The Garden of Allah (1927 film)

The Garden of Allah is a 1927 American silent romantic drama film directed by Rex Ingram, his final film for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film stars Ingram’s wife, actress Alice Terry and Iván Petrovich. Due to the public's apathy towards silent films, a sound version was prepared and released in 1928. While the sound version has no audible dialog, it features a synchronized musical score with sound effects. The film was released in both sound-on-disc and sound-on-film formats.

The Garden of Allah
Film poster
Directed byRex Ingram
Written byWillis Goldbeck (scenario)
Martin Brown (titles)
Based onThe Garden of Allah
by Robert S. Hichens
Produced byRex Ingram
StarringAlice Terry
Iván Petrovich
Marcel Vibert
CinematographyMonroe Bennett
Lee Garmes
Marcel Lucien
Edited byArthur Ellis
Music byWilliam Axt
Edward Bowes
David Mendoza
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • September 2, 1927 (1927-09-02)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguagesSilent Version
Sound (Synchronized)
English intertitles
Box office$634,450 (USA Gross Total)

This film was the second version of the Robert Hichens 1904 British novel of the same name, which had been filmed by the Selig Polyscope Company in 1916 with Helen Ware and would be filmed again in 1936 with Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer.[1]

An incomplete print of The Garden of Allah still exists and is preserved at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists film archive.[2]

Plot

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Father Adrien (Iván Petrovich), a monk at the Trappist monastery of Notre Dame d'Afrique in Algeria, abandons his vows and escapes to the desert, where he meets and rescues Domini (Alice Terry).

Cast

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Music

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The sound version featured a theme song entitled “Only God and I Know What Is In My Heart” which was composed by William Axt, David Mendoza and Edward Bowes.

Production

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The film was shot at a studio in Nice, France, and the desert exteriors were filmed in Biskra, Algeria and Morocco.[3]

References

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  1. ^ Teo, Hsu-Ming Teo (2012). Desert Passions: Orientalism and Romance Novels. University of Texas Press. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-292-73940-6.
  2. ^ "Garden of Allah (1927)". silentera.com. Retrieved April 28, 2018.
  3. ^ American Film Institute (1997). Munden White, Kenneth (ed.). The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States, Part 1. University of California Press. p. 281. ISBN 0-520-20969-9.
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