The Salvation Hunters

It's hard now to appreciate the bomb-shell that Sternberg's first feature must have been in Hollywood at the time: its slow pace, its lyrical pessimism, and its strong emphasis on the psychological over the physical set it far apart from anything that the American cinema had produced. The angry-young-man plot (apathetic, cowardly boy loses girl to city slicker, who presses her into brothel service) verges on allegory, despite the wish-fulfilment ending, and looks more pretentious than committed at this remove. Yet there are lots of pointers towards Sternberg's future glories, and the sheer nagging intensity of mood is still extremely potent.