“Just as Von Sternberg's controlled, lapidary tableaux are as full-flowered engaged as they ever would be in Morocco, so as well is his soundtrack a revelation of poetic choices. Here sounds are strokes, instilled with the same masterly precision as the seething imagery. Whether it be the drum rolls of an approaching platoon or the pitiless winds of the desert (conveying an aural climax of both desolation and x-rated sexual frenzy), the conscious force of the layered soundtrack, remarkable for its period, (as is its restrained use of dialogue--ed.), partakes of, and is as impressive as, the artist's creation of a unique universe. Music is not mere mickey-mousing in this work but a forwarding of the psychological momentum of the plot reflected by its protagonists. Fog horns, the tintinnabulation of the camp-followers' tambourines, the sleazy sprawl of the nightclub's nocturnal underworld all contribute, amidst dozens of other sonic explosions, to the exotic consistency of the painterly visuals. Nothing that went into this work is by chance, but is of the same fanatical givens that come from the soul of a great filmmaker. Sound here is no longer buffeting or grappling with the visuals, but is a partner conveying a cinematic state of mind.” Warren Sonbert