This 1928 film directed by Fritz Lang is marketed as a romance-thriller. The music does a good job keeping the thriller feeling, even 90 years later.
The leading lady Sonja was played by Gerda Maurus, who was born in “Lower Austria” (now Croatia). This was her first film. She found steady work (at least until 1940, when she had no releases for 9 years – she was still active in the theatre until 1944, however). In the post-war years, she struggled due to her association with Goebbels. She eventually came back to film and TV roles, but never found the same success as during this golden age of German film.
Having a completely different destiny was the actress who played Kitty. Dutch actress Lien Deyers also got her start in this film. She was a popular actress before the war, but fled the country with her Jewish husband. She was unable to find work in England or in the U.S., ended up divorced (a few times) and had trouble with the law there. In fact, there were several rumors of her death across the decades, but she lived until 1982 in the U.S.
Mr. Masimoto (who is to be Japanese) is played by Lupu Pick, who was a Romanian-born child of a Jewish Austrian. This was his final film before his death in 1931. Pick was an interesting figure in the acting world. Not only did he have a successful career of his own in both film and the stage, he also founded his own studio, called Rex, through which he directed many films.