The Marlene Dietrich we all know was not created out of whole cloth by Josef von Sternberg; he simply refined the superlative raw material that was already there. And this film proves the point. As soon as Dietrich appears in this late silent melodrama the film belongs to her and stays that way despite excellent performances from strong actors such as Uno Hemming and Fritz Kortner. The story is about the heir to an ironworks fortune (Hemming, who looks like a cross between a young Laurence Olivier and Mel Ferrer), who, on the way to his honeymoon with a woman he doesn't love, locks eyes with Dietrich who is in a similar predicament (with Kortner). From that point the film is occupied with the ensuing love triangle.
The principals all end up at a mountain ski resort where events build to a climax during a New Year's Eve celebration, complete with streamers, balloons, masked revelers and confetti strangely reminiscent of key scenes in two later Dietrich-von Sternberg films, "Dishonored" and "The Devil Is a Woman," making one wonder if von Sternberg saw this film, liked the party scene and strove to improve upon it.
Dietrich is indeed on the plump side (as she was in "The Blue Angel"), but aside from such superficialities as extra pounds, fuller face and frizzy hair there is no significant difference between her effect here and in later Hollywood films. The allure is the same. It must be said that director Curtis Bernhardt makes a point of lingering over her shapely legs in a way that von Sternberg might have considered vulgar.
