Sternberg more than lives up to his reputation stylistically, but I love how that's never enough. He almost always has other awesome stuff going on too, in this case a really poignant story with a shockingly optimistic ending. It makes me wonder how fantastic the studio system would've been without the Hayes Code. Anyhow this is a beautiful movie.
The first half is friggin adorable but it rushes through the second to an unsatisfying conclusion. It's probably not Mankiewicz's fault but that won't stop me from blaming Hollywood's greatest mediocrity.
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