In this mythical fantasy, the evil queen of Atlantis lives in a magnificent palace, the halls of which are filled with the mummified remains of former lovers.
This is the 3rd, and most recent, in the three films Ive seen by controversial director G.W. Pabst, after his extraordinary silent classics, Pandoras Box and Diary of a Lost Girl, both starring legendary screen goddess Louise Brooks. Its the English-language version of LAtlantide, itself a sound-remake of the 21 silent film by Jacques Feyder, and, by being mostly shot on location in the Sahara Desert, went against the grain at the time of shooting movies exclusively in studio. In Brigitte Helm, mainly known for her starring role of Fritz Langs sci-fi magnum opus, Metropolis, he had a stunning villainous female, who would have made a great femme fatale, had she continued on the following decade in film noir. The script is nondescript and a tad melodramatic, and the other actors are decidedly pedestrian, but Pabsts visual elan and directorial genius shines through and lifts an otherwise drab picture. Worth your time if youre a fan of adventure films of the era, however.
