The Garden of Allah (1936).

The Garden of Allah (1936), Is a dramatic film directed by Richard Boleslawski and produced by David O. Selznick. Based on the 1905 novel of the same name by Robert S. Hichens. Hichens's novel had been filmed twice before, as silent films made in 1916 and 1927. Cast: Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer with Basil Rathbone, C. Aubrey Smith, Joseph Schildkraut, John Carradine, Alan Marshal, and Lucile Watson. The music score is by Max Steiner. It was the second film to be photographed in three-strip Technicolor gaining an honorary Academy Award for cinematography. The filming locations were in Buttercup, California and Yuma, Arizona.

After the death of her father, Domini Enfilden returns to Le Couvent de Ste. Cecile, where she grew up, to reunite with her friend,  Mother Josephine. The Mother Superior, advises her to travel to the Sahara Desert, where she might find the answers she is looking for.

Meanwhile, at a Trappist monastery at el Lagarnine in Tunis in Northern Africa, a visitor, Captain de Trevignac, tastes the liqueur for which the monastery is best known for. The liqueur is made from a secret formula by Brother Antoine, who has just fled the monastery, taking the secret with him.

While traveling to the city of Beni Mora, Algeria, Domini meets Antoine on a train, but he says nothing to her.

Later, in a cafe, Antoine can not take his eyes off an exotic dancer named Irena.



When Irena pulls a knife on her lover, Hadj, who will not marry her, the situation gets out of control and Antoine helps Domini escape with her life, and this is when Boris introduces himself as, Boris Androvsky.

The next day, they ride to the Oasis of the city Azur, where they meet Count Ferdinand Anteoni, who tells Domini to wait to travel into the desert until the urge is very strong. When native girls admire the crucifix around Boris' neck, he does not like them hanging on him, so he throws it into the water.

Domini, does not like his violent outbursts and Anteoni warns Domini, "a man who fears to acknowledge his God is unwise to set foot in the desert," and tells them that the Arabs have a saying that the desert is the garden of Allah.

Later, a man tells Domini that something glorious is waiting for her during her travels into the desert, but also gives her a warning.

While out riding, they come to a church. There, Father J. Roubier, who promised Mother Superior he would look out for Domini, notices Boris. Although, the priest warns Domini not to fall in love with Boris, he agrees to marry them the next day.

Following the wedding, Boris and Domini take a caravan into the desert with Domini's guide, Batouch, and Hadj.

One night, Domini lights a torch to guide Boris back to the camp and instead saves a patrol that has been lost for three days. Among the men is de Trevignac. Boris returns and de Trevignac is sure they have met before.

After Batouch serves a bottle of the Lagarnine liqueur, de Trevignac remembers who Boris is and leaves the table in anger. Domini, confused, pleads with Boris to tell her the truth about his past but, he refuses.

The next morning, before De Trevignac and his men leave, he tells Anteoni where the caravan is camped.

At dinner, Anteoni tells the story of the Lagarnine liqueur, which will never again be manufactured as the monk who knew the secret of the liqueur disappeared after taking his final vows. Boris, then states tearfully "that the man had a right to love".

Boris, then shares with Domini about his life at the monastery, where he had lived since childhood under the vow of silence, and spoke with people for the first time when, as an adult he was put in charge of the monastery's hotel.

Believing that no one who loves will be punished by God, Domini agrees to let Boris return to the monastery. At the gates of the monastery, Boris and Domini say good-by for the last time..

 

Fun Facts:

Merle Oberon was originally signed to play Domini, but was "bought off" by David O. Selznick at a cost of $25,000.

Marlene Dietrich's first film in Technicolor.

Gilbert Roland was originally cast as Boris Androvsky.

Among the actors David O. Selznick considered and tested for the role of the monk Boris Androvsky before casting Charles Boyer were Robert Taylor, Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone, George Brent, Laurence Olivier, Fredric March, Brian Aherne, Noel Coward, Maurice Evans, Robert Donat, Ivor Novello, John Gielgud and Jean Gabin.

For the role of Capt. De Trevignac, David Niven, Cesar Romero and Ray Milland were tested before 'Alan Marshal was cast.

The young girl sewing in the first scene at the convent is Marlene Dietrich's daughter, Maria Riva.

This was the first Technicolor film to be shot on location. Yuma, Arizona gave the film makers all the sand dunes they could desire, but contaminated drinking water and 135 degree heat soon had the company in revolt. When the daily rushes showed Boyer's face had burned a bright  red, the remainder of the film was shot on a Hollywood sound stage.

I usually do not enjoy watching movies with this storyline.. but, this film was such fun and beautiful to watch, that I just could not stop watching.. This maybe.. one of my favorite Boyer performances. Color films of the 1930's are a rarity and the cinematography in this film showcased the desert beautifully.

Lucile Watson (May 27, 1879 – June 24, 1962)  began her career on the stage debuting on Broadway in the play Hearts Aflame in 1902.

Her next play was The Girl With Green Eyes, the first of several Clyde Fitch stories.

At the end of 1903, Lucile performed in Fitch's "Glad of It". This play featured several young performers including Lucile who would move on to major Broadway or motion picture prominence: Robert Warwick, John Barrymore, Thomas Meighan and Grant Mitchell.

 For the rest of the decade she performed in several more Fitch stories into the 1910s.

Sometime in the 1910s she was briefly married to silent film star Rockliffe Fellowes.Her marriage to Fellows produced no children.

Watson's first film role was in the 1916 silent film The Girl with Green Eyes, a film version of the Clyde Fitch play she had performed in on Broadway in 1902.

She did not appear in another movie until 1930, when she had an uncredited role in, The Royal Family of Broadway.

Watson was primarily a stage actress, starring in plays: Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines, Heartbreak House, Ghosts, The Importance of Being Earnest and Pride and Prejudice.

Her second husband was playwright Louis E. Shipman whom she married in 1928. She was widowed in 1933.

Watson reached the height of her adult acting career in playwright Lillian Hellman's anti-fascist dramatic stage play, Watch on the Rhine on Broadway (1941).

Two years later in Hollywood, she and Lukas reprised their roles in the film adaptation. In perhaps her best known film role, Lucile Watson's performance as 'Mrs. Fanny Farrelly' was also acknowledged with a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, but she lost to actress Katina Paxinou for her performance as Pilar in, For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Watson died on June 25, 1962, after suffering a heart attack at age 83.

History Is Made at Night (1937).

History Is Made at Night(1937). A romantic/drama about a love triangle. Cast: Colin Clive, Jean Arthur and Charles Boyer. Produced by Walter Wanger and directed by Frank Borzage.

The film has a very suspenseful Titanic-like ending, when the ocean liner "SS Princess Irene" (named after Jean Arthur's character) hits an iceberg on its maiden voyage. In the movie the Hindenburg, successfully completes a transatlantic trip, with her husband on board. This movie was released (USA) March 5, 1937. The Hindenburg disaster occurred on May 6, 1937. It never made that return flight to Europe.

The story begins when Irene Vail, the wife of possessive shipping magnate Bruce Vail, is about to return to her Paris hotel room when Michael, her chauffeur, comes to inform her that he has been ordered by her husband to put her in a compromising position, to force her into dropping their divorce.

Expecting to find the chauffeur and his wife in a compromising position, Bruce is surprised to find a jewel thief, there instead who demands jewelry and then kidnaps her. Once he and Irene are alone, the thief reveals that he really is Paul Dumond, one of Europe's best known headwaiters. Feeling sorry for her after overhearing her argument with Michael, he decided to pose as a jewel thief to save her from her abusive husband.

Paul takes Irene to the Chateau Bleu, where he works, the two dine and dance until morning. Meanwhile, back at the hotel, Bruce kills Michael and then tells the police that the murder was committed by Irene's lover.

When Irene returns to the hotel, she lies to Bruce and the police about her abduction, but Bruce knows that she is lying when he notices that she is wearing one of the necklaces that was claimed to have been stolen.

After the police leave, Bruce forces Irene to go to New York with him to stop the divorce by threatening to frame Paul for the murder of the chauffeur.

Paul, is heartbroken when he reads about Irene's departure in the newspapers and does not understand why she did not show up as planned.

While traveling to America, Irene tells Bruce,"You're right, Bruce. This time you're right. This time there *is* another man. You set a trap to catch me with one... and another came instead, to tell me that he loves me, and for me to tell him I love him too. And *you* did it! You did it all by yourself! Isn't that funny? Don't you think that's funny? Before he came, I never even looked at another man. But you wouldn't believe me! So you created one, and you sent him right into my arms..."

Paul, follows the couple to New York. There, Paul and his hot headed chef, Cesar find work at a Manhattan restaurant named, Victor's.

Irene is shocked to lean that Paul, has been arrested for Michael's murder. Bruce, now wants Irene to go to Paris to testify against Paul, but before they leave, Bruce takes her to Victor's for dinner, where she sees Paul, much to her relief.

Irene tears up her ticket to Paris, and walks out on Bruce and returns to Victor's, where she tells Paul the truth. Paul, cannot allow an innocent man to be punished for the murder that Bruce committed and travels back to Parison the, S.S. Princess Irene.

When, Bruce reads in the newspaper that Irene is traveling back to Paris to defend "the man of her heart," he becomes enraged.

Ignoring the radio call from the captain of the Princess Irene warning of bad weather, Bruce gives instructions for the ship to proceed at full speed. The ocean liner soon collides with an iceberg and capsizes. Will Bruce and Irene be rescued in time?

Charles Boyer, gives a very charming performance and Jean Arthur, was never more beautiful. Colin Clive, gave a very convincing performance as the jealous and obsessive husband. Boyer's and Arthur's love scenes were very romantic.

Leopoldo Antonio Carrillo (August 6, 1881 – September 10, 1961). Although he played many stereotypical Latinos parts, Leo Carrillo was from an very respected California family. His great-great grandfather, José Raimundo Carrillo (1749–1809), was an early Criollo settler of San Diego, California. His great-grandfather Carlos Antonio Carrillo (1783–1852) was Governor of Alta California (1837-38), his great-uncle, José Antonio Carrillo, was a Californio defender and three-time mayor of Los Angeles, and his paternal grandfather, Pedro Carrillo, who was educated in Boston, was a writer.

The family moved from San Diego to Los Angeles then to Santa Monica, where Carrillo's father Juan José Carrillo (1842–1916), served as the city's police chief and later the first mayor. His cousin was Broadway star William Gaxton. Proud of his heritage, Leo Carrillo wrote a book, The California I Love, published shortly before his death in 1961.

A university graduate, Leo Carrillo worked as a newspaper cartoonist for the San Francisco Examiner before turning to acting on Broadway. In Hollywood, he performed in more than 90 films, including: The Gay Desperado (1936). He is best remembered from the television series, The Cisco Kid, on which, beginning at the age of seventy, he played the sidekick Pancho, a role that he had previously played in several films. After The Cisco Kid ended production, Carrillo appeared in the episode, "Rescue at Sea" of the syndicated military drama, Men of Annapolis.

A preservationist and conservationist, Carrillo served on the California Beach and Parks commission for eighteen years and played a key role in the state's acquisition of Hearst Castle at San Simeon, the Los Angeles Arboretum, and the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

He was made a goodwill ambassador by the State Governor at the time. As a result of his service to the State, the Leo Carrillo State Park, west of Malibu on the Pacific Coast Highway, was named in his honor, and the city of Westminster, California named an elementary school after him. The Leo Carrillo Ranch Historic Park, originally Rancho de los Kiotes, in Carlsbad, California, is a registered California Historical Site. Rancho Carrillo Trail, also in Carlsbad, is named for Leo Carrillo.

The Constant Nymph(1943).

The Constant Nymph(1943). A romantic drama. Cast Charles Boyer, Joan Fontaine, Alexis Smith, Brenda Marshall, Charles Coburn, May Whitty, and Peter Lorre. It was adapted by Kathryn Scola from the Margaret Kennedy novel and play by Kennedy and Basil Dean, and directed by Edmund Goulding.

After, composer Lewis Dodd's latest symphony does not go over very well in London, he goes to visit an old friend musician, Albert Sanger. One of Sanger's four daughters Tessa,  falls in love with Lewis and dreams of helping him follow his dream as a composer.

The very ill Sanger has kept his daughters away from society and now worries about what is to become of them. He asks Lewis to inform the girls wealthy uncle, Charles Creighton, if he dies. When the girls play a  song that Lewis wrote for them, Sanger tells Lewis that, the beautiful melody is better than his more intellectual work.

Some time later, Sanger dies. Lewis sends for Creighton, who arrives with his beautiful daughter Florence and Kate travels to Milan to study music and Toni marries wealthy Fritz Bercovy. Lewis and Florence fall in love and when they announce their engagement, the frail heartbroken Tessa faints after hearing the news. Creighton arranges for Tessa and Paula to attend school in England and Lewis and Florence marry.

Six months later, Lewis is frustrated by Florence trying to take over his career and the couple quarrel constantly. When Tessa and Paula run away from their school, Lewis leaves to look for them, not attending the party that Florence has planned to introduce him to her friends. Lewis, later finds them home waiting for him. Paula leaves to join Fritz and Toni, who is pregnant and Tessa stays with Florence and Lewis. When Tessa hears Lewis' latest composition, based on the song that he wrote for her and her sisters, she believes it is not his best work.

Later, Tessa encourages Lewis to put sentiment back into his music and with Tessa's help, Lewis changes his composition. Florence,  now knows that Tessa is her rival and  tries to get rid of her. The night of the first performance, Lewis realizes that he is in love with Tessa and asks her to go away with him, but Tessa refuses because he is married to her cousin. The excitement of Lewis' proposal and the premiere of his composition causes Tessa to have another fainting spell, and Florence insists that Tessa stay home, rather than attend the concert. Will Lewis' concert go well and will Florence decide to let him go?

Fun Fact: Alfred Hitchcock was considered for directing this film. Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville was one of the writers of The Constant Nymph 1928 version.


 

 A very romantic film, with beautiful music by Erich Korngold. Alexis Smith as the unloved wife gives a perfect performance, as does Joan Fontaine and Charles Boyer. The supporting actors are also very good, including Charles Coburn, Peter Lorre, Brenda Marshall, Dame May Witty, and Jean Muir. You will need plenty of Kleenex for the very touching ending.

Brenda Marshall (September 29, 1915 – July 30, 1992) Marshall made her first film appearance in the 1939 Espionage Agent.

The following year, she played the leading lady to Errol Flynn in The Sea Hawk.

After divorcing actor Richard Gaines in 1940, she married the actor William Holden in 1941 and her own career quickly slowed.

She starred opposite James Cagney in the 1942 film Captains of the Clouds.

The Constant Nymph (1943) was a popular success but she virtually retired after this, appearing in only four more films. Among these, she played scientist Nora Goodrich in the grade-B 1946 cult classic Strange Impersonation.