A silly movie of a silly play from back in the day when sin was decadent and sweet, and just talking about it (or almost talking about it, as in this bowdlerized Hollywood version) was exciting. Unlike in "Shanghai Express," von Sternberg's exotic atmosphere just doesn't click, although Dietrich's Svengali can still make Gene Tierney astonishingly beautiful. Then again, so could anybody, even Henry Hathaway. (Note: should be viewed by all those who wish to see Victor Mature in a fez.)

kind of an unrealistic ending, no one shoots their daughter

If Sternberg wasn't the director behind this, I'd be almost sure this was made exclusively for camp value. I don't know the history behind this but I'm really hoping this is the product of studio tampering, cause the editing, and the acting, wow. Crap.

A very strange noir. One might be tempted to call it "bad". The screenplay is campy and feels butchered and the acting is often spotty. Most importantly, the editing is entirely off. The pacing of this movie seems completely amateur, and makes the performances feel even worse. And yet, it lends the film a dreamlike quality that, intentional or not, is weird and compelling. While watching, I kept switching between "this is terrible" and "wait, maybe this is amazing".

A mixed bag. Really over-the-top in terms of acting and music, but a slow-burner plot-wise. The first hour was clunky and plodding with not much driving the story forward, but the final 40 minutes ended up being pretty intense. Notable also for being a film noir with an homme fatale - Victor Mature takes the unusual role as the suave, sardonic Arab who lures poor old Gene Tierney into Ona Munson's spider's web.

#651

Not a good film at all, coming off as camp in a way that could have worked in its favour if it actually was engaging. The use of Caucasian actors as Chinese or Arab characters is really jarring; there are times, such as Touch of Evil, where this sort of thing will not undermine a film greatly, but in this case it comes off as exceptionally bad directing decisions that make it worse.

Josef von Sternberg clearly has an affinity for set design. While not as grand as, say, The Scarlet Empress, it still shows his zeal to the craft. Gene Tierney began cool, collected, suave, until she completely broke down and became a whiny little bitch. Not necessarily a good film to watch for a budding von Sternberger, but a nice film for any Film Noir enthusiast.

790

# 776

A great noir plot full of wonderful images from von Sternberg. Unfortunately the acting is very inconsistent and at times hard to get past, as is the fact that the lead Chinese characters are so obviously not so. IF you can put aside the acting it's pretty good though.

810