Bestia

Pola Negri is a small-town girl with great ambition and few morals. She steals money from her lover to go to the city, where she hopes to become a star dancer. But there are predators in the big city far more dangerous than she.

I suppose one could call this "boldly" acted, but really, it seems histrionic, to choose a ten-dollar word to ease the sting. Miss Negri is lovely, and the dance numbers are well performed, but the acting is overdone. Perhaps this is because this is a Polish film. I suspect those were largely produced for the local market, where this sort of performance was preferred. Likely the shortage of films in the war period, as well as Miss Negri's youthful vivacity made it a hit.

Hertz' compositions suggest to me that he was strongly influenced by the pre-Academician Russian cinema. That is hardly surprising.