“Before returning to America, and after her two great films with Pabst, Louise Brooks starred in this curious film, which began with an idea by Pabst which René Clair was to have realized as director. Although both Clair and Pabst are rumored to have directed parts of the finished film, the only director credited is the Italian veteran Augusto Genina (Cyrano de Bergerac). Shot as a silent, the film was well photographed by Rudolph Mate, who had just shot Dreyer's Joan of Arc. When sound proved here to stay, the producers reshot some scenes with mouth movements, and dubbed in the sparse dialogue. The story concerns a poor beauty prize winner who suddenly finds herself in the public limelight. For the most part, Louise Brooks triumphs over a weak story and direction, but the final denouement to what seems a fairly light story is both shocking and ironically brilliant.”--Treasures from the Eastman House, PFA Publication.
“Clair later recalled, ‘They cut everything I wrote, except the last scene'.... Today it is the visually breathtaking ending - stunning for its bravura technique (asynchronous image and sound, deep focus, and film-within-a-film), its ironic comment upon the interplay of art and life, and the glowing presence of Louise Brooks - that is especially memorable....”--Catherine Ann Surowiec, Museum of Modern Art