Les chemins de la terreur

Alphons Fryland is the son of an industrialist. He is supposed to marry the daughter of another factory owner, when he encounters Lucy Doraine, working at his fiancee's home as a maid. She is forced to quit, and eventually goes to Fryland's factory as his secretary. Her brother, Jean Ducret, steals her keys and robs the factory's safe. She is fired, but to avoid scandal, is let go. Hard luck follows her, and she becomes a debauchee.

It's 6,000 feet of hard luck for Miss Doraine, which Michael Curtiz's movie insists is a matter of fate. At times I found the piling up of bad breaks to be wearisome, and then Curtiz and his director of photography, Gustav Ucicky, would offer an interesting shot: Miss Doraine lying in a hospital bed, hallucinating of drowning in a shower of flowers, or a stuntman climbing a tall factory smokestack. There were also some great crowd scenes; by this stage in his career, Curtiz had the ability to direct scenes of mass chaos. It's a talent he would use many times in the coming years.