This tends to be a quiet film, unlike "The Big Parade" or "Wings." It's less about war and more focused on people's xenophobic hatred toward one another. For that reason, it deserves kudos; however, because of that it is a more difficult movie to sell to audiences and tends wears its heart on its sleeve.
Negri, Brook and Cook make wonderfully believable French, German and German, respectively, characters---visually they're perfect. Negri in particular is near the height of her handsome beauty, she being of the broad-backed and strong-shouldered type personified by Nita Naldi and Louise Brooks. Negri is given some wonderful close ups where she virtually glows.
Thankfully the movie is absent the stereotypical POW camp clichés such as sadistic guards and tunnel building, and it's for this reason some viewers might be less enthusiastic. I found it a relief.
There's an excellent tracking shot of a distraught Negri passing cheering prisoners---simple, but memorable.
The film's conclusion was much too saccharine for me, but many today will like it. WWI's horrors were still much too vivid for 1927's moviegoers and they likely needed the salve provided by the film's conclusion. I understand. A better film, "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," handled its similar conclusion better seven years earlier.
Negri and Adoree will always be my WWI French heartthrobs.
A very good film with fine acting. Recommended.
