The Garden of Allah (1936)

The Garden of Allah
Directed by Richard Boleslawski
Written by W.P. Lipscomb, Lynn Riggs, and Willis Goldbeck
1936/USA
Selznick International Pictures
First viewing

[box] Count Anteoni: A man who refuses to acknowledge his god is unwise to set foot in the desert.[/box]

The Garden of Allah was the second film to be shot in three-strip Technicolor.  It is easily the most beautiful of the early color films I have seen, with almost magical lighting.  One only wishes that this beauty could have served a better film.

You know you are in trouble when any film begins with Marlene Dietrich visiting a convent. She plays Domini Enfelden, a devout heiress who seeks a cure for her loneliness after the death of her father.  Mother Superior advises her to go to the desert to search her soul.  In the meantime, Trappist monk Boris Androvsky (Charles Boyer), famed for the delicious liqueur he makes, suddenly flees the monastery, breaking his eternal vows.

Naturally, Domini and the gloomy Boris are thrown together on a train and set off to search their souls together.  On their journey, Domini has her fortune read by a Sand Diviner (John Carradine at his most over-the-top) who predicts great joy and great tragedy for her in the desert. The couple falls in love and, despite a warning to Domini by a priest (C. Aubrey Smith) they marry.  Life is blissful until the day a Foreign Legionaire recognizes Boris by the bottle of liqueur he is served.  With Joseph Schildkraut as an Arab servant and Basil Rathbone as an Italian count.

I wasn’t really looking forward to this but the beautiful visuals made it bearable.  Otherwise, I found it to be extremely melodramatic and almost campy.  Boyer is particularly bad with his gloomy stares and fraught delivery.  That said, this film established his reputation in the U.S.  The over-emotional score by Max Steiner doesn’t help.

W. Howard Green and Harold Rosson received an honorary Oscar for their color cinematography.  The film was also nominated for Academy Awards for Best Assistant Director and Best Score.

Clip (the color is not as good as on the DVD I saw)