One of the BFI's 360 Classics selection, regarded by many as De Mille's finest, and it's not hard to see why. By turns light and elegant, dark and suspenseful, then gripping and dynamic, it's a well made film, with inventive lighting. Just a pity the smooth dastardly villain trying to take advantage of a frivolously extravagant married woman has to be Japanese (converted to Burmese in intertitles a few years later)
yes, it is essentially a racist film, but ironically enough, Hayakawa's character in this is also just about the most fully developed East Asian character in Hollywood history. he is at times charming, at others menacing. i'd rather have characters like this than caricatures.
