The Tiger of Eschnapur (1959 film)

The Tiger of Eschnapur, or in original German, Der Tiger von Eschnapur, is a 1959 West GermanFrenchItalian adventure film directed by Fritz Lang. It is the first of two films comprising what has come to be known as Fritz Langs Indian Epic the other is The Indian Tomb Das Indische Grabmal. Fritz Lang returned to Germany to direct these films, which together tell the story of a German architect, the Indian maharaja for whom he is supposed to build schools and hospitals, and the Eurasian dancer who comes between them.

Released in 1921, the original version of Das Indische Grabmal had a running time of 312 hours. For the remake, Lang divided the story into two parts that each run about 100 minutes, a length modern audiences can more easily accept.The tale begins when architect Harold Berger Paul Hubschmid arrives in India to meet with Maharaja Chandra Walter Reyer, for whom he will build schools and hospitals. En route to the Maharajas palace, Berger meets a dancer named Seetha Debra Paget and saves her from a tiger. Seetha, whose father was European, is promised to the Maharaja, but she and the architect begin to fall in love. Predictably, this leads to a buildup of tension between Chandra and Berger, helped along by scheming palace courtiers. The film is also filled with action, and a highlight of it is Seethas first ritual dance. At the end of Tiger, Seetha and Berger are imprisoned but escape into the desert just as Bergers sister and her husband, also an architect who works with Berger, arrive in Eschnapur. Chandra informs them the plans have changed he now wants a tomb to be built. ........

Source: Wikipedia