The Garden of Allah
by Richard Boleslawski
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Basil Rathbone, C. Aubrey Smith, Charles Boyer, Joseph Schildkraut, Marlene DietrichDirector: Richard Boleslawski
Brand: DIETRICH,MARLENE
Cinematographer: Harold Rosson
Cinematographer: Virgil Miller
Producer: David O. Selznick
Writer: Lynn Riggs
Writer: Robert Hichens
Writer: W.P. Lipscomb
Writer: Willis Goldbeck
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 79 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-10-19
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of The Garden of Allah
Movie Review: Hatchet Job?
Summary: 5 Stars
Someone please correct me if I am wrong. The specs for the black and white DVD from 2000 indicates a 1:1.33 aspect ratio, which would be consistent with other films of the era and the Technicolor cameras in use at that time. I bought the version with the color front, and it looks completely distorted to fit my widescreen. And cannot be adjusted to it's appropriate format. What a travesty. Who ever is responsible for "transforming" video from one format to another should be shot. It would have probably cost MGM/UA and extra nickel to put the "FULL SCREEN DVD FORMAT" and 1:1.33 ratio on the same disk. Maddening. Don't these people realize that many of us wanting a classic/period movie want a true version, not one pulled, stretched, cropped, colorized, etc.? Or at least think to offer the pure version as an option? I can't rate the film because watching a distorted version is not an option for me. Shame on MGM/UA for what is in my opinion a hatchet job. I'm to the point I think they need to put the specs on the front if the aspect has been altered, because this is not the first film I've bought that monkeyed with the format and did not say so, or buried it in the fine print.
Summary of The Garden of Allah
Screen legends Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer "achieve the finest performances of their careers" (Newsweek), as they taste forbidden fruit under the seductive, blazing skies of the Sahara.Featuring a sumptuous score by composer Max Steiner (Gone With the Wind), this sweeping epicof passionate romance is "the most beautiful and atmospherically compelling picture ever made" (The Hollywood Reporter). After the death of her father, convent-educated Domini Enfilden (Dietrich) heads for the desert seeking peace. But instead of tranquility, the sultry beauty finds passion in the arms of Boris Androvsky (Boyer)secretly a Trappist monk who has broken his vows and lost his faith. Will Domini discover Boris' secret, and will his hidden past destroy their future happiness?Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer play a pair of lost souls who meet in the desert. She is the sheltered Domini, looking for spiritual enlightenment in the Sahara. He is Boris, a young monk who has abandoned the monastery, wanting to experience the outside world. Together, they fall in love and try to come to terms with their mutual guilt while having a passionate affair. C. Aubrey Smith and Basil Rathbone serve as guides for Domini. John Carradine cameos as a bizarre fortune teller.
Unfortunately, even an excellent cast can't save this sandy soaper from itself. Although the Technicolor cinematography is gorgeous, and Dietrich sports a new and more stunning gown for every desert occasion, viewers will find no oasis to quench their thirst. Basically, this is a very early version of Hollywood's "sex and sand" films, so popular in the 1950s--lush, unusual, and ultimately silly. --Mark Savary
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