Siren of Atlantis
| Siren of Atlantis | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Gregg G. Tallas |
| Produced by | Seymour Nebenzal |
| Written by |
Rowland Leigh Robert Lax Thomas Job |
| Based on | novel Atlantida by Pierre Benoit |
| Starring |
Maria Montez Jean-Pierre Aumont Dennis O'Keefe |
| Music by | Michel Michelet |
| Cinematography | Karl Struss |
| Edited by | Gregg Tallas |
|
Production
company |
Atlantis Productions
|
| Distributed by | United Artists |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
76 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,800,000 (est.) |
| Box office | $335,000 (as at 1950) |
Siren of Altantis is a 1949 American adventure film starring Maria Montez and her husband Jean Pierre Aumont. It was the first movie she made after leaving Universal Pictures.
It was also known as Atlantis the Lost Continent.
Andre St Avit of the French Foreign Legion is discovered unconscious in the African desert. He claims he stumbled upon the lost kingdom of Atlantis, ruled by the beautiful Queen Antinea, who drove him to commit murder.
The movie was based on the novel Atlantida by Pierre Benoit which had been previously filmed in 1921 and 1932. The latter version had been directed by G.W. Pabst and produced by Seymour Nebenzal in Berlin with German and French dialogue.
In September 1946 it was announced Nebenzal bought the rights to film the novel and had signed Maria Montez to star. The movie would be distributed through United Artists.
Jay Dratler was originally signed to write the script. A number of other writers also worked on it, including an uncredited Douglas Sirk. Sirk says he was approached to direct the movie by Rudi Joseph, who had been Pabst's assistant. Sirk turned it down claiming the Pabst version was a very good film that simply should have been re-released. He was also worried the producer:
Didn't have the money to do the necessary fantastic sets. You know, Atlantis depends on inspiring people's fantasies. The old Pabst picture had great sets, but you do need money to construct a hidden city and that kind of thing. It's no good trying to shoot this sort of film on a small budget, as Nebenzal wanted - and then he wanted me to use some of the long-shot material from the old Pabst and so on.
Sirk did agree to do some uncredited work on the script with Rowland Leigh but said he was "fairly sure I didn't do any shooting" on the film.
It proved difficult to come up with a screenplay that satisfied the censors. In the novel, the queen had an insatiable appetite for male lovers and turns them into statues when she has finished with them. The Joseph Breen office wrote to Nebenzal complaining about the depiction of "hasheesh and illicit sex". Adjustments to the script were made.
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Wikipedia