So, where does this picture come from? :)

[Le Noir Faineant]

Hi all,

Today, I am looking for silent movies about Africa.

The background is this picture, from the Tarzan comic strip, of the year 1934, I think:




A very similar drawing, we find in Flash Gordon, and, many years later,
on the cover of the AD&D Player's handbook by TSR.


Now, I think I know that the inspiration for that picture from a silent movie. Some adventure flick, probably German.

Does this one ring a bell for anyone of you?

Thanks a lot,

Rafe

[Brooksie]

I can't identify the film, but I suspect that whoever produced Flash Gordon was conversant with silent film. I recall seeing one episode that was an obvious rip off of Metropolis. Someone was manipulating a large clock-like machine just like the ones in the Metropolis factory sequences.

[Christopher Jacobs]

The statue and flames are strongly reminiscent of the Italian silent CABIRIA, which is set largely in the North African city of Carthage.

[Spiny Norman]

The statue and flames are strongly reminiscent of the Italian silent CABIRIA, which is set largely in the North African city of Carthage.

That's what I thought too. (It's of course possible that Cabiria in turn got its inspiration from a 19th century painting or something like that...)

[Penfold]

It does seem like the Moloch of the Cabiria posters,

but then the posters look nothing like the Moloch in the film......

The architecture reminded me as much of the temple in George Arliss' silent Green Goddess......