Junky fun from Joseph von Sternberg who showed his ability to make female stars look stunning wasn’t limited to Marlene Dietrich: Gene Tierney was never more sexy, particularly when she goes off the rails and looks stressed and trashed. It’s not much of a story - Tierney visits an opium den for fun, gets hooked on gambling and ruins her life. She eventually finds out she's of mixed race which is I guess why she has to die.
For some reason Walter Huston is cast as a British diplomatic - he's good as always, but I wonder why they couldn't get one of the million or so British character stars hanging around Hollywood at the time.
Tierney is stunning, Victor Mature is effective as basically a treacherous gigolo (a role which suits his self-love looks and which he should have played more; however his role is surprisingly small) and Ona Munson strong as Madame Gin Sling. You wish it had been made pre-Code, and the part of the American show girl (Phyllis Brooks) feels tacked on, but there is enough decadence and exotic atmosphere to pass the time.
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