There is an old saying that if you wait long enough,your patience will eventually be rewarded and this is certainly the case with this more than welcome and long overdue DVD release of this fascinating,exotic fantasy which mixes a heady cocktail of lush romanticism and hauntingly unforgettable "cinema noir".
Featuring"The Queen of Technicolour", Maria Montez, fondly remembered for her Hollywood "Eastern" roles in such highly coloured exotica as "Cobra Woman","Arabian Nights","Ali Baba","Sudan",etc,this dark and brooding extravaganza,with it's remarkable monochrome cinematography by ace cameraman Karl Struss,presents us with this glamourous icon at her most alluringly seductive.
More than ably supported by French heart-throb and real life husband Jean Pierre Aumont at his most photogenically dashing and also by an admirable supporting cast featuring Dennis O'Keefe and Henry Daniell,Maria demonstrates exactly why so many moviegoers' hearts were broken,when sadly,in her early thirties she drowned while taking a hot saline bath to aid her slimming regime.
This rare and unique movie was strangely lost for years,
so at last here is an opportunity for all dedicated film fans to savour this unusual fable of mystery, love, greed, jealousy and murder.
Atlantis,the lost city is recreated with imaginative sets,ravishing costumes,inspired choreography and an involving and suitably dramatic score.
Adapted for the screen from the best selling novel by Pierre Benoir,this heartbreaking adventure proves assertively to the viewer why it has gained the cult status it has, since the film's initial release.
From the airless and claustrophobic,torch-lit chambers of the lost city to the stiflingly hot and arrid desert landscapes,this is a movie which wraps the viewer in a cloak of electric atmosphere, seldom achieved by modern cinema,despite it's technical wizardry and computer graphics.
Now this exciting DVD release will be seen by many new viewers,who otherwise would have been unaware of this once forgotten, "one of a kind" movie,which they will be proud to add to their collections.
Congratulations are due to Odeon Cinema for giving us all the opportunity to experience the moody magic of this remarkable and tantalising work of art.
If you consider yourself to be a serious film collector and you enjoy the unusual, this is a DVD you won't regret purchasing and at the very reasonable price is also a bargain not to be missed!