Mandalay

d then to a potential redemption (all within 65 minutes). Her performance covers off the emotions of all of these roles well, through her expressive eyes conveying hope, despair, confidence and murderous intent as needed. It is a superb jewel of acting on display and the centrepiece of the film. Good support is provided by Lyle Talbot as an alcoholic doctor, the Swedish Warner Oland as a kind of Chinese gangster / classless brothel manager and Ricardo Cortez as a resourceful but uncaring man. Michael Curtiz, of Casablanca fame and innumerable other great films, is perhaps slumming a little here, but the camera work is very confident. An early shot follows a motor boat from the port across the bay then sweeps away from the boat to glide smoothly towards a moored yacht and eventually to introduce a character on the railing. It is really superbly done and adds class to the story. The settings are all convincing and the crew somehow manage to convey a feeling of a south-east Asian port, paddle steamers on jungle infested rivers and a diverse populous without presumably ever having left Los Angeles. This is a small triumph of 1930s filmmaking.