THE GREEN GODDESS (1930)

An anti-"Lost Horizon" in which a group of British travelers are stranded in an isolated Indian village at the mercy of a cruel rajah. Its stage play origins show but it's fun to watch, largely due to George Arliss in the villainous lead role, and to the somewhat wild twists and turns the plot takes. Ralph Forbes is piloting a small plane carrying a stuffy old major (H.B. Warner) and his younger wife (Alice Joyce) when they are forced to crash land in relatively uncharted territory near the village of Rukh. At first they are welcomed by Arliss (the alternately cool and friendly Rajah) but it turns out that Arliss' brothers are about to be executed by the British and Arliss plans to hold the three hostage, either to negoiate a release or to take their lives for the lives of his brothers. Arliss tells Joyce he will spare her and send for her children to join her if she agrees to be his mistress (so that they can breed a small race of supermen!), but of course she turns him down. The prisoners try to get the British butler (Ivan Simpson) to help them send out a Morse Code message for help, but he betrays them, so they toss him out the window to his death in the rocky valley below. Can Warner get a message out before the Raja catches on to their plan?

The direction, as was the case in many early talkies, is static, with some shots awkwardly framed and some of the performances lacking power. Forbes does a good job looking like he's scared shitless as the plane goes down, but he has a more difficult time expressing any other subtler emotions. In a scene where he's trying to get Joyce to relax, he comes off like a demonic hypnotist (no wonder she doesn't calm down). Joyce is bland, but old pros Warner and Arliss are fine. Arliss was considered one of the greats in the 20's, on screen and stage. Warner appeared in over 100 movies in five decades, starting in 1914, and is probably best known as Christ in the silent KING OF KINGS, and as the druggist Mr. Gower in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Some of the sets are grand, especially the ritual room where the prisoners are to be sacrificed at the end. Of course, Joyce and Forbes are rescued, but Arliss is left unmolested by the British and gets in a good last line about Joyce, as he mutters, "She probably would have been a nusiance." [TCM]