In remaking John M. Stahl’s take on Lloyd C. Douglas’s 1929 novel, Sirk brazenly rejects the earlier version’s restraint in favor of a florid, Technicolor approach that better matches the story’s inherent narrative lunacy and New Age-y proclamations (interestingly, it was the first of three times Sirk would remake Stahl). Although it is ultimately not one of Sirk’s best melodramas, it is the first of its kind for him and therefore of importance in establishing the German émigré as one of Hollywood’s most brilliant visual stylists and subversive masters. (DVD)