"Garden of Allah" Review

 

by Daniel White

Can anyone delve into the history of the LGBTQ community in Hollywood during its Golden Age and not discuss "The Sewing Circle?" A term first coined by Russian actress Alla Nazimova, it was her discreet way of identifying the ladies in Tinseltown who enjoyed the intimate company of other women.

One of the most famous members of that select group was Marlene Dietrich, a woman known for her romantic entanglements with both sexes. At home in Berlin's Lesbian nightclubs during the decadent days of the Weimar Republic, La Dietrich didn't seem to think there was any need to curb her same-sex attractions when she arrived in Hollywood in 1930. According to daughter Maria Riva, Dietrich believed women were better at making love, but impossible to live with. An iconoclast who was both calculating and innovative, Marlene Dietrich continues to fascinate and intrigue.

The Garden of Allah (not THAT Alla!) is a 1936 film that is a cinematic Three-strip Technicolor feast for the eyes. The third full-length film employing the process, it should be seen just because it is so unbelievably gorgeous. That the plot is as preposterous and dated as the film is spectacular looking only adds to the fun.

Marlene plays Domini Enfilden(?), a wealthy young woman who has spent her life taking care of her recently deceased invalid father. Looking for purpose now that Pops has given up the ghost, she returns to the convent where she lived as a child, in search of guidance. Why not head for the desert, suggests kindly Mother Josephine (Lucile Watson). There, "In the face of the infinite, your grief will vanish." Of course, you also run the risk of perishing in the grueling sun, if not attacked by marauding Bedouins. What's a drifting, daddy-less dame to do?

Taking Mother's wise words to heart, Domini heads for the Sahara in search of meaning. There, she encounters a morose Charles Boyer, who has recently fled a Trappist monastery. He's in search of a little nooky, and quickly finds it in the arms of the chicly-garbed Marlene (she looks tres glam in some of the most stunning outfits ever seen in film. She has more costume changes than a cockatoo has feathers!). However, our two love birds cannot remain happy forever (happy, perhaps not being the operative word to describe the sullen Boyer. He barely cracks a smile throughout the film.), and shortly after they marry, the guilt-enveloped holy man longs to return to his life as a chaste, wine-making monk.

I don't know what the movie public of 1936 thought of such tripe (every time Charles sees a crucifix he recoils like Dracula!), but today's cynical, arched-eyebrow set will holler and hoot themselves into spasms at such hokum (I imagine Dietrich and Boyer were doing the same). But that doesn't mean The Garden of Allah should not be experienced. It's so devilishly delectable to look at that the visuals more than compensate for the cockamamie plot. And La Dietrich is so delicious that it would be a cinematic sin NOT to watch her in this goofball flick (at 75 minutes, it breezes by). You could do it one Sunday morning in lieu of Mass. It takes about the same amount of time and would definitely count, it's such a pious piece of claptrap.

Produced by David O. Selznick shortly after he set up his own production company, the film was shot on location in Buttercup, California and Yuma, Arizona. The astute Selznick assembled a top-notch technical team. The legendary Max Steiner is the musical director, while MGM's Hal Rosson receives a "photographic advisor" credit. And that's what makes this silly movie so inviting, the high-end production values (unsurprisingly it went over budget and lost money).

Outfitted by Ernst Dryden, Dietrich, in her first color film, is devastating in her plushness. And besides Charles Boyer, she gets to cavort in the sand with Basil Rathbone, C. Aubrey Smith, and Joseph Schildkraut. For me, this is a must-see movie. The Golden Age of Hollywood at it's screwy best.

Directed by Richard Boleslawski, and released through United Artists, with Tilly Losch and Henry Brandon, The Garden of Allah is available on YouTube. Oh, and if all that isn't enough to tickle your film-fancy, John Carradine almost steals the show with a wacky cameo as the "Sand Diviner"!!. Put that prayer book down and watch, The Garden of Allah. NOW!