Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 22-January-12
Spoiler Rating: High

The Garden of Allah (1936)

On one level The Garden of Allah may be difficult for a 21st-century American to understand. The movie stars Charles Boyer and Marlene Dietrich as devout virgins who have a fateful (and super-schmaltzy) encounter in North Africa. Boris is a Trappist monk who has fled his monastery seeking experience and is racked by guilt over this desertion. Domini is a traveler, schooled in a convent, who spent years tending for an invalid father and is now emerging into the world for the first time. She is struck by Boris' tortured appearance and pursues a friendship with him which blossoms into love. They marry and set off in a honeymoon caravan ("drawn by the mystic summons of blue distances" we are told, in what is presumably a quote from the source book). After a chance meeting with a Legionnaire, the groom's dark secret comes out. Since they are grown-ups and in love, and followed convention by having a church wedding, it seems like they should continue their journey together while helping Boris find spiritual solace. Yet for two such pious Christians, breaking one's vows to God is the worst form of adultery. So with much agony they agree upon the only choice they believe is open to them.

I myself had to squint and strain and contemplate blue distances in order to grasp where these characters were coming from. Yet on another level The Garden of Allah is not truly religious. It is one example among many of storytellers using religion to amplify the force of fleshy pleasures. The movie also uses the setting for this purpose (Arizona imitating Algeria in gorgeous Technicolor), which adds a new dimension to this month's "Desert Dreams" Spotlight series.* In a riveting early scene, a seductive native dancer sets Boris' and Domini's pulses racing with the reality of sex. Once out in the Sahara, Domini's diaphanous trousseau reflects the swirling sands that witness the consummation of their desire. (How's that for schmaltz?) If the third party to the love triangle were human, such as the worldly British nobleman played by Basil Rathbone, the romantic trauma would not be so serious. Because it is God, the characters' suffering takes on an elevated metaphysical hue which, by contrast, makes their desire for physical love more intense. For this reason, while The Garden of Allah may strike some modern viewers as outdated, it may cause retro swoons in others.

*See the Index by date for a list of other films in this month's series.

Copyright © 2012 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.