still worth a look--just don't set your hopes too high!

Marlene's A Good Girl

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 20 August 2009]

When Marlene Dietrich was labeled box office poison in 1938 one of a handful of actresses so named by the trades papers, it was films like The Garden Of Allah. How a film could be so breathtakingly beautiful to behold and be so insipidly dull is beyond me. Also how Marlene if she was trying to expand her range and not play a sexpot got stuck with such an old fashioned story is beyond me.

The Garden Of Allah, one of the very first films in modern technicolor was a novel set at the turn of the last century by Robert Hitchens who then collaborated on a play adaption with Mary Anderson that ran for 241 performances in 1911-12. It then got two silent screen adaptions. The story is about a monk who runs away from the monastery out in French Tunisia to see some of what he's missed in the world. He runs into a similarly sheltered woman who was unmarried and spent her prime years caring for a sick parent. She's traveling now in the desert and the two meet on a train.

The woman is of course Marlene and the runaway monk is Charles Boyer. I'm not sure what was in David O. Selznick's mind in filming this story. Someone like Ingrid Bergman might have made it palatable for the audience. But you can bet that the movie-going public of 1936 when they plunked their money down for a ticket they expected to see Marlene as a modern day Salome rather than a saint with that title. The public still remembered Rudolph Valentino and you can bet that it was some desert romance and seduction that they were expecting.

As for the monks you have to remember that they are self supporting in their monasteries and this particular one bottles a special wine of which Boyer happens to be the one with the secret. The monastery will have to rethink it's economics if Boyer leaves. The monks are a sincerely pious group, but from the head man Charles Waldron on down they've a right to be a little concerned with some self interest.

Anyway a whole lot of religious platitudes get said here by a pair of leads that really are not suited for the parts. Most especially Marlene Dietrich. I would watch this film with an eye for the special color desert cinematography and forget the plot.

Bad film, great visual beauty

[wjfickling · 6/10 · 29 September 2002]

This is a truly awful film that is redeemed by its incredibly beautiful cinematography. The story is unbelievable and pure hokum. It is made even worse by what is probably the worst musical score I have ever heard. Nearly every scene is suffused with a saccharine overly of stringed instruments that sound as if they are rehearsing a Mahler symphony. And the ending is one of the most preposterous I have ever seen.

All that having been said, it is also one of the most visually beautiful films I have ever seen. I have always been partial to Technicolor, and the astonishing fact about this film's Technicolor cinematography is that appears so early in the history of color film. This film is best watched with the sound muted.

Rating: 6/10

An unsexy Marlene can be dull - and a Selznick misfire in color

[theowinthrop · 5/10 · 26 April 2007]

He's not recalled today like his two contemporaries Somerset Maugham or James Hilton. He is Robert Hitchens, and in his time (roughly from 1900 to 1947 or so) his books were frequently best sellers. Only one is recalled today - and it is not THE GARDEN OF ALLAH. His fictionalization of Oscar Wilde's career - THE GREEN CARNATION - is still republished occasionally. But SNAKEBITE, AFTER THE TRIAL, BELLA DONNA, and THE PARADINE CASE are rarely read (all four were made into films, and the last was a failed Hitchcock movie). He did have his own share of controversy. In 1923 the prosecution and Judge in the notorious British homicide trial of Edith Thompson and Frederick Byswater noted the imaginative Mrs. Thompson liked to discuss the books she read and mentioned Hitchens. Mr. Justice Shearman said Hitchens wrote filthy books. Coming from such a source that actually is a complement.

Hitchens liked the desert as a setting of his tales. BELLA DONNA was set in Egypt in part, dealing with an archaeologist. So his novels are pretty much time capsules to us, reminding us of earlier viewpoints about the globe and what to find there.

Today when we think of the world of North Africa and the Islamic countries I suspect we think of xenophobic anti-Western, anti-American, and anti-Jewish peoples, or of suicide bombers, or of fanatics. Of course this is a gross simplification of the mass of these people. But similarly stereotypes ruled the view of Islamic lands in the 19th and early 20th Century. On the one hand was a look at the beauties of the desert and a sense of it's timelessness and it's mysticism. This was mingled with a view that Islam was a kind of poor cousin (for want of a better term) to Christianity, worshiping God but being somewhat more superstitious (although in fiction the superstition was usually correct in the ironies of the story). But on the other hand North Africa and the Middle East were seen as hot and sexy uninhibited areas. In novels like Andre Gide's THE IMMORALIST you went to North Africa to escape the hypocrisy of European society (similarly, Evelyn Waugh would send Sebastian to North Africa in BRIDESHEAD REVISITED to drink himself to death with his lover).

Keeping all this in mind helps understand the misfire called THE GARDEN OF ALLAH. David Selznick produced it to use the new Technicolor style of film - and to give the film it's due Richard Boleslawski's movie is a beautiful one to look at. Further, he brought in Marlene Dietrich (who had already done a "desert" romance with Joseph Von Sternberg in 1930 - MOROCCO), Charles Boyer, Basil Rathbone, Joseph Schildkraut, C. Audrey Smith, Alan Marshall, and John Carridine for his cast. With all their hard work, though, and the beauty of the film itself, it remains a failure.

The problem is the hokeyness of the story to us today. Hitchens sets up the lovers (Dietrich and Boyer - their only film together, by the way) on parallel courses. She was brought up in a Catholic school run by nuns in France, and her father (a rich man) has died leaving her his fortune. She has had a secluded life so far in the convent and caring for her father, and she yearns to see the world and find love. Boyer has been a Trappist monk, who earns the money for his monastery by being the sole possessor of the recipe for the manufacture of the monastery's liqueur. But at the start of the film he has fled the monastery and is traveling on the same train as she is. They both leave at a city thirty miles south of the monastery.

At a fight in a nightspot both are at, Boyer rescues Dietrich. Soon they are seen together pretty frequently, and fall in love. He tries to leave but can't. Instead he proposes marriage and she accepts. The local priest (Aubrey Smith) does not know why but can't trust Boyer. A premonition by a seer (Carridine) that is told to Dietrich and Rathbone makes the latter equally wary about the marriage. But Dietrich is all for it. They go on their honeymoon (accompanied by their servants including Schildkraut). The keep staying in the desert apparently content, until the accidental arrival of Marshall begins undoing the entire situation: Marshall (a French army officer) met Boyer at the monastery, and knows his story.

SPOILER AHEAD:

When the matter reaches a boil, Dietrich and Boyer reluctantly return things to normal...or as near normal as possible. They tearfully part as Boyer returns to the Trappist life, and Dietrich hopes that in a better world they will be united forever.

Somehow today we wouldn't swallow this too thoroughly. The monk might decide to drop his duty to the God he swore allegiance to because he does want to be a regular man. The woman who needs love would likewise urge him to do so, and the hell with the world. Instead we have this 1936 solution - and while the actors make the best of their talents bringing it to a boil it sits badly. Also, Marlene is a woman of vast sex appeal. While Selznick dressed her quite well here (and the color helped too), she does nothing sexy in the film. Dancer Tilly Losch is sexier. Joan Fontaine would have been better in the part (ten years later). For all the passions of the story, her performance is dull - and the movie hard to accept.

Watch for the incredible Tilly Losch

[cap-22128 · 6/10 · 2 January 2022]

Beautiful photography and costuming. The painfully bad script has Dietrich delivering unintentionally hilarious lines. However, the dance sequence by the unforgettably seductive and creative dancer and choreographer Tilly Losch (who also played Lotus Blossom in "The Good Earth") is worth the price of admission.

Utterly Unbelievable!

[sobaok · 3/10 · 27 September 2005]

The real star of this ridiculous story is glorious technicolor. A visual treat to the eye, the film fails to stimulate the mind and heart. I was intrigued, at first, by the idea of Dietrich and Boyer leaving religion in order to "find" their capacity for love. What follows is a huge disappointment. Boyer is the only real actor in the production and one feels his torment. Dietrich's amazing wardrobe outshines her performance -- at times her face is frightening to look at -- a unfeeling mask. As a monk, Boyer held the formula for the monastery's liquer (which reminds me of the true story of Chartreuse) -- when he leaves his "marriage to god" the reaction by his fellow monks holds the shock and fear that perpetuate organized religion. The viewer feels Boyer was well rid of his past. However, the journey that follows is all too predictable.

Beautiful Color In A 1936 Film!

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 29 January 2010]

Audiences back in 1936 must have been stunned at what they were watching: a full-fledged, beautiful full-length Technicolor film. I can't say for sure, but this might have been the first one (3-strip). At any rate, it still looks beautiful over 70 years later on DVD. In fact, just how good it looks is amazing.

Kudos for that have to go out to Director Richard Boleslowski, Director Of Photography Virgil Miller, Selznick International Pictures and, for the DVD - MGM Home Entertainment. All of them combined to give us one of the best-looking films of the classic-era age.

I thought the story was so-so: excellent in the first half, stagnant in the second. It gave a nice message in the end, even though a lot of people might not have been happy with it. I can't say more without spoiling things.

Marlene Dietrich never looked better, I don't believe, and certainly never played such a soft-hearted character ("Domini Enfilden"). Heart-throb Charles Boyer was the male star and Domini's object of affection, but some of the minor characters were the most interesting to me. People like Joseph Schildkraut as "Batouch;" John Carradine as "The Sand Diviner;" The most memorable, to me at least, was the dancer "Irena," played by Tilly Losch. Wow, there is a face and a dance you won't soon forget! I've never seen anything like it in the thousands of films I've viewed. Just seeing her do her thing was worth the price of the DVD. Looking at her IMDb resume, she was only in four movies, but they were all well-known films.

Basil Rathbone, the actor who really became famous for playing "Sherlock Holmes," also is in here as is C. Aubrey Smith, another famous British actor of his day. Schildkraut, by the way, will be recognized by classic film buffs as the man who played the arrogant sales clerk in the big hit, "The Shop Around The Corner," with Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan.

The beautiful direction, photography and color, and Tilly's dance, are the things I'll remember best about this movie which is a lot of good and not-so-good things all rolled into one. Had the last half hour been better - although I admire the ending - I would have rated it even higher. It's definitely one film collectors want to add to their collection.

Gorgeous Wallpaper

[dglink · 6/10 · 15 February 2009]

Despite ravishing color photography and a sterling cast, David O. Selznick's production of "The Garden of Allah" is badly dated. A Trappist monk abandons his vows and leaves the monastery with the recipe for a unique liquor, only to fall for a convent-bred beauty with deep religious convictions who is seeking the meaning of life in the desert. When monasteries attract the likes of young Charles Boyer and convents produce women with porcelain complexions like Marlene Dietrich, religion may experience renewed popularity.

Set in North Africa as conceived by Selznick's fanciful art directors, Dietrich shimmers in flowing gowns and floats through a postcard-perfect desert. Her elegant silhouette is outlined against deep crimson sunsets that presage the indelible image of Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone with the Wind." If the preposterous story were half as captivating as the visuals, the film would be riveting. Unfortunately, modern viewers may giggle at the melodrama and hokey motivations. Both Dietrich and Boyer have done better and seem to be in a trance throughout. Staring fixedly into space stands in for spiritual conflict, and only the dependable Basil Rathbone cuts through the nonsense. Although the film runs less than 80 minutes, it seems at times to be tedious and interminable. Perhaps Dietrich's best director, Josef von Sternberg, could have conjured a classic from this cast and crew, but Richard Boleslawski's resume is thin and undistinguished. Possibly Boleslawski fell in love with his stars, because the camera lingers on the perfectly lit faces of both Boyer and Dietrich. Maybe the director knew that the plot and dialog were weak and hoped that the lush photography and the charisma of his leads would carry the film.

Despite the visual feast, "The Garden of Allah" will appeal to few beyond die-hard Dietrich and Boyer fans. Others may squirm, smirk, and make smart asides to the screen. If "Mystery Science Theater 3000" broke beyond the science-fiction genre, Tom Servo and the bots could really work this one over.

Dated Melodrama

[claudio_carvalho · 5/10 · 4 February 2008]

The religious Domini Enfilden (Marlene Dietrich) is feeling lonely and is advised by her friend Mother Superior Josephine (Lucile Watson) to travel to the Sahara Desert for reflection. Meanwhile, the monk Boris Androvsky (Charles Boyer) escapes from the Trappist monastery where he had taken his vows. They meet each other in the sands of the desert and fall deeply in love for each other, but Boris does not tell his secret to Domini. When a lost patrol of legionnaires meet the oasis where Domini and Boris are camped, the leader Captain De Trevignac (Alan Marshal) recognizes Boris.

"The Garden of Allah" is an absolutely dated melodrama in 2008. The scenarios, the locations and the cinematography are wonderful, but the dramatic plot point of the romance is laughable and dull in the present days. It is also funny to see Charles Boyer taller and taller than Marlene Dietrich in the scenes with close. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "O Jardim de Alá" ("The Garden of Allah")

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

[Doghouse-6 · 7 July 2004]

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 such a film. 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.

Enjoyed The Veteran Classic Actors

[whpratt1 · 6/10 · 27 April 2007]

This story tells us about a Monk, Boris Androvsky (Charles Boyer) who makes excellent wine as a Monk and gets a taste of the outside world and women and just up and leaves the church and his Holy Order, disobeying God completely. Boris Androvsky meets up with a woman, Domini Enfiden, (Marlene Dietrich)on a train and notices that Boris does not even speak to her in the compartment on the train or even look at her. Domini is heart broken about her father dying after she devoted her entire life to his care until he died. Domini is advised by a priest to go to the desert and try to find herself and she meets up with Boris and gets deeply involved with him, but Boris never tells her about his past or reason for running to the desert himself. John Carradilne,(Sand diviner) is a fortune teller with the use of sand and foretells only the future and no past; he tells her that she will be happy and then something tragic will happen to her. Basil Rathbone,(Count Ferdinand Anteoni) gives a great supporting role and is also a great admirer of Domini. There is some very great love scenes which are spoken in deep love and also a great deal of Pain.

Good Film Therapy

[abi_sheldon · 6/10 · 13 November 2007]

First, I rented this film because of Charles Boyer, who mesmerized me on the Late Night Movies when I was a young babysitter. His hypnotic gazes of pain, adoration, some inner darkness, a glowing kindness--wow! I rented this film in spite of Marlena Deitrich, who has the misfortune of 1936 eyebrows and script lines and type. Cast against type here, no matter. John Carradine I didn't even recognize--had to go back to find the actor in the brilliant characterization of the Sand Reader. So. In my life right now I have a dog I love a lot, a big blonde dog who is 13 years old. I'm in a Zen Buddhist residence where no dogs are allowed. Mack the dog has been with my daughter in her small apt. which is also her art studio. Now she needs her time and space. Do I leave my religious residence to live with Mack in civilian housing? Or do I give up the dog I love to remain in the temple? I am Charles Boyer in this case, and Mack is Domini, the character played by Dietrich. I am working on the revised script.

Technicolor Triumph

[wes-connors · 5/10 · 16 June 2013]

After her father expires, moody Marlene Dietrich (as Domini Enfilden) leaves her convent to seek solace from God in the Sahara Desert. Meanwhile, chaste Charles Boyer (as Boris Androvsky) abruptly leaves his monastery. After taking his sacred vows, he's off to find "love" in the desert. They seem like a match made in Heaven, but don't be fooled. The copulation turns out to be an affront to God. Even worse, for lovers of liqueur, Mr. Boyer takes with him the secret recipe of an alcoholic drink, handed down from monk to monk. "God will not punish us," declares Ms. Dietrich, "if we can trust Him to show us the way..."

Although "The Garden of Allah" drew viewers into cinema seats, there weren't enough to justify the cost. The film helped studios decide stars like Dietrich and Boyer looked more profitable in black-and-white. Classic performers did not always appear in color; a major star's paycheck already upped the budget. Herein, Dietrich models and Boyer pouts...

The film's main strength is the outstanding achievement in color photography, by W. Howard Greene and Harold Rosson. A fine supporting cast helps, especially fast-talking Joseph Schildkraut (as Batouch). And, dancer Tilly Losch (as Irena) make a great first impression.

***** The Garden of Allah (10/15/36) Richard Boleslawski ~ Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Joseph Schildkraut, Basil Rathbone

Forgive the Script...

[Falconeer · 7/10 · 6 February 2019]

...To enjoy and marvel at the lush visuals of this, one of the very first movies shot in color, you might have to overlook the sappy script. It's unabashedly romantic in the most juvenile way, but the beauty cinematography is astounding. Those scenes in the Tunisian bazaar, the nightclub, and of course, those superb desert vistas, all make "Garden of Allah" a very worthwhile film. The filmmakers did an impressive job in creating the illusion of the Arabian landscape, and it's hard to believe this was actually filmed in Arizona and California! The story of a monk who abandons his Monastery and his faith, ending up in the Sahara, where he meets a woman who was raised in a convent, as a devout Christian, could have been more "spiced up," and most likely would have; if this was filmed before the "Moral Code" debut of 1934. Unfortunately it is done in a "sqeaky clean, saccharine style that would have been more common in the 1950's. The subject is Islam is barely touched upon, and that seems like a missed opportunity. Still, it is all worth it; just let yourself be dazzled by the visuals. To see the Great Marlene Dietrich in Technicolor is an almost surreal experience, as we are all so used to seeing the actress in black & white productions. It seems like this production was hampered, in a way, by it's color photography, in the same way as 3-D movies were compromised by the new "gimmick." Color was so new, almost in it's experimental stage, and it seems all the attention was given to the visuals, and the script was an afterthought. What we have in "Garden of Allah," is a fascinating Hollywood relic.

That ol' devil, kismet...

[Forn55 · 4/10 · 1 November 2011]

Although color film technology had been experimented with for some twenty years before producer David O. Selznick decided to utilize it in 1936's "The Garden of Allah," it never achieved the lushness and depth seen in this movie until the 3-strip color processing technique patented by Technicolor came to the fore. And ravishing color is really the best reason for seeing this movie. Even with Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer as its stars, "The Garden of Allah" doesn't manage to get off the ground. The beautiful score by Max Steiner, and creditable cameo performances by C. Aubrey Smith, Joseph Schildkraut, John Carradine and Basil Rathbone (among others) all do their best to lend drama to what is essentially a slow, meditative potboiler with heavily theological underpinnings, but alas, it's no go. The problem lies not only in the tepid filmscript but with the decision to cast Dietrich and Boyer in the roles of the star-crossed lovers. If there's one thing both performers possessed in abundance, it was smouldering sex appeal. In "The Garden of Allah," however, they're forced to play against type as otherworldly characters with somewhat saintly pasts, and -- frankly -- it doesn't click. It would be like casting Marilyn Monroe opposite Clark Gable in a lavishly produced movie about the First Council of Nicaea, and then expecting romantic sparks to fly. It would make no sense, and the audience wouldn't buy it.

The color in "The Garden of Allah," however, truly gorgeous... soft and deeply saturated and glowing with inner fire. It almost makes the movie worth sitting through.

Just a footnote but I think a good one.

[sorrelloriginals · 6/10 · 25 November 2022]

The future Countess of Carnarvon has a small role in this film.

I don't think that any of the other film fans who have written reviews here have brought it up so I would like to mention some interesting facts about the actress Tilly Losch. Aside from her ethnic dance in this film she plays a similar character in The Good Earth as a sing song girl who becomes the second wife of Wang Lung. Her film career is not notable but some of the rest of her life certainly is especially the fact that between 1938 and 1947 she was married to the Earl of Carnarvon who's ancestral home is the now famous Highclere Castle- better known to television audiences as Downton Abbey. The previous Earl of Carnarvon was world famous in his own right for providing the funds that led to the discovery of King Tut's tomb. There is some interesting information on the complexion of her marriage and how she fit into British high society to anyone who wants to do the research. But aside from that after the end of her marriage she reinvented herself yet again as an artist and I believe she even has work that has found its way into museums. This is a lady who when she is given lemons make lemonade.

Wow! Really ghastly

[tentender · 2/10 · 4 January 2010]

As a great admirer of Marlene Dietrich, I had to (finally) watch this very, very dull picture. It is Miss Dietrich's first color film, and the world's most beautiful blond is a redhead! Bad start. The story is a tremendous bore, involving a subject which itself bores bores me stiff: religious guilt. (Who needs it???) Suffice it to say, perhaps, that of all Dietrich's films (and I have seen most, including "Pittsburgh") this is the only one where even her performance is barely worth watching. The color photography is OK (this is a very early Technicolor release), but to no purpose. Ridiculous casting: C. Aubrey Smith, Basil Rathbone (enough said?). The only thing of any interest at all is John Carradine's outlandish caricature of a performance as "The Sand Diviner," who foretells all that will happen. The supposed "happy ending" is one of the most depressing ever conceived. Yet another example of David O. Selznick's highly inflated reputation (did he ever make a really good film? -- other than That One?) And, for one final annoyance, the soundtrack of the MGM DVD is a mess, with volume levels seemingly randomized. Highly unrecommended.

Love & Destiny in the Sahara

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 20 February 2000]

North Africa in the 1930's. To a small Arab town on the edge of the Sahara comes a beautiful woman looking for meaning to her life & a handsome Trappist monk fleeing from his crisis of faith. They will meet and passions will be stirred, but not even the Sand Diviner knows if they will find happiness or sorrow, here, in THE GARDEN OF ALLAH.

The plot is pure hokum, but the film is still great fun & beautiful to look at. Marlene Dietrich & Charles Boyer are a superb screen couple. She is, to put it simply, gorgeous, and Boyer gives a most effective, understated performance, letting his sensitive face do much of his acting for him.

The supporting cast is excellent: Basil Rathbone, in a sympathetic role as a Count who loves the desert; Joseph Schildkraut as a friendly, talkative guide (all the "Arabic" he & others speak in the film is pure gibberish); Lucile Watson as a gentle Mother Superior; Alan Marshal as an honorable young French officer; Tilly Losch as a dangerous dancer; Henry Brandon as a comic porter; John Carradine as the mysterious Sand Diviner; and magnificent Sir C. Aubrey Smith as a wise old priest.

Movie mavens will recognize Helen Jerome Eddy as a nun; Marcia Mae Jones & Bonita Granville (peeking over the nun's shoulder) as convent girls; gaunt Nigel De Brulier as a monastery lector; and Ferdinand Gottschalk as a hotel clerk, all uncredited.

Color films of the 1930's are both rare & lovely to look at, and this movie is no exception - the cinematography is as colorful as the desert itself. THE GARDEN OF ALLAH was the first Technicolor film to be shot on location. Yuma, Arizona gave the film makers all the sand dunes they could desire, but contaminated drinking water & 135 degree heat soon had the company in revolt. When the daily rushes showed Boyer's face had burned a bright tomato red, producer David O. Selznick finally gave in. The remainder of the film was shot on a Hollywood sound stage.

Was That Nice Lady Really Frenchie!

[oldblackandwhite · 7/10 · 17 May 2011]

The bad babe who gave Destry such a hard ride? Or Lola Lola, The Blue Angel? Or Bijou Blanche, one of The Seven Sinners? Or Concha, The Devil (who) Is a Woman? Well, it was indeed Marlene Dietrich, the great actress. She must have been one if she could so convincingly play such a vulnerable, sweet, unworldly, deeply religious woman in The Garden Of Allah, when she was happily typecast in the movies as a trollop and was likewise dedicated to that role in real life. A down and dirty slut and proud of it, who abandoned a husband and daughter in Germany to run off to Hollywood with Joseph Von Sternberg and pursue fame, fortune, and sin. Who would drop her drawers for any willing actor, along with a few actresses, and, if we believe her claims, for President Kennedy in the White House when she was sixty years old! Yes, that Marlene, contrary to what some other reviewers have alleged, gives a moving performance as a convent-raised good Catholic girl, who falls in love with a runaway Trappist monk (Charles Boyer). He is tormented by having broken his vows, even more so after he marries her without telling her his secret. When she finds out, she joins the torment, her own deep faith at war with her passionate love for him. There is a bit more to the plot than that, but it mainly hinges on the spiritual conflict between faith and the world.

And it is beautifully realized in this beautifully filmed early (1936) perfected Technicolor picture. This is fine movie, and not just because of the spectacular color cinematography. Yet it is not for everyone, and has obviously gone over the heads of most of IMDb reviewers and voters as well as other critics, not to mention the audiences of 1936. In fact it is surprising a movie of this type ever got produced. Hollywood usually avoided a serious approach to religious subjects, but then David O. Selznick was an independent producer who went his own way. While most will appreciate the stunning visual impact of The Garden Of Allah, its storyline is too Christian and its dialog too literary and philosophical for most tastes. This is a movie that can be fully appreciated and enjoyed only by Christians who have had deep spiritual experiences. Perhaps only by those who have had and continue to have deep spiritual experience but also continue to enjoy the sensual pleasures of the world. For most of us Christians, it is a lifelong struggle. The Garden Of Allah paints a poignant and rewarding portrait of this conflict.

Irrelegious types and lowbrows who are only looking for sex and violence may wish to skip this one. It is doubtful that Marlene Dietrich, who once described herself as having no religion, ever wanted to see this particular picture of hers. But, if she had no religion, why then did she say that one should make the sign of the Cross when speaking Orson Welles's name? Perhaps somewhere inside the big whore Marlene, there was a little shriveled up Marlene who knew God.

Worth watching for the stunning imagery but a bit dated.

[artroraback · 5/10 · 21 October 2002]

The movie is visually stunning but dated. This was one of the earliest films utilizing breathtaking Technicolor. Marlene Dietrich gives a good performance as a woman in search of herself and Charles Boyer plays the troubled man that she falls in love with. The story is good but the script is hokey. The colors and imagery makes this a film worth seeing for any movie buff. Look for John Carradine in a few brief scenes.