The Squall (1929) User Reviews

Worth it for the unintended humor alone

[AlsExGal · 5/10 · 1 January 2013]

This is a tale of a prosperous Hungarian farming family that takes in a gypsy girl (Myrna Loy as Nubi) who says she has run away from her tribe and will be beaten by her gypsy husband if reclaimed. They hide her, take her into their home as a servant, and come to regret that decision.

Although directed by the renowned Alexander Korda, he did a poor job here, possibly not having veto power over the diction coaches in this very early talkie. This is Loretta Young's first talkie and it shows. She is very good at conveying emotion, but she probably is the most wooden member of the cast in speaking her lines. In her next surviving talkie, "Loose Ankles", she has improved tremendously. ZaSu Pitts is endearing, what little we get to see of her. As dizzy and well-meaning as ever as servant girl Lena, she is captivating even under all of those peasant petticoats.

After watching Nubi laze around the house not doing her work, seducing all the men of the house to the point she has the servant man singing a ballad to a bovine, and enticing the son in the house, Paul, to steal Lena's life savings to buy her an expensive necklace you've got to wonder - Why didn't they just throw the dame out? The parents had to have figured that Paul's allowance disappearing and Nubi practically slumping from all of that fancy jewelry she was suddenly wearing had to have some correlation.

I have seen some early talkies that are poorly paced, but this one should hold your interest, if only from the standpoint of watching the clean-up of a multi-vehicle accident from which you cannot turn away. There is one interesting rather precode line spoken by the father to the mother when talking about Nubi carrying on with Paul. The mother believes Paul has stopped paying attention to his fiancée because he is in love with Nubi. Dad is more insightful - "Paul is not interested in love, he's interested in sex!"

Recommended, if only to see how Loretta Young and Myrna Loy started out in talking pictures.

A below average but yet interesting film.

[JohnKyle · 5/10 · 8 January 2000]

This movie has many things going against it. Among these are staginess, heavy-handed acting, a hackneyed "femme fatale" plot, and a stereotyped view of gypsies. And the story itself raises some questions. Would a family really keep a servant girl whose main duties seem to be turning off the lights at night, staying in her room, and seducing every male in sight? Did jewelry stores really stay open past midnight especially in early 20th century Hungary?

Yet from a cinematic history point of view, it is an interesting movie. It was one of the first starring features for then 23 year-old Myrna Loy who plays the gypsy girl and then 16 year-old Loretta Young who plays the neglected fiancee. It was also one of the first American efforts by director Alexander Korda, who would go on to later fame as a director and producer, and one of the twilight performances of silent screen star Alice Joyce.

The bottom line is: If you enjoy film history this might be worth watching, but if a good story and good acting are main concerns then take a pass on this one.

An unintentional camp classic

[blanche-2 · 4/10 · 2 May 2008]

Some of the early talkies survived to become classics. 1929's "The Squall" is a classic all right, but not in the way it was intended. Melodramatic in story and acting, today it seems ludicrous, particularly the casting of Myrna Loy as Nubi, a seductive gypsy. Imagine Nora Charles breaking up a young couple and driving a young man to steal. Outrageous! However, as many people know, when Loy first came to Hollywood, she did quite a few of these exotic seductress roles.

Based on a play, "The Squall" concerns the aforementioned Gypsy who in the film is now in Hungary (Spain in the play) running away from her cruel master and inviting herself into the home of the Lajos family (Richard Tucker and Alice Joyce), basically by appearing at the door. One by one, Nubi seduces the men of the family and the farm talking her pidgin English ("Nubi not bad! Nubi do nothing wrong!") and dropping hints about nice presents. The son in the family, Paul (Carroll Nye) is engaged to the beautiful Irma (Loretta Young) and can't wait to marry her. He loses interest when he meets Nubi.

With the exception of the lovely Alice Joyce, Zasu Pitts as a woman who lives in the household and the stunningly beautiful Loretta Young, the acting is uniformly awful. Loy is stuck with the hallmarks of her character - bad English, whining and hysteria. With her darkened makeup, peasant getup and curly hair, she is not only beautiful but right out of the 1980s - quite modern, though Richard Tucker's putting the back of his hand on his forehead reminds us we're just emerging from the silents.

Robert Osborne on TCM commented that this film is one of his secret pleasures. While it is deliciously bad, it's not deliciously bad enough to sit through again. It's just bad - but a great example of how far we've come and, had someone not picked up on Myrna Loy's sense of humor, how limited her wonderful career might have been.

Watch Nubi the gypsy girl seduce every guy within a ten-mile radius

[wmorrow59 · 3/10 · 21 November 2006]

No one is going to mistake The Squall for a good movie, but it sure is a memorable one. Once you've witnessed Myrna Loy's performance as Nubi the hot-blooded gypsy girl you're not likely to forget the experience. When this film was made the exotically beautiful Miss Loy was still being cast as foreign vixens, often Asian and usually sinister. She's certainly an eyeful here. It appears that her skin was darkened and her hair was curled. In most scenes she's barefoot and wearing little more than a skirt and a loose-fitting peasant blouse, while in one scene she wears nothing but a patterned towel. I'm focusing on Miss Loy's appearance because she is by far the best if not the only reason to tune in to this antiquated early talkie and to stick with it. You sure won't be held by the dialog, which is hopeless. In one typical passage, Nubi gazes out the window at the departing caravan and waxes poetic: "Always the gypsies, they sing. Weird and sad. When the big sun have breath of fire that burn, and when the pale moon look from behind cloud and breathe air cold as death, they sing." Poetic, or what? Lovers of purple prose will have a field day. I can't help but wonder, however, if in her later years Miss Loy preferred to forget her involvement with this project.

Like so many early talkies this one was an adaptation of a Broadway success. The stage version opened at the 48th Street Theatre in November of 1926 and ran for over a year. The play provoked a famous episode involving the humorist and theater critic Robert Benchley, who had a well-known aversion to characters who spoke in thick dialect or pidgin English. According to a much-repeated anecdote Mr. Benchley squirmed uncomfortably through the opening portion of this show. The Spanish village setting (which became a village in Hungary for the movie, for some reason) gave the actors license to practice accents with varying degrees of success, but Benchley's patience reached its limit when, during a family dinner sequence, a door burst open and an actress dressed as a gypsy girl dashed into the room shouting "Help! Help! He keel me!" She then threw herself at the feet of the mistress of the household and exclaimed "Me Nubi! Me good girl! Me stay here!" At that point Mr. Benchley rose and announced to his companion: "Me Bobby. Me bad boy. Me go now," and left the theater.

The film version offers numerous examples of unintended humor but never approaches Benchley's level of wit. The melodramatic plot concerns the Lajos family: father Josef, mother Maria, and son Paul, a student at the nearby college. We would consider this prosperous family "upper-middle class" as they are landowners with servants and all the comforts of life, but their comfortable existence is abruptly thrown into turmoil when a gypsy caravan arrives in the village and their home is invaded by, yes, Nubi the nubile gypsy girl. She arrives at their door during the storm of the title-- symbolizing stormy emotions, I daresay. The girl is fleeing an abusive relationship and begs for sanctuary. After considering the matter the Lajos family agrees to hide her from her angry lover, who shows up shortly afterward but is turned away. Nubi becomes a servant in the household. Kindness motivated the family's decision to take her in, but soon enough that conniving little Nubi pays them back by seducing every able-bodied male in the vicinity, starting with the Lajos' servant Peter, then working her way up to son Paul. Nubi breaks up Paul's relationship with his fiancé Irma (played by Loretta Young, still a teenager), causes him to flunk out of school, and then prompts him to buy jewelry for her by stealing the savings of the family's maid Lena (ZaSu Pitts). Lena, for her part, is still mourning the loss of her own fiancé Peter, seduced and tossed aside by Nubi when she turned her attentions to Paul. Ultimately Nubi sets her sights on the patriarch Josef, and I suppose if the running time had been longer she also would've gone after Uncle Dani, Maria, the village priest and God knows who else.

I guess it goes without saying that a scenario like this one easily lends itself to parody, but even so during its first half The Squall exerts the undeniable fascination of a daytime soap: we watch, hypnotized, as the Bad Girl works her spell on the men-folk and wreaks havoc like an irresistible force of nature, almost like-- a storm! Ah-ha, another metaphor! But as the plot machinations grind onward the campy fun fades. During the later scenes we see less of Nubi as the focus switches to the dysfunctional dynamics of the Lajos family, and frankly after a while these people get to be a real drag. The son in particular behaves like an absolute heel, yet the parents never acknowledge this or face up to their own shortcomings; everything, we're told, is the fault of Nubi, that no-good tramp.

The men of the cast are dull. Aside from Miss Loy the only actress who rises to the occasion is ZaSu Pitts, terrific as usual. The mother of the Lajos household is played by Alice Joyce, a longtime silent star who seemed out of her element with speaking roles, and who retired soon after this. Loretta Young's fresh prettiness provides a nice contrast to Nubi's dusky allure, but her line readings are so awkward it's kind of endearing. No, there's only one reason to watch this flick, and that's Nubi herself. I can't think of another actress who could've played this silly role and managed to come off half as well. I'm not an objective observer, however. I have a desperate crush on Myrna Loy and will watch her in anything, even The Squall.

surprisingly entertaining

[bewitchedkf · 13 September 2004]

I must say that I watched this film unexpectedly and was quite surprised by the seductive performance of Myrna Loy. I had not seen her in her earlier works, only the later ones, such as "Love Crazy," "The Thin Man," and their later additions, such as "Another Thin Man." To think that she ended her career as the perfect wife and started it as the temptress or villain is hard to believe. The character Nubi was, well, a stereotyped role, but to my satisfaction, she played it with such conviction and beauty. Altogether i thought the plot was a easy one. Men get mixed up and love crazy for the beautiful temptress while leaving their true loves behind in hysteria. I suggest that people see this film because it is a true classic and worth it to see Myrna in her earlier work. :)

I watched this because of Myrna Loy

[bjelkier · 4/10 · 6 June 2015]

This movie was made in 1929, just a couple years since "talkies" started. And it shows. Myrna Loy was good as the bad gypsy, Nubi. Myrna, a girl from Montana, was typed cast in her early films as exotic women - gypsies, Asian women, women of mystery. I have been a fan of hers since I saw "Manhattan Melodrama" and "The Thin Man". But although this is a cute movie, she could not even save it. The rest of the cast seem not to know how to act natural. It seems they just read their lines. They all are so wooden. Maybe they were still use to not having to express their feelings other than by facial, as most silent films did, they did not know how to do it with words. Loretta Young and Zazu Pitts is also in this and I am glad to say they did improve with later movies. Loretta Young became a fine actress. It is worth the watch just to see a very young Myrna, Loretta and Zasu.

Early "exotic" Loy appearance make bad melodrama watchable

[a_chinn · 5/10 · 4 July 2017]

I only watched this film because it's an early film appearance by Myrna Loy, but it's a pretty embarrassing early appearance. Loy made this film before she got big and when she was frequently cast in "exotic" roles. Set in Hungary, Loy plays a gypsy girl who's taken in by a kind family after she's escaped from her abusive master. Loy then proceeds to seduce every man in the household and causes all sorts of upheaval. That story might have been fun if this film were and edgier of pre-code melodrama, but it's stagey and not all that compelling. There's a famous story about Algonquin Roundtable member Robert Benchley walking out on the theatrical play version of which this film is based upon. In the play, when Loy's character bursts into the kind family's household, she states "Me Nubi! Me good girl! Me stay here!" Benchley then supposedly got up and said, "Me Bobby. Me bad boy. Me go now." and left the theater. Still, despite the terrible script and ham-fisted direction, Loy is fun in her man-eater role and makes the film watchable. Loretta Young also appears in the film as part of the kindly family.

Because She's Homeless, She's Homeless

[mmallon4 · 7/10 · 13 July 2020]

As Hollywood was making its transition from silent pictures to talkies, 1929 is left as a year full of oddities and curios. The Squall is a 100% talking picture and is one of the more watchable talkies from 1929. While watching The Squall or any other talkie from 1929 one must take into account the movie was presumably filmed with a camera in a soundproof box. It's evident the actors in The Squall have been heavily coached by diction experts and instructed to say their line as clearly and enunciated as possible - a scenario which anyone who has watched Singin' In the Rain will be familiar with. Likewise, none of the actors turn their heads when speaking to avoid going off-mike nor at any point do any of the cast simultaneously walk and talk.

So while none of the performances in The Squall bar one certain screen siren are anything to write home about, the production values are surprisingly very high. The Squall was directed by famed Hungarian-British producer and director Alexander Korda. I can only speculate if the director's heritage is the reason why the film takes place in Hungary whereas the play the film is based on is set in Granada, Spain. The sets and costumes are very detailed in this upper, middle-class Hungarian farm from what I assume is around the turn of the century. Complete with grand windmills, herds of animals, farm equipment and some nice miniature work, the film succeeds in creating an atmosphere. Just as significant in an unusual move for films right up until the early 1930s, is the use of a music score throughout the entire picture, suitably a heightened and melodramatic one to accommodate the sound effects of blustering storms.

However, the real reason to watch The Squall and the film's saving grace is the one and only Myrna Loy in the overacting triumph of her long and varied career as the scruffy, barefooted gypsy girl Nubi. The gloriously, melodramatic performance sees this seductress manipulate three men in the same household as she tears the once idyllic Lajos family apart. Particularly pathetic is the son Paul (Carroll Nye), an utter simp who buys jewellery for Nubi from money he stole from his parents. I can watch Myrna Loy in just about anything thus I can easily buy into the destructive charm of Nubi as she over emotes in broken English and always referring to herself in the third person - even in one early scene as Nubi proclaims "no more!", it appears as if Myrna Loy is trying to hold back her laughter. The contrast to the vampish Myrna Loy is the purity and innocence of a wide-eyed Loretta Young as Irma, a mere 16 years old at the time.

It should come as no surprise for a film as melodramatic at The Squall to play big with its use of symbolism and metaphor. The film's opening shot features a Christian cross overlooking the farm and during a dinner the family has near the film's beginning, the grandfather states that squalls are the work of God that he "gives us shadows that we may know light. He gives us sorrow that we may know joy. And perhaps he sends the squall that we may learn the beauty of a limpid sky". Nubi, of whom arrives at the family home during the midst of a storm, takes advantage of the Christian principle of sheltering the poor and homeless only to wreak havoc - an evil spirit if there ever was one.

Fascinating but bad!

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 1 February 2008]

Into a happy household comes the gypsy girl, played by Myrna Loy. With her amazingly wild hair and voice that sounds very high-pitched and weird, it's hard to believe this is Loy!! She bears no similarity whatsoever to the refined and funny character Nora Charles who she played in the Thin Man movies. Instead, she overacts so badly that you'd almost expect her to be in an Ed Wood movie. What a huge difference a few years made in the quality films she got as well as her acting ability!! On top of the horrendously silly character, the film also fails because it just isn't interesting or exciting--just very, very stagy and stupid. The only thing good about it is the Vitaphone sound system--making the sound quality of this turkey about the best I have heard from 1929. Heck, it was even better than most 1930 films, so the sound technician at least has something to be proud of--all others, forget it.

This is a movie that even the host of Turner Classic Movies referred to as a "guilty pleasure" because the movie is so bad! And, after having seen it I disagree...slightly. The movie is simply bad.

A Silent Melodrama with Dialogue

[richardchatten · 7/10 · 12 April 2019]

Naughty Myrna in her days as a big-haired vamp plays a gypsy wildcat with slinky eyes and perfect teeth who puts the Nubi into 'nubile' in this fascinating early talkie melodrama made at the twin crossroads before Alexander Korda's return to Europe and post-Code Myrna's transformation into the Pefect Wife.

Here Myrna wreaks havoc on a hitherto happy household, man by man, to the embellishment of almost continuous Vitaphone musical accompaniment, superb photography by John Seitz and charmingly phoney-looking model work (including the squall of the title, presumably so named to evoke memories of the previous year's silent classic 'The Wind').

Watch it as a relict from 1929

[kmykolajivna · 5/10 · 23 June 2020]

I watched this film mainly because of Myrna Loy and Loretta Young. Although the storyline is rather silly and the acting seems over-emotional and trivial today, the movie still has its very own charm. It might not be a milestone in film history, but it has its funny moments, mostly unintentional, simply from the way it has been made - such as the idea of rural Hungary in the 1920s with open jewel shops in the middle of the night. But it is a true delight to watch Loretta Young and especially Myrna Loy in one of their early films. Myrna totally stole the show from the rest of the cast - even though her lines were as silly as the rest of the dialogue and her part of the gypsy girl is so stereotypical it seems sort of racist today. Still, she made the most out of it and kept me watching through the whole two hours runtime. I even felt kind of sorry that later on in her career she didn't play any sassy villains anymore. Surprisingly well done was the music score, far better than the dialogue. Perhaps they had better made it a silent picture. So if you watch this movie as one of the first talkies and don't focus on the storyline too much, you might still enjoy this old 'treasure'.

It's a scream!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 29 July 2015]

This hilarious old musical melodrama is now available on an excellent Warner Archive DVD. Admittedly, the movie takes its time to really get going. During the first half-hour, I was sorely tempted to turn it off and throw it away, but it's such a good print and Myrna Loy is such a riot in the lead role as Nubi, that I decided to stay with it. Incidentally, what's Loy doing way down the cast list at IMDb? She's billed third on the Warner DVD. Alice Joyce is first, Loretta Young second. Oddly, Zasu Pitts, who has a lead role, is not billed on the disc at all! Zasu is usually funny as hell, but here she's way outclassed by Miss Loy who has a grand time vamping around the set and sending up the really ridiculous dialogue supplied by Bradley King. Admittedly, Loy has some excellent stooges in Richard Tucker (who spent most of his extensive career in hundreds of uncredited bit roles) and Carroll Nye (who was also headed for bit parts). The movie was directed with delightful incompetence by none other than Alexander Korda, who is usually remembered today as a producer, but in point of fact he actually had an even more extensive career as a director. I assume his knowledge of English was not so hot back in 1929 and he was perhaps unaware that most of his players – led by Miss Loy – were sending the ridiculous dialogue up.

Squall Stalled

[tpfaff100 · 3/10 · 10 September 2004]

I like a lot of Myrna Loy movies. This film was produced before her character actor personality was developed. It would be an okay short film but seems to go on forever in it's complete form.

Myrna Loy it seems is told what to do with her acting and does the job. That is about all you can say about her.

Her gypsy character is shoddy and the film has many flaws, such as the jewelry shop scene.

This film will probably be interesting to Myrna Loy fans but even as such is something of a disappointment.

Loy or Young Fans Only

[Michael_Elliott · 25 February 2008]

Squall, The (1929)

* (out of 4)

Extremely bad melodrama should only be viewed if you must see everything that Myrna Loy and Loretta Young appeared in. Set in Hungary, a rich farming family has everything going great until they take in an abused gypsy girl (Loy) who turns out to be sex crazed and starts ruining everyone's relationships including that of the youngest daughter (Young). I'm not sure where to start so I'll just comment that this film is pretty horrid from start to finish but thankfully it's horrid enough to gain a few laughs. Apparently this was also released as a silent and I wouldn't mind watching that version because the performances in this sound edition are quite horrid and it's easy to tell that everyone is acting as if they were in a silent feature. The acting is so over-dramatic and over the top that you can't help but laugh and quite often you'll be scratching your head wondering what they hell everyone is being so dramatic for when it's not even necessary. Loy is incredibly bad in her role of the gypsy girl and I'm going to guess that she's never been worse. Young comes off so-so but then again she isn't acting against anything good. Richard Tucker turns in one of the worst performances I've ever seen and that might be being too nice. The film might be of interest to bad film buffs but otherwise this thing is worthless. It's drags on way too long as well, which doesn't help matters.

Here Comes Nubi

[jayraskin1 · 5/10 · 19 September 2017]

Nubi (Myrna Loy) is Gypsy Girl. Me crazy in love with Nubi. Me cheat for Nubi. Me steal for Nubi. Me give up family for Nubi. Me ruin my reputation for Nubi.

Only problem is every man in village love Nubi. Nubi so beautiful, every man love Nubi. Every woman jealous of Nubi. Me can't think of any other actresses when Nubi on screen. Not even think of Zazu Pitts or Loretta Young.

Can Nubi help it if every man love Nubi and fight over Nubi. Everybody love Nubi. Nubi love nobody . Poor Nubi. Poor Gypsy girl. Poor movie, but Myrna Loy is wonderfully sensual in this painfully slow morality tale of Eve causing a squall in the Hungarian Garden of Eden.

Loy steals it

[westerfield · 5/10 · 4 January 2013]

I never was a fan of Loy's later films. Frankly, I never found her good looking enough to attract her co-stars. But as a bad girl she excels. See her in Thirteen Women! The dialog direction in The Squall is beyond terrible. On the basis of this example I would never have predicted that Loretta Young would ever become a great actress. The whole film sounded like a bad junior high production. Except for Loy. She is natural, transcending her sometimes awful lines. She is believable among a bunch of seeming amateurs. And sexy. There are few more torrid performances ever put on the screen. Watch The Squall for her performance alone.

unintentionally laughable

[lshelhamer · 3/10 · 10 January 2013]

Runaway gypsy, Myrna Loy, upsets the household of the well-to-do family that takes her in.

Of historical interest, but otherwise not much reason to watch. Undoubtedly, the early sound system limitations account for the static acting when dialogue is spoken. However, it can't excuse the declamatory style of speaking. Only Alice Joyce can occasionally speak and act in a more natural fashion. Miss Loy is merely ridiculous as the predatory, scheming wild-child.

Loretta Young has a supporting role only, despite being listed as the co-star. Also, she seems to have a pronounced overbite, presumably corrected later on by her orthodontist.

It was, after all, 1929

[klatteross-15130 · 6/10 · 17 May 2017]

This is the best 1929 movie I've ever seen. Oh wait a minute...it's the only one. This movie has nothing that makes modern movies worthwhile--no breasts, no explosions, no zombies. But it has dialogue; for example: Tempted man: What is that infernal light shining in your eyes? Temptress: It's love! Did the dialogue come directly from the stage play? I like the way the movie has a lot of background music.

Not Acting Up a Storm

[wes-connors · 3/10 · 7 January 2013]

A fine example of that time when motion pictures struggled with talk - here, the microphone is unkind to everyone; if anything, the younger players are worse off due to overall lack of experience (both on stage and screen). Though it was not true at the time, the main attraction herein is Myrna Loy (as Nubi); she plays a gypsy temptress who symbolically arrives with "The Squall" and manages to attract every man in sight. Also arousing is beautiful Loretta Young (as Irma). "It's the fire in my veins," explains main target Carroll Nye (as Paul), "driving me mad!"

Both Ms. Loy and Ms. Young are pretty bad, which just shows how fortunes can change. Upon release, the biggest name in the generally substantial cast was Alice Joyce (as Maria). Appearing in her first taking film, Ms. Joyce fares a little better, but not to 1929 audiences with high expectations for an admired actress. Improved in a few more films, Joyce nevertheless retired. Also having a good future, director Alexander Korda gets to display a windmill and rain nicely, but can't get the crude production off the ground. The story is also a struggle to take seriously.

*** The Squall (5/9/29) Alexander Korda ~ Myrna Loy, Alice Joyce, Carroll Nye, Loretta Young

Entertaining but problematic drama

[leftistcritic · 7/10 · 11 March 2019]

Last night and this morning I watched this classic 1929 talkie. I was only familiar with one of the cast, Loretta Young, whom plays Erma in this movie, plays Gallagher in Frank Capra's classic 1931 film, Platinum Blonde. Otherwise the rest of the cast was new to me. Of all the cast, I think Myrna Loy, as Nubi, was the strongest, while the other actors were ok but nothing to write home about.

The plot of this movie is simple. A beautiful woman, who says she is 16, named Nubi comes to the farm of Josef Lujos (played by Richard Tucker) and his wife Maria (played by Alice Joyce) in the midst of a squall, saying she is escaping her brutal husband, a fellow "gypsy"/Romani. In the process, however she turns men against each other, as they fawn over her, buying her necklaces and jewelry as they want her affection. This leads to jealousy among the men, like Paul (played by Carroll Nye) and Peter (played by Harry Cording), who compete among one another for her. In the process, the women they love, like Erma, in the case of Peter, and Lena (played by ZaSu Pitts), in the case of Peter, are left behind. For his hostile behavior toward Nubi, Paul is kicked out of the house, while Peter even steals Lena's savings to buy beautiful jewelry for Nubi.

The women, like Maria, Lena, and Erma, suspect that something is peculiar about Nubi and the film implies that she has some magical powers, apart from her seductive prowess as you could call it. This is where I agree with the more critical reviews on here of this film, which range from 2 stars to 6 stars. However, I think the concept of this film is relatively interesting so I decided to give it a rating of 7 out of 10. I would say that at its worst this film reminds me of Spike Lee's Chiraq in that men are just seen as interested in love from women, not much more, with the idea that a "sex strike" will solve problems, playing into stereotypes about men.

This film, by showing men as pining for Nubi's attention, does make them relatively shallow characters. Additionally it seems that this film is somewhat anti-Romani in that Nubi, a Romani, is seen as a sort of evil spirit, like another race to be feared, almost in a racist way. At the same time, they are also shown as a strong and proud people. At the same time, the women in this movie are heavily submissive, even though they do think and act on their own accord.

And with that, my review of this film comes to a close.

Interesting because of Myrna Loy, and that's about it

[gbill-74877 · 4/10 · 27 December 2016]

Probably only a Myrna Loy fan will truly like this one. I have to say, seeing her at age 24 in the role of a gypsy temptress is interesting, but she's painfully shrill and her acting is terrible. I thought that maybe it was one of her first roles, and was surprised it was her 38th! Poor acting and over-emoting was pretty common for 1929, and the rest of the cast is similarly bad. The film is way too long at 102 minutes and I had to struggle with the urge to fast forward through parts of it. I was also not a big fan of this version of the 'woman as temptress' theme that dates back to the Bible, as it was so simplistic and unsophisticated. It's fun to see Loy and that's about it.