This movie was awful. Just as bad or worse than the first one. Same issues as the first one too. Acting was the worst thing about it. All the Indian characters were German with brown makeup to make them look Indian. It was extremely obvious in gorgeous Technicolor. The sole American leading lady was referred to as Indian but she had the features and coloring of Elizabeth Taylor. Apparently Lang thought having black hair and bare feet were the only things she needed to make her look Indian. The prince was terrible and often spoke forcefully for no reason. His makeup was very noticable and very phony looking. Jewelry was often too big for the actor wearing it and very phony looking also. The actors had very limited skills which often made them yell or glare at people regardless of what was taking place. Amateur mistakes.
The brother of Berger is awful and often inexplicably shouts his lines. At one point, his employer the prince, removes some architectural models from the room and the brother throws a tantrum, shouting and throwing things. The brother did not want to work on any designs anyway since his partner was missing so why he freaked out is unclear.
In another scene, he is instructed by the Prince to build a tomb. The prince angrily tells him all the precious gems he will have at his disposal. He's almost shouting the names of the gems as though the brother had protested the crappy materials. It makes no sense. The leading lady Seetha is only there for eye candy. Her skills are very limited. Perhaps because of this, Lang always puts her in tight fitting tops without benefit of a bra and then will have her stretch and lean in the supposed guise of prayer to this or that goddess. At one point she does a sensual dance with a snake in which she is basically naked with a few week placed bits of cloth. She does a dance with a snake where she flexes her bare legs and even thrusts her hips suggestively over and over. For the time period this is beyond risque. Her face is exquisite to look at and this and the above dance are what make her bearable on screen. Her acting is tough to gauge because she's an American who didn't speak German so all her lines are dubbed by someone else.
The writing isn't particularly good either. Characters do things that don't make sense and are never explained. Some of the plot devices are ridiculous and obvious. Like when the Prince steals a coat and smears it in blood to present to the hero's sister to prove he's been killed. This coat had been sewn recently by the hero's sister and had been stored in the closet of her room. Of course she knew it was a lie! Just lazy writing here. The prince is all upset because this woman he liked didn't like him? They barely knew each other and had no arrangement but he acts as though she'd cheated on him. It's far too weak a storyline to be believable as the prince isn't played like an ego maniac who expects everyone to bend to his will. He just wasn't the kind of guy to force a woman to be with him. In any case, i gave it 3 stars for the beautiful color, scenery and costumes. The acting, story, and directing warrant a big fat zero.
Review of The Indian Tomb
