German 1930s Photo Album documenting, in part, Richard Eichberg’s 1937 drama Das Indische Grabmal (The Indian Tomb).

With over 200 photographs

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Personal photograph album of German film sound engineer, Erich Lange, documenting 1930s movie productions in which he participated.¹ About 100 photographs clearly show film sets or productions; the other 130 depict Lange and others at leisure or views in various German locales.²

Most notable are 16 striking photographs for director Richard Eichberg’s 1937 epic erotic adventure fantasy, Das Indische Grabmal (The Indian Tomb). The movie was filmed on location in India and Germany. Over 50,000 feet of film was shot. Erich Lange engineered the sound.

These 16 images show the German portion of the film’s production, in Jofa studios, with elaborate palatial sets and the bejeweled costumes worn by the actors. The film starred La Jana (Henriette Margarethe (“Henny”) Hiebel), Frits van Dongen, and Gustav Diessl. Four of the photographs in this group show La Jana performing in an elaborate dance production. Scenes in a zoo and show elephants and tigers, include a photograph of a tiger cage that appears again in the album among the photos for the film. Das Indische Grabmal had its 1938 Berlin première at the Ufa-Palast Zoo, perhaps re-visiting the more likely venue for filming scenes involving dangerous animals.

Other movie productions are found in Lange’s album. Based on the costuming, 25 photographs document a film set in eighteenth century, possibly Johannes Meyer’s drama Fridericus (1937) for which Lange engineered the sound. This group shows Lange’s mobile sound unit set up on a sledge that is being drawn through the open landscape by a bulldozer. (In one photo, Lange himself is at the controls.) The reason for the mobility becomes clear when it is realized that the director is preparing to film an elaborate battle scene complete with soldiers, cannon, and cavalry. Also, a contemporary movie, that appears to have at least one scene within a Berlin cabaret is part of the 100 photographs. Curiously, 5 photographs show another movie production crew with their camera and klieg lights filming a polar bear on a prop ice floe in a zoo mauling a human-like form. 34 remaining photographs depict unknown movie sets or film production.

An unusual 1930s photograph album documenting German film production kept by a sound engineer who worked with one of the major German directors of the period.

Price: $1,500.00