HIS GREATEST BLUFF

More than seventy movies later and Harry Piel knew well how to entertain an audience without the chiaroscuro lighting and skewed perspectives we expect of Weimar cinema. Jewels worth a million, a shady dame (and her very sus child), a pair of maharajahs, slick-haired crooks with colorful names, and a self-assured action hero do the trick. That Marlene Dietrich is the dame is just icing for this heist picture from one of Germany’s most consistent box-office draws.