Lubitsch's 1918 version of the nineteenth-century story by Prosper Mérimée was released in 1921 in the U.S. under the title Gypsy Blood. Pola Negri stars as the faithless coquette who lures Don Jose (Harry Liedtke) into dishonor and finally brings about her own death. While critic Jay Leyda, in retrospect, considers the film somewhat lacking in Lubitsch's “two greatest virtues as a filmmaker...wit and logic,” in 1918 it was a different story. Herman G. Weinberg writes in The Lubitsch Touch: “With this film, his first world-wide success, Lubitsch takes his place among the internationally recognized names in film. It was the first really outstanding German film and was voted the best German film of 1918.” Scriptwriter Hans Kraely (Hans Kraly) emigrated along with Lubitsch to Hollywood, where he continued to make substantial contributions to the director's work.