The Garden of Allah
(1936), 80 min. color

Marlene Dietrich finds love with Charles Boyer in this dramatization of Robert Hichens' novel The Garden of Allah. Dietrich's character "Domini" had devoted herself to taking care of her invalid father. When he died she didn't know what to do with her life. After traveling in search of answers, Domini sought the advice of the Mother Superior of the convent in which she grew up.  "In the midst of people I was always lonely," says Domini. Mother Superior recommends the Sahara desert. "There in the solitude you may find yourself. In the face of the infinite your grief will vanish."

Charles Boyer plays Brother Antoine, a Trappist Monk, who lost his faith and left his monastery in northern Africa. In doing so, he has broken his vows, horrifying his fellow monks and Captain de Trevignac, a young French officer who was visiting the monastery at the time.

After fleeing the monastery, Brother Antoine adopted the name Boris Androvsky. At Beni Mora on the edge of the Sahara Domini meets Androvsky, who behaves rudely, grabbing his suitcase, and not speaking. Domini remarks "What an extraordinary man. Is he mad?" "Yes, he's undoubtedly English," responds Batouch (played by Joseph Schildkraut), a poet/guide who takes it upon himself to look after Domini. She is immediately intrigued by Androvsky, and, when their paths cross again, she senses a great sadness surrounding him. When Boris later rescues Domini from rioters, a bond is formed between them. Slowly they become friends and eventually fall in love.

Rathbone, as Count Ferdinand Anteoni, comes into the lives of Domini and Boris at a desert oasis. He makes a grand entrance with about ten followers on thundering horses. Count Anteoni is an Englishman who has adopted the Sahara, or rather (as he says) the Sahara has adopted him. After observing Androvsky throw the cross he had worn around his neck into the water, Count Anteoni warns Domini, "A man who fears to acknowledge his God is unwise to set foot in the desert. The Arabs have a saying, Madame: The desert is the Garden of Allah."

Count Anteoni and his retinue arrive at an oasis where Domini and Boris are also resting.

Count Anteoni explains that the women at the oasis are curious about Domini because they have never seen a European woman.

Domini and Boris are married, and go off into the desert for their honeymoon. At their encampment a small group of soldiers on patrol happen upon them. They are led by Captain de Trevignac, the young officer who met Brother Antoine at the monastery. He recognizes Boris. Captain de Trevignac leaves them without revealing Boris's secret, but later tells Count Anteoni about Boris Androvsky's true identity. 

Count Anteoni feels that Domini should know this secret. He seeks out Domini at her desert oasis to tell her the truth about her husband's past. Over dinner he talks to Boris and Domini about the monk who left the Trappist monastery.

Soon Domini realizes that Boris is the monk who broke his vows and left the monastery. Boris was running away from the spiritual influence and Domini was seeking spiritual renewal. A strong believer in the importance of vows and commitments, Domini convinces Boris that he must make his sin right with God. Although she is heartbroken at the thought of parting from Boris, she insists that he go back to his religious life.

Together the lovers travel to the monastery and tearfully part at its gates.

Rathbone's character in this film is, as in the novel, a caring and sympathetic man; Rathbone eagerly accepted the role in order to get away from being typecast as a villain. In his autobiography, Rathbone tells how he came to blows with David Selznick, the producer, over how the character of Count Anteoni should be played. One morning Rathbone received some new pages of dialogue. "The situation and dialogue were such as to suddenly put Count Anteoni in a very unsympathetic situation and completely alter the course of characterization I had been developing. ... Selznick is not a man accustomed to arguments where he has made a prior decision, and the situation and dialogue had his O.K. ... I reminded David that I had signed a contract without reading a script and upon his assurance that Count Anteoni would be played exactly as written in Hitchins' book, and that the new scene was a gross infringement of this understanding" (In and Out of Character, page 148).  Selznick threatened to press charges of insubordination against Rathbone with the Screen Actors Guild, so Rathbone eventually did the scene under protest. It's an interesting story, but I don't see anything in the film that puts Count Anteoni in an unsympathetic light, so I think we must assume that the scene that caused this trouble ended up on the cutting room floor.

Rathbone was also disappointed with the billing he received. In a letter dated December 2, 1936, Rathbone wrote to Sam Goldwyn, "I accepted Count Anteoni in The Garden of Allah without reading the script because David Selznick told me the story and the part as he told it was colourful & vital & important. We came to shoot it and it was nothing. In 'Allah' I was promised the same billing as John Barrymore got in Romeo and Juliet. I did not get it. This was my agent's fault. It was not in the contract & Mr. Selznick pointed out that it was not in the contract & would do nothing. So I was bunched down with Tilly Losh, Aubrey Smith and Schildkraut."

Count Anteoni observes Boris throw away his cross.

Domini and Count Anteoni are puzzled by Boris's behavior.

In March 1936, Variety announced that Basil Rathbone would have a role in The Garden of Allah. It was also announced that Merle Oberon would play the role of Domini Entfilden.

Soon thereafter, Merle was removed from the cast of The Garden of Allah in favor of Marlene Dietrich. The newspapers circulated various rumors, including the following:

• Merle Oberon did not like the role and had begged to be released from her contract. (Oberon claimed that wasn't at all true.) Then a rumor circulated that
• Merle's color tests had shown that she did not photograph well in color. (Oberon claimed to have a telegram from an agent close to the producer that contradicted the rumor.)
• Merle was "bought off" by David O. Selznick at a cost of $25,000.
• Merle Oberon had turned down the lead in this film in favor of the lead in Dark Victory.

In April, Merle sued the studio for breach of contract. Motion Picture Herald (April 18, 1936) reported, "Merle Oberon sued Selznick International Pictures, Inc., in Los Angeles on Tuesday for $125,333.33 charging her reputation was damaged when another actress was substituted for her in the lead of 'The Garden of Allah,' now being made. Marlene Dietrich was substituted, but not named in the action. Miss Oberon said Selznick agreed to pay her $6,000 a week for 10 weeks and $1,000 a day thenceforth if the picture was not completed in 10 weeks. She charged that when she reported, the studio informed her another had been given the role."

The April 22, 1936 edition of Variety gives more details: "Asking damages of $125,333.33, Merle Oberon has filed suit in Superior court against Selznick international Pictures, Inc., charging breach of contract. Actress bases suit on her replacement as the lead in company's 'Garden of Allah' by Marlene Dietrich, after makeup tests, wardrobe fittings and publicity interviews. Complaint asserts that actress was signed by Selznick to do picture from story based on life of Florence Nightengale, alternate story to be selected by producer. With 'Nightingale' under production at Warners, 'Garden of Allah' was chosen as alternate film, suit charges, with Miss Oberon agreeing to postponement of start until April 1. Meanwhile producer was paying her $2,000 weekly during March, to cover the delay. On April 1, actress charges, she was informed she was to be starred in 'Dark Victory.' Miss Oberon alleges she was damaged to extent of $86,000, plus $50,000 general damages. Of total amount asked $10,666.67 has been paid, according to complaint."

The case dragged on for years. Merle Oberon finally dismissed it on March 11, 1940.

Much of the action in The Garden of Allah was filmed among the sand dunes near Yuma, Arizona, where regularly the thermometer registered 120 degrees in the shade, 140 to 148 in the sun. For eight weeks a sweating (and perhaps swearing) location crew struggled with heavy equipment, shifted reflectors, hauled on ropes and pulleys, heaved at laden trucks, plowing through the sand, and performed inhuman labors in connection with the outdoor sequences.

Not only the technical workers, cameramen, electricians and others, but also the film's stars were subjected to a grueling ordeal, working under a sun that would put the Sahara sun in the shade. Marlene Dietrich twice succumbed to heat prostration. Similar casualties among the hardy workmen were of daily occurrence. Even a camel that had accompanied the cast and crew to Yuma fainted from sunstroke in the desert.

The heat caused real problems for the make-up crew. The glue holding Boyer's toupee in place melted, causing it to slide down his face. In a non-heat-related incident during on-location filming, Marlene Dietrich injured her foot.

While exploring the bazaar Count Anteoni and Domini encounter the sand diviner.

Count Anteoni translates what the sand diviner says.

The press book tells us that the principal members of the cast had accommodations in Yuma. For housing most of The Garden of Allah company, a tent city sprang into being in the desert. The tent city was completely equipped for community life—with commissary, barber shops, showers, swimming pools, laboratories, dressing rooms, recreation halls, cooling equipment, etc. It was necessary also to construct elaborate sets representing Algerian villages, and oases dotted with date palms, necessitating a literal irrigation of that portion of the Arizona desert.

Months of advance preparation were necessary before the troupe could move into location. Location scouts were first sent to scout the desert areas of the West long before the scenario was completed. The first move under construction superintendent, Harold Fenton, was the erection of a small city of more than 50 tent-cabins as living quarters for the troupe of 200, who were to live there for several weeks. This was followed by the organization of community utilities and comforts. Tents were equipped with hot and cold water, electricity, modern plumbing, showers and conventional furnishings. A recreational hall was built and equipped for various games and diversions. Arrangements were made for a nightly showing of motion pictures and the newest projection equipment installed.

Transportation problems were varied. The location crew had to arrange to handle not only the enormous quantities of supplies and equipment but to move people promptly to and from location. This required a fleet of 34 sedans, trucks, busses and, for special desert work, a caterpillar tractor. Every day an impressive caravan moved from the camp into the desert with lighting equipment, properties, costumes, medical supplies, accessories of all sorts, quantities of building materials, platforms cameras, film and numberless appurtenances of picture making.

Vast quantities of materials were used in constructing the five largest desert settings. Heading the items needed for construction were 125,000 feet of lumber. Other materials were 3500 adobe bricks, 250 sacks of plaster, 60 kegs of nails, 1500 yards of burlap, 200 sheets of Celotex, 25 palm trees and other bulky articles. For one location, nearly a mile off the highway, it was necessary to construct over the sand a plank road which required an additional 95,000 feet of lumber and 45 kegs of spikes.

Boris and Domini first realize they are in love at a beautiful oasis with a pool. This setting was erected among the rolling dunes in the open desert. The water for the pool was transported six miles in tank trucks from the pumping station of an irrigation canal.

An entirely different character of location and construction was required for the setting of Sidi-Zerzour, a large oasis where the young lovers first met Count Anteoni. The location was found ten and one-half miles off the main highway between Bard's and Laguna Dam, near the Arizona-California line. The roads leading in were rutty and full of holes. It was very difficult to reach with the heavy equipment.

Because the location is on the edge of the desert at the very limit of the reach of irrigation waters, it was necessary to re-landscape about three acres, changing the bed of the irrigation canal so that it became a rivulet flowing into a small lagoon. The main building on the oasis was a house with a flagged patio. Simple enough as a construction project, it became a serious undertaking on account of difficult haulage of materials. Beyond the set, a line of dressing rooms, make-up tents and wardrobes was erected. The building required the services of 40 men for a period of three weeks in advance of the company's arrival.

The most spectacular setting of any of the desert locations was an entire section of an Algerian city. It was situated in Buttercup Valley, near Gray's Wells, California, a saucer-like formation entirely surrounded by mountains of sand. This was the locale that was reached by the plank road, built of 2 by 4 surface timbers laid on a foundation of 4 by 6 pieces.

In the lower stretch of the valley, corrals were built for horses, camels, donkeys, dogs, goats, sheep, rabbits and chickens with bunk houses for the tenders. Back of the set were built tents and shacks. These consisted of dressing rooms, a school house for the children who worked in The Garden of Allah, a large wardrobe tent, make-up tent, storeroom for props and a cabin for camera equipment. The set itself was a square that opened from the narrow streets of Beni-Mora, lined with gray-balconied houses. In the square were grouped bazaars in colorful variety.

The magnificent shots of the sandstorm following Domini and Boris's wedding was a real sandstorm. The director was prepared to create one with wind machines, but nature stepped in and created a real storm. Director Boleslawski said, "It was glorious. ... We ruined two cameras and were all blinded, but we secured magnificent shots!" (Silver Screen, September 1936)

Count Anteoni observes the wedding ceremony of Domini and Boris.

Count Anteoni wishes Domini and Boris well as they set out on their honeymoon.

The Garden of Allah was filmed from April 15 to July 3, 1936. Budgeted at  $1.6 million, the film ended up costing about $2 million.  Time magazine (November 30, 1936) reported that the cost was $2,200,000.

One reason that the film went over budget was that it was made using the new, expensive three-strip Technicolor process. The Garden of Allah is one of the earliest films made using this process. W. Howard Greene and Harold Rosson won Academy Awards for their exquisite color photography, while composer Max Steiner and assistant director Eric Stacey received Academy Award nominations.

The film was released in New York City on October 15, 1936. General release in the USA was a month later, November 19, 1936.

Early reports were that the film was a box office success, but it ended up losing about $370,000.

The actors who were not speaking English babbled gibberish, trying to make it sound like Arabic. It didn't.

Although Basil Rathbone had worked with Richard Boleslawski on Broadway (Boleslawski directed Rathbone's own play Judas in 1929), The Garden of Allah was the only film Rathbone did with the director. Tragically, it was the 47-year-old director's final film; he died of a heart attack on January 17, 1937.  The Film Daily (Jan. 19, 1937) reported that Basil Rathbone was one of the pallbearers at the funeral of Richard Boleslawski. 

Basil had previously appeared in three films produced by David O. Selznick:

• David Copperfield (1935)
• Anna Karenina (1935)
• Tale of Two Cities (1935)

Two silent film versions of The Garden of Allah have also been made: in 1916 and in 1927.

Film clip: Count Anteoni makes his grand entrance.

See Page Two for more reviews and photos from the film. See Page Three for pictures of posters, lobby cards and promo photos.

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Images on this page and page two are from the film "The Garden of Allah," copyright Selznick International Pictures.

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All original content is © Marcia Jessen, 2021