Spelunk and Boom

The fact of G.W. Pabst’s post-war decline is widely accepted, and the most popular heretical departure from that storyline is that he was never that good at all. I think he continued to make good films — DER LETZTE AKT is a damn good film, if exhausting (you feel like you’ve spent ten days with Hitler in a bunker by the end) — but they were perhaps less frequent.

GEHEIMNISVOLLE TIEFE (MYSTERIOUS DEPTHS) from 1949 isn’t a strong story — as melodramas go, it’s strangely uninvolving — the people never seem real, nor do they seem like compelling archetypes, though I’ve seen the same stick figures animated with more conviction elsewhere. It seems unfair to blame Ilse Werner from MUNCHAUSEN or Paul Hubschmid from THE INDIAN TOMB, but neither can imbue the outlines of their characters with realistic warmth or vivacity.

He’s deeply into speleology, wants to discover “ice age man,” he neglects her and she takes off with a despotic millionaire who rejoices in the name of Rob Roy. There’s an exciting cave-in climax that brings the lovers back together, while simultaneously doing its best to kill them.

Pabst tries to compensate for a certain lack of conviction by stuffing the film with set-pieces and revisiting old tropes that worked for him last time. A cod-Freudian dream sequence recalls SECRETS OF A SOUL and the subterranean suspense echoes KAMERADSCHAFT, but in case that isn’t enough (and, pleasing as those elements are, how could it be?) Pabst serves up lavish party scenes complete with (diegetic) musical numbers.

Which is slightly desperate — one suspects that Pabst suspects that his central storyline isn’t that compelling.

I guess the millionaire is called Rob Roy — OK, he’s called Robert Roy — perhaps he’s related to the tribe from Succession — because Rob Roy the highland rogue hid out in a cave, though Robert the Bruce is more famous for doing so — and the “if at first you don’t succeed” motto that comes from the Bruce’s observation of a spider might serve as the Important Lesson learned by our protagonists here.

The cave scenes are impressive, especially considering Pabst was getting on in years.

As drama, it’s not exactly compelling, not all the time, but there are moments that remind one that Pabst was a great filmmaker. If the film were visible in a better print, it might stand more of a chance.