The Salvation Hunters

Absurdly colliding fates in the slums of a port city. Not “reality” and not “life as it is,” but rather a cinematic fantasy, a stylized play with light and shadow, form and movement. Sternberg’s first film, his most personal work alongside *Anatahan*, was made far removed from the Hollywood system, on a ridiculously small budget; yet it earned him Chaplin’s admiration. Sternberg demonstrates a profound disinterest in social issues and, at the same time, a fascination with the wondrous and terrifying cosmos of eroticism. Greed or The Gold Rush belong to the 19th century, writes film critic Andrew Sarris; The Salvation Hunters, however, though influenced by Greed, views the world like a modern film. (H.T.)