VHS : The Garden of Allah
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer play a pair of lost souls who meet in the desert. She is the sheltered Domini, looking for spiritual enlightenment in the Sahara. He is Boris, a young monk who has abandoned the monastery, wanting to experience the outside world. Together, they fall in love and try to come to terms with their mutual guilt while having a passionate affair. C. Aubrey Smith and Basil Rathbone serve as guides for Domini. John Carradine cameos as a bizarre fortune teller.
Unfortunately, even an excellent cast can't save this sandy soaper from itself. Although the Technicolor cinematography is gorgeous, and Dietrich sports a new and more stunning gown for every desert occasion, viewers will find no oasis to quench their thirst. Basically, this is a very early version of Hollywood's 'sex and sand' films, so popular in the 1950s--lush, unusual, and ultimately silly. --Mark Savary
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Fabulous early movie
This is one of the first coloured movies picturing a romantic story in the desert. The story is passionate, the images beautiful, and definitely worth seeing.
Rating: - GUILTY PLEASURES
Kitsch of such sublime silliness you may find yourself giggling days afterward. Marlene Dietrich is Domini a wealthy orphan who feels God has deserted her after the death of her father. She returns to her convent boarding school to ask the advise of the Reverend Mother who tells her to go to the desert & look for God there. (It worked for the Church Fathers.) Domini packs her chiffon & heads for North Africa. Meanwhile in North Africa a Trappist monk, Boris, (Charles Boyer with the most ... Read More
Rating:  - Visually stunning restoration - Dietrich never looked lovlier!
All classic films deserve to be seen on their own terms. "The Garden of Allah" is a product of 1936 Hollywood and an excellent product it is!
Early in the film we learn that a Trappist monk has run away from the monastery and forsaken his vows. When this is revealed to his brother monks their shock is almost palpable through the camera and across the decades. The runaway priest (Charles Boyer) soon crosses paths with a beautiful, kind and wealthy woman (Marlene Dietrich) who is going ... Read More
Rating: - Marlene glows in "Garden"
THE GARDEN OF ALLAH, produced by David Selznick in 1936, was famously one of the first movies to employ the use of the complete three-strip Technicolor process. Certainly, it was the first time that a film had been shot on location using the cumbersome Technicolor camera.
Following the death of her father, Domini Enfilden (Marlene Dietrich) journeys into the exotic deserts of Northern Africa to contemplate her life on a personal pilgrimage. There she meets Boris Androvsky (Charles Boyer), ... Read More
Rating: - BEAUTIFUL
This picture is the first movie entirely in color, and is beatiful. The story is simple: a monk in conflict with his faith meets a lovely lady who confuses him more. The subject is touched with tact and in a delicate way. Very recomandable. Timeless.
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