The Garden of Allah (1936)

If going to the movies means an escape from reality, nowadays we have all too many mind-blowing, effects-laden choices, but this film is a fine example of early high-camp romantic kitsch which provides a different kind of wonderful release.  Produced by the legendary David O. Selznick three years before "Gone with the Wind", this film is one of the earliest examples of the new three-strip colour technicolor process and it is absolutely gorgeous to behold.  OK, the story may be hokum, but it is pretty irrestible hokum.  Convent-raised Marlene Dietrich has wasted her youth looking after her sick Dad and on his death is advised by a friendly nun to find what she has been searching for in the desert (that's Allah's garden of the title).  As one does!  There she meets swooningly-handsome Charles Boyer who is on the run from the monastery where he took his final vows.  They find love amongst the dunes, but he can not forget the burden of his past, and a lasting earthly love is not theirs to have.  A big sigh here!  Yes, it's complete romantic twaddle but beautifully done, and only Dietrich could get away with her designer togs, high heels, and perfect hair and make-up in a desert setting.  With a supporting cast of Basil Rathbone, C. Aubrey Smith, Joseph Schildkraut (as her native guide!), and John Carradine as a sand-diviner (the Arab equivalent of reading tea leaves), plus a stirring Max Steiner score, no expense has been spared.  The movie was actually a flop in its day, but stands now as a memorial to a very different kind of escapist entertainment.

Tags: The Garden of Allah, Marlene Dietrich