Preceded by Gaumont newsreels of 1933. Danah the Half-Caste (Danah la m?isse). Gremillon was one of the great French directors of the thirties and forties and his early films, as we saw last winter with the 1929 Les Guardians du phare (Lighthouse Keepers), have strong elements of romantic fatalism that look forward to the poetic style of the thirties. If Guardians was a powerful impressionist work, Danah the Half-Caste is inspired by the expressionists in its rich and forceful imagery. Its exotic tone wasconsidered perverse by its producers who cut the film from seventy to forty-eight minutes. Gremillon disavowed that version which, alas, is all that survives today. But the cuts add intrigue to a romantic and erotic mystery that takes place on a ship over a forty-eight hour period, in which a young half-caste disappears following an encounter with a sailor. With truly memorable performances and atmosphere, Danah the Half-Caste is one of the great discoveries in this series-a gem!