Disowned by its director, this fourth of his American pairings with
Dietrich may not match the sublime achievements of The Scarlet Empress
or The Devil Is A Woman. But it's still an extraordinary movie, making
subversive play with Dietrich's androgynous screen persona. The
story, which deals with her character's rejection by her husband when
she begins an affair to pay his medical bills, culminates in one of
Sternberg's most bitterly ironic 'happy endings'. The film's basic
concern, however, is that quintessentially modern theme, sexual
desire, with primitive emotion seen as central to human experience.
And Sternberg's visual imagination remains stunning.
