WEBVTT

00:00:08.008 --> 00:00:11.808
1958 - CCC Filmkunst

00:00:12.112 --> 00:00:13.409
founded by Artur Brauner

00:00:13.714 --> 00:00:15.944
and the cult director Fritz Lang.

00:00:16.250 --> 00:00:19.743
A production team comes together
on the spur of the moment

00:00:20.053 --> 00:00:22.454
to produce the first great
post-war German film

00:00:22.756 --> 00:00:25.418
with an international cast.

00:00:29.463 --> 00:00:32.489
The Berlin film producer Artur Brauner

00:00:32.799 --> 00:00:36.258
brought the US-based Fritz Lang
to Germany for this film.

00:00:36.570 --> 00:00:40.529
I knew that at this time,
the end of the 1950s,

00:00:40.841 --> 00:00:44.072
he was the only director
who was predestined

00:00:44.378 --> 00:00:51.307
to direct the remakes of Der Tiger von
Eschnapur and Das indische Grabmal,

00:00:51.618 --> 00:00:54.087
because, first of all,
from a visual point of view,

00:00:54.388 --> 00:00:57.255
he was one of the best
at directing actors,

00:00:57.558 --> 00:00:59.754
and he was used to making great films.

00:01:00.060 --> 00:01:04.429
It stands to reason that Brauner offered
this material to Fritz Lang.

00:01:04.731 --> 00:01:08.565
This was material Fritz Lang himself
had developed in the early 1920s.

00:01:08.869 --> 00:01:11.668
I think it was in 1921
that he wrote the screenplay

00:01:11.972 --> 00:01:14.907
with his wife at the time,
Thea von Harbou,

00:01:15.208 --> 00:01:17.199
who was already
a well-established scriptwriter.

00:01:17.511 --> 00:01:21.414
And this material was also supposed
to have been directed by Lang.

00:01:21.715 --> 00:01:23.706
The producer at the time was Joe May.

00:01:24.017 --> 00:01:28.386
It's forgotten nowadays that he was
a great director and producer

00:01:28.689 --> 00:01:30.680
who later made his films for Ufa,

00:01:30.991 --> 00:01:34.450
but at that time he had
his own production company

00:01:34.761 --> 00:01:38.129
which was large by the standards of
the time and even by today's standards.

00:01:38.432 --> 00:01:41.094
He produced great, epic films,
he had his own studios,

00:01:41.401 --> 00:01:43.870
his own site outside of Berlin.

00:01:44.171 --> 00:01:49.541
So it's in this context, having already
produced several great, exotic films,

00:01:49.843 --> 00:01:54.144
that Der Tiger von Eschnapur and
Das indische Grabmal were due to be made.

00:01:54.448 --> 00:01:57.145
Clearly, Joe May liked the script so much

00:01:57.451 --> 00:02:01.581
that he thought perhaps they shouldn't
give it to this up-and-coming director,

00:02:01.888 --> 00:02:03.185
but rather he'd direct it himself.

00:02:03.490 --> 00:02:06.050
Lang was very annoyed
and disappointed, of course.

00:02:06.360 --> 00:02:11.298
It was meant to be his first epic project
of this magnitude.

00:02:11.598 --> 00:02:15.193
They fell out with each other
and never worked together again.

00:02:16.336 --> 00:02:20.796
Then suddenly, 35 years later,
a letter arrives from Berlin.

00:02:21.108 --> 00:02:24.669
There's still this material, Das indischeGrabmal,
Der Tiger von Eschnapur,

00:02:24.978 --> 00:02:27.208
they wanted to do it then,
but couldn't, etc.

00:02:27.514 --> 00:02:33.214
And certainly for Brauner,
it was a totally logical idea.

00:02:33.520 --> 00:02:35.386
We pick this material up again...

00:02:35.689 --> 00:02:39.887
Because I admired Fritz Lang as a child

00:02:40.193 --> 00:02:43.629
without any expert knowledge,
obviously, simply as a child,

00:02:43.930 --> 00:02:50.427
because his films Metropolis,
Die Nibelungen, M,

00:02:50.737 --> 00:02:54.139
they really fascinated me
even as a six- or seven-year-old child.

00:02:54.441 --> 00:02:57.001
It was an opportunity for Lang
to go back to Germany.

00:02:57.310 --> 00:02:59.870
He didn't have anything to do
in Hollywood.

00:03:00.180 --> 00:03:03.081
His last American film
had also annoyed him so much,

00:03:03.383 --> 00:03:05.477
because of production difficulties,

00:03:05.786 --> 00:03:08.721
that he said he never wanted to make
another film in America.

00:03:09.022 --> 00:03:11.218
They heard about this in Europe

00:03:11.525 --> 00:03:14.290
and so everything seemed
to happen quite logically.

00:03:17.030 --> 00:03:19.658
Fritz Lang directed
the shooting of both films

00:03:19.966 --> 00:03:21.593
with a great deal
of technical extravagance,

00:03:21.902 --> 00:03:25.998
a large staff, an international cast,

00:03:26.306 --> 00:03:30.174
hundreds of extras
and countless animals in India.

00:03:34.414 --> 00:03:39.011
A financial challenge which
did not faze Brauner, the producer.

00:03:40.187 --> 00:03:42.679
Of course,
I was worried at the same time

00:03:42.989 --> 00:03:48.428
that he might bring me close
to bankruptcy,

00:03:48.729 --> 00:03:51.323
but I managed to...

00:03:51.631 --> 00:03:56.865
I have to say, also with the help
of my wife, who he loved in a way...

00:03:57.170 --> 00:04:03.166
And through our friendly relations,
and making him see sense,

00:04:03.477 --> 00:04:08.438
I got off lightly,
then later I was able to laugh about it

00:04:08.749 --> 00:04:10.808
because I really liked the films.

00:04:20.193 --> 00:04:24.426
India, a country full of secrets,
with impressive palaces,

00:04:24.731 --> 00:04:27.325
the Maharaja's Lake Palace at Udaipur

00:04:27.634 --> 00:04:29.864
and its intoxicating architecture

00:04:30.170 --> 00:04:32.832
forms the backdrop
to this fairy-tale film.

00:04:33.140 --> 00:04:36.405
Countless reasons
why Fritz Lang isn't exactly careful

00:04:36.710 --> 00:04:39.543
when dealing with costly film materials.

00:04:39.846 --> 00:04:42.110
If you shoot more, you need more time.

00:04:42.415 --> 00:04:44.383
That was already risky,

00:04:44.684 --> 00:04:49.986
all the more so when the late Eberhard
Meichsner, the production manager,

00:04:50.290 --> 00:04:53.783
did not even turn up
at later shootings of the film.

00:04:54.094 --> 00:04:58.588
He sunbathed in India and enjoyed
the country in his own way,

00:04:58.899 --> 00:05:02.028
and Fritz Lang was left
to his own devices.

00:05:02.335 --> 00:05:06.363
And in that respect,
I can't blame him entirely.

00:05:06.673 --> 00:05:09.665
But we survived that as well.

00:05:09.976 --> 00:05:13.571
You had to accept that there would be
problems like that with Fritz Lang.

00:05:13.880 --> 00:05:16.872
He was also used to fighting
with production managers,

00:05:17.184 --> 00:05:19.016
it has to be said.

00:05:19.319 --> 00:05:22.755
For him, it was almost part of the game.

00:05:23.056 --> 00:05:26.993
He knew what he wanted and placed
substantial demands on the table.

00:05:27.294 --> 00:05:30.423
The other side also knew
what they wanted

00:05:30.730 --> 00:05:33.631
and they reined him in
as much as they could.

00:05:33.934 --> 00:05:35.925
Ultimately,
it was about the final product,

00:05:36.236 --> 00:05:41.140
and it was also about the enjoyment
of waging this struggle, I think.

00:05:41.441 --> 00:05:45.537
But the "final cut", as we say,

00:05:45.846 --> 00:05:48.247
was always my responsibility.
It stayed in America.

00:05:48.548 --> 00:05:50.107
See for yourself...

00:05:50.417 --> 00:05:52.044
Look at your face.

00:05:54.621 --> 00:05:55.611
Is that an Indian face?

00:05:58.325 --> 00:05:59.451
No.

00:06:00.527 --> 00:06:04.896
This is Paul Hubschmid and
Debra Paget, the two leading actors.

00:06:05.899 --> 00:06:07.867
The Swiss and the American

00:06:08.168 --> 00:06:11.365
are together in front of the camera
for the first time in India.

00:06:11.671 --> 00:06:15.733
A stone, a fish,
or the hand of God...

00:06:17.010 --> 00:06:18.034
This is India.

00:06:19.045 --> 00:06:20.342
Where's my brother?

00:06:20.647 --> 00:06:23.275
The young German actress
Sabine Bethmann

00:06:23.583 --> 00:06:25.347
plays the part of Irene Rhode.

00:06:25.652 --> 00:06:28.451
He didn't know of your arrival.
He's on a tiger hunt.

00:06:28.755 --> 00:06:33.158
My brother's gone hunting?
That's a new passion.

00:06:33.860 --> 00:06:35.919
India awakens many a passion.

00:06:36.229 --> 00:06:37.958
The first time, we were flown

00:06:38.265 --> 00:06:41.428
from Delhi to Udaipur
in a small aircraft.

00:06:41.735 --> 00:06:44.932
There were no tourists,
there was nothing at all.

00:06:45.238 --> 00:06:47.798
I could not imagine it at all,

00:06:48.108 --> 00:06:50.543
because one had never travelled so far.

00:06:50.844 --> 00:06:54.781
The journey lasted two days
in this aircraft with propellers.

00:06:56.016 --> 00:06:58.713
Nowadays, it's ten hours to Delhi,
isn't it?

00:07:01.388 --> 00:07:04.289
In her luggage, Sabine Bethmann
had a small cine camera

00:07:04.891 --> 00:07:07.883
and so she took some film
of the country and the people

00:07:08.194 --> 00:07:10.026
in the surroundings
of the film locations,

00:07:10.330 --> 00:07:14.699
of her fellow actors
and of the work on the set.

00:07:16.937 --> 00:07:20.737
I didn't want to go to India, as I was
afraid of riding, of the Indian Cavalry.

00:07:21.041 --> 00:07:24.238
It was bad enough
because only a snaffle was used.

00:07:24.544 --> 00:07:28.242
For example, I have a riding scene
in front of the city gates

00:07:28.548 --> 00:07:33.850
where I control the horse
and then between a camel and a...

00:07:34.154 --> 00:07:36.282
A camel in front and an ox behind.

00:07:36.589 --> 00:07:39.615
And I had to push my way through
with the horse.

00:07:39.926 --> 00:07:43.726
That was so awful
because the horses rear up.

00:07:44.030 --> 00:07:47.523
And that was really just crazy.

00:07:47.834 --> 00:07:51.896
Tonight Prince Chandra will
give a banquet in your honor.

00:07:52.205 --> 00:07:55.971
I'm looking forward
to seeing my brother.

00:07:56.276 --> 00:07:59.405
I am too.
See, we can enter now.

00:08:04.250 --> 00:08:08.653
And when we rode
through the city gates,

00:08:08.955 --> 00:08:11.754
I asked the Indian soldiers

00:08:12.058 --> 00:08:15.892
to hang on to my reins
because I couldn't control the horse.

00:08:16.196 --> 00:08:18.494
Paul Hubschmid's horse bolted once.

00:08:18.798 --> 00:08:22.098
He disappeared into the desert
for an hour and a half

00:08:22.402 --> 00:08:24.837
and came back rather lamely.

00:08:29.376 --> 00:08:31.242
The snake dance,

00:08:31.544 --> 00:08:34.775
one of the key scenes
in Das indische Grabmal.

00:08:35.081 --> 00:08:39.484
Debra Paget, the leading actress
with a snake nearby,

00:08:39.786 --> 00:08:42.881
I'll never forget it,
two snakes together.

00:08:50.196 --> 00:08:52.756
She had that certain something.

00:08:53.066 --> 00:08:57.196
I noticed with the lighting, the set...
She was mesmerizing.

00:08:57.504 --> 00:09:00.405
Her figure, her movement and her eyes.

00:09:00.707 --> 00:09:04.109
I found the woman more erotic
than Marilyn Monroe.

00:09:12.118 --> 00:09:16.419
In 1959, many cinema-goers
experienced this sensation,

00:09:16.723 --> 00:09:21.661
the first time in a German film that,
alongside dream-like scenes of India,

00:09:21.961 --> 00:09:25.158
such eroticism was displayed.

00:09:33.406 --> 00:09:37.070
Debra Paget plays
the temple dancer Seetha,

00:09:37.377 --> 00:09:41.336
who has to subject herself to a trial
by ordeal in Das indische Grabmal

00:09:41.648 --> 00:09:44.447
and who can exhibit
all her physical attributes

00:09:44.751 --> 00:09:49.712
in front of a rather crudely made
"film" cobra in the snake dance.

00:09:55.095 --> 00:09:59.362
But not all her colleagues got on
with the American.

00:09:59.666 --> 00:10:01.498
She didn't have anything to do with us.

00:10:01.801 --> 00:10:04.031
She spent her evenings alone
with her mother

00:10:04.337 --> 00:10:07.602
and brushed her fake eyelashes...

00:10:07.907 --> 00:10:12.504
We invited her to come along with us,
but she didn't want to.

00:10:12.812 --> 00:10:14.940
I don't know.
She wanted to keep a certain distance.

00:10:15.248 --> 00:10:18.980
Maybe she didn't like the Germans.
I don't know.

00:10:22.255 --> 00:10:24.781
Der Tiger von Eschnapur,
Das indische Grabmal,

00:10:25.091 --> 00:10:30.154
is really a film that we could
or had to shoot entirely in India,

00:10:30.463 --> 00:10:31.760
but we weren't allowed to.

00:10:32.065 --> 00:10:35.296
We were allowed to film
the great palaces from a distance.

00:10:35.602 --> 00:10:37.400
We weren't allowed to enter them.

00:10:37.704 --> 00:10:40.639
And the decoration of the inside
of these palaces

00:10:40.940 --> 00:10:46.310
was the finest work of my whole career
which we produced in the studios here.

00:10:46.880 --> 00:10:48.939
With all this ornate decoration and...

00:10:49.983 --> 00:10:51.883
They were fantastic creations.

00:11:15.408 --> 00:11:17.604
And now we come to the place

00:11:17.911 --> 00:11:21.472
where the large compound
was built for the tigers.

00:11:21.781 --> 00:11:26.719
This area here
just in front of the studios,

00:11:27.020 --> 00:11:29.682
round to here,
right up to in front of the fences.

00:11:30.390 --> 00:11:32.449
That's where the tiger compound
was built.

00:11:32.759 --> 00:11:36.161
In other words,
a large structure was built.

00:11:36.462 --> 00:11:39.921
And then with a lot of hessian
and a lot of plaster

00:11:40.233 --> 00:11:43.726
the corresponding walls
were put up.

00:11:44.604 --> 00:11:48.939
And the tigers huddled together
in the middle here.

00:11:50.410 --> 00:11:54.438
And they enjoyed it in the sunshine,
as warm as it is in India!

00:11:57.217 --> 00:12:00.983
So those scenes
were all shot outside here.

00:12:15.835 --> 00:12:17.667
Fight for your life!

00:12:23.676 --> 00:12:25.041
The man-eaters!

00:12:27.680 --> 00:12:28.943
Raise the gate!

00:12:34.354 --> 00:12:37.881
The scenery for the tiger compound
is barely 15 metres high

00:12:38.191 --> 00:12:41.718
and was built by the experienced team
from the CCC studios

00:12:42.028 --> 00:12:46.226
in the Berlin district of Spandau
in just under two weeks.

00:12:48.901 --> 00:12:52.565
The tiger cages were a challenge
for the set designers.

00:12:52.872 --> 00:12:56.365
These cages were made
particularly sturdy,

00:12:56.676 --> 00:12:58.508
according to director Lang's
strict specifications,

00:12:58.811 --> 00:13:01.872
because the actors performed
right in front of them.

00:13:02.181 --> 00:13:06.584
Lang's requests of his producer
Brauner were never-ending.

00:13:06.886 --> 00:13:09.651
Fritz Lang asked for 30 elephants.

00:13:09.956 --> 00:13:14.052
And this is what we filmed
on the set in Spandau.

00:13:14.360 --> 00:13:18.194
We brought the elephants together
from all the circuses

00:13:18.498 --> 00:13:21.024
and there were 28 or 30 in total.

00:13:21.334 --> 00:13:23.826
And we built the entire Indian market

00:13:24.137 --> 00:13:27.300
and nobody in the world would
know that it wasn't India.

00:13:27.607 --> 00:13:30.736
And we had to pay attention
to the ears,

00:13:31.044 --> 00:13:35.504
because Indian elephants have
different ears from African ones.

00:13:36.582 --> 00:13:41.816
It was the greatest thing
I've ever experienced.

00:13:53.066 --> 00:13:55.057
Welcome to Eschnapur.

00:13:55.368 --> 00:13:56.733
Thank you.

00:13:57.036 --> 00:14:02.099
This reception is a great honor
for a man who can only do his best.

00:14:02.675 --> 00:14:04.234
Fritz Lang did not let up

00:14:04.544 --> 00:14:08.242
and called on the whole team
to give their best as well,

00:14:08.548 --> 00:14:13.042
But this is not very easy
in the tropical conditions of India.

00:14:13.353 --> 00:14:16.653
Sabine Bethmann remembers
numerous difficulties

00:14:16.956 --> 00:14:18.924
which some of her fellow actors
encountered.

00:14:19.225 --> 00:14:21.819
René Deltgen was seriously ill,

00:14:22.128 --> 00:14:25.496
because he ate some kind of sweets
on the street at night.

00:14:25.798 --> 00:14:29.257
We were warned not to.
And he was seriously ill.

00:14:35.842 --> 00:14:37.571
I'm sorry I'm late.

00:14:37.877 --> 00:14:40.903
We had problems
at the building site.

00:14:41.214 --> 00:14:46.584
In Eschnapur you must always
expect surprises, Mr Berger.

00:14:46.886 --> 00:14:49.378
This is the heart of India.

00:14:49.689 --> 00:14:52.181
After shooting, we went home,
that is, to the palace,

00:14:52.492 --> 00:14:54.517
and meals were cooked for us.

00:14:54.827 --> 00:14:58.320
This was observed by a doctor
in tropical medicine from Munich,

00:14:58.631 --> 00:15:01.157
but we were all terribly ill.

00:15:01.467 --> 00:15:05.768
And he was surprised
because he had observed everything,

00:15:06.072 --> 00:15:12.239
then he saw the servants
with our water containers...

00:15:12.545 --> 00:15:16.413
They rinsed these containers out
in the pond nearby. That was bad.

00:15:19.051 --> 00:15:20.644
After this incident,

00:15:20.953 --> 00:15:25.356
the whole team was not allowed to leave
the site around the palace in Udaipur.

00:15:26.626 --> 00:15:29.652
The limited free time between
shooting the various scenes

00:15:29.962 --> 00:15:32.226
had to be spent by each person
in their own way.

00:15:36.569 --> 00:15:39.368
A scene from the tiger hunt
in the film.

00:15:39.672 --> 00:15:42.232
Some exciting scenes are shot here.

00:15:43.309 --> 00:15:47.940
The real Maharaja also had a surprise
in store for the team.

00:15:49.081 --> 00:15:51.880
The Maharaja invited us
to a tiger hunt one time.

00:15:52.185 --> 00:15:55.052
Of course, most of the actors
made an effort to go.

00:15:55.354 --> 00:15:58.915
I was the only woman and thought,
yeah, I'd like to go along too.

00:15:59.225 --> 00:16:01.523
But the producers wouldn't let me.

00:16:01.828 --> 00:16:03.660
I don't know why to this day.

00:16:03.963 --> 00:16:07.957
Whether it was too dangerous
or I'd be in the way, I don't know.

00:16:09.802 --> 00:16:12.294
Maybe it's because Sabine Bethmann
was needed

00:16:12.605 --> 00:16:16.132
for one of the most powerful scenes
in the palace's catacombs.

00:16:18.511 --> 00:16:22.573
In her role as Irene Rhode, she gets
lost while looking for her brother

00:16:22.882 --> 00:16:26.216
in the numerous passageways
and falls down a deep hole.

00:16:28.955 --> 00:16:32.118
Right in amongst
the lepers of Eschnapur.

00:16:41.901 --> 00:16:45.360
The lepers were special extras

00:16:45.671 --> 00:16:51.075
who were missing an arm or a leg,

00:16:51.377 --> 00:16:54.574
who looked awful and,
with precise use of make-up,

00:16:54.881 --> 00:16:57.509
were made to look
even more wretched.

00:16:57.817 --> 00:17:00.718
And it was already
a strange group of people.

00:17:11.197 --> 00:17:13.723
And I knew I had to run and run,
up the steps,

00:17:14.033 --> 00:17:16.400
and these people behind me
wanted to touch me.

00:17:16.702 --> 00:17:20.468
Fritz Lang was shouting,
"You mustn't touch her!"

00:17:20.773 --> 00:17:25.506
And the rescue from this leper hell
was the most exciting scene for me.

00:17:37.056 --> 00:17:39.320
But it was fantastic, that leper scene.

00:17:39.625 --> 00:17:44.563
It made a real impression on me
and has remained fresh in my memory.

00:17:47.400 --> 00:17:49.596
The fascination with India.

00:17:49.902 --> 00:17:53.304
Eva Ebner, who was in demand
at the time as an assistant director,

00:17:53.606 --> 00:17:55.904
could already see herself
in Calcutta or Delhi,

00:17:56.208 --> 00:17:58.267
but things turned out quite differently.

00:17:59.445 --> 00:18:03.882
I was hired by Artur Brauner...

00:18:05.785 --> 00:18:08.413
...to be assistant director

00:18:08.721 --> 00:18:13.454
on Das indische Grabmal
and Der Tiger von Eschnapur.

00:18:13.759 --> 00:18:19.095
And the director was to be
and indeed was Fritz Lang.

00:18:20.166 --> 00:18:24.603
It was an exceptional honor.

00:18:24.904 --> 00:18:32.904
We did some preparatory work.
We worked on these really thick scripts.

00:18:35.114 --> 00:18:37.378
I did as much research as I could.

00:18:37.683 --> 00:18:40.618
We spoke about absolutely everything,

00:18:40.920 --> 00:18:43.890
about the time needed for shooting,

00:18:44.190 --> 00:18:48.559
about the sequence of scenes to be shot,

00:18:48.861 --> 00:18:50.590
what we had to film in India,

00:18:50.896 --> 00:18:53.763
what we could "cheat" with
and film in Germany,

00:18:54.066 --> 00:18:58.367
at the studios
or in any narrow streets.

00:18:59.805 --> 00:19:01.830
We discussed all of that.

00:19:02.141 --> 00:19:06.100
I think we did that
for four to six weeks

00:19:06.412 --> 00:19:11.009
and it was incredibly disappointing for me

00:19:11.317 --> 00:19:15.185
when I got stomach pains one day.

00:19:15.488 --> 00:19:17.479
I had to go to hospital.

00:19:17.790 --> 00:19:20.487
They took out my appendix.

00:19:20.793 --> 00:19:24.889
And not only that, but it would not heal

00:19:25.197 --> 00:19:27.632
because I had an abscess.

00:19:27.933 --> 00:19:31.267
In other words, I couldn't do the film.

00:19:34.607 --> 00:19:38.134
For all the other participants,
the film was a success.

00:19:39.245 --> 00:19:42.909
Even if the German press gave it
modest reviews,

00:19:43.215 --> 00:19:47.982
the effort paid off for producer Artur
Brauner and has continued to do so.

00:19:48.287 --> 00:19:50.688
It is a film that made money.

00:19:50.990 --> 00:19:55.894
And we should not forget
that ever since then, since 1958,

00:19:56.195 --> 00:19:57.822
throughout these 45 years,

00:19:58.130 --> 00:20:00.189
and for a bit longer yet, until 2020,

00:20:00.499 --> 00:20:04.936
it has been continually bought
by television broadcasters.

00:20:05.237 --> 00:20:08.207
The film has brought us good fortune,

00:20:08.507 --> 00:20:12.842
certainly for its producers,
when we check our finances.

00:20:22.621 --> 00:20:26.649
Brauner only took this gamble
on India once.

00:20:26.959 --> 00:20:29.894
It resulted in two impressive films,

00:20:30.196 --> 00:20:34.292
which, in their exotic nature,
blaze of colour, variety of costumes

00:20:34.600 --> 00:20:39.003
and with such a vast number
of actors and extras,

00:20:39.305 --> 00:20:41.774
could hardly be surpassed.