Mamoulian's latest film [Queen Cristina] is the result of a defect both of sentimental intuition and of culture. We should not need to speak of culture if sentimental intuition and the breath of art had inspired the producer or the actress [Greta Garbo] on behalf of the producer. Who cares whether Shaw's Joan of Arc is really the Joan burnt at the stake by the English or if Shakespeare's Coriolanus is really the tragic Roman patrician? Their strong artistic vitality excludes all possibility of criticism. The humanity of the characters gives them a superior reality of their own.

When, however, the producer is not inspired with a creative capacity, culture may save his work in another direction, another zone of ideal interests. Has not Mamoulian himself shown this to be the case both in the Song of Songs and Dr. Jekyll? He certainly did not rise to any...