This film was loosely based on Dante's original work. Harry Lachman directed this black and white picture in 1937, and actor Spencer Tracey stars in it. It is about a man named Jim Carter who has recently taken over a fairground show that illustrated scenes from Dante's Inferno. After bribing an inspector to pass the ride despite dangerous malfunctions, a fatal accident occurs on the ride. Carter is haunted by a scene of hell. This 10 minute sequence is the highlight of the movie, and the most relevant to our course. It depicts the boatman, the marching souls of the ante chamber, as well a what appears to be a vague writhing pit of souls. The most moving scene for me personally was that of the souls in individual pits that were smoking. I can only assume these are the blasphemous, and they are the most clear figures of the 10 minute scene. Lachman's choice to have the tombs closing on the souls entrapped in them was an interesting choice. In the original work the lids were not to be closed until the Last Judgement occurred, but it made a powerful scene to see the souls trying to hold the lids of their tombs open. The suicides were also visually intense. The people were fused together to create huge trees, but you could still see the individual souls writhing in agony. The significant differences I think were the scenes of souls enchained to the ground, and the souls pushing/falling off of cliffs. Lachman is a also a post-impressionist artist, and this shines through in his film. If anything the Inferno scene is worth watching, but the entire movie was an interesting use of the work for a (semi) modern interpretation.
The entire film is on youtube at this link
Dante's Inferno film (1935)
The Scene of his interpretation of Inferno is at this link
10 minute Scene of Hell
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