Although color film technology had been experimented with for some twenty years before producer David O. Selznick decided to utilize it in 1936's "The Garden of Allah," it never achieved the lushness and depth seen in this movie until the 3-strip color processing technique patented by Technicolor came to the fore. And ravishing color is really the best reason for seeing this movie. Even with Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer as its stars, "The Garden of Allah" doesn't manage to get off the ground. The beautiful score by Max Steiner, and creditable cameo performances by C. Aubrey Smith, Joseph Schildkraut, John Carradine and Basil Rathbone (among others) all do their best to lend drama to what is essentially a slow, meditative potboiler with heavily theological underpinnings, but alas, it's no go. The problem lies not only in the tepid filmscript but with the decision to cast Dietrich and Boyer in the roles of the star-crossed lovers. If there's one thing both performers possessed in abundance, it was smouldering sex appeal. In "The Garden of Allah," however, they're forced to play against type as otherworldly characters with somewhat saintly pasts, and -- frankly -- it doesn't click. It would be like casting Marilyn Monroe opposite Clark Gable in a lavishly produced movie about the First Council of Nicaea, and then expecting romantic sparks to fly. It would make no sense, and the audience wouldn't buy it.
The color in "The Garden of Allah," however, truly gorgeous... soft and deeply saturated and glowing with inner fire. It almost makes the movie worth sitting through.
The color in "The Garden of Allah," however, truly gorgeous... soft and deeply saturated and glowing with inner fire. It almost makes the movie worth sitting through.