Gasp as Lili Damita cavorts in this high-energy trailer for Michael Curtiz’s romantic drama. The Austri­an production was partly shot in Par­is, where Curtiz discovered Damita to play Célimène, her first leading role on film. They also became lovers. Harry M. Warner of Warner Bros. visited the Paris set and hired the director almost on the spot – the beginning of, if not a beau­tiful friendship, a lasting employment. Curtiz made two more films in Austria with Damita, Fiaker Nr. 13 (1926) and Der goldene Schmetterling (1927). Samuel Goldwyn, meanwhile, seeing Das Spielzeug von Paris on its 1927 US release (as Red Heels, from the title of the book on which the film is based), signed Damita herself. The film is more than a calling card. Célimène is a dancer torn between two lovers, one a wealthy count, one a simple fisherman. This trailer promises glamour, passion and flesh as coquettish Damita performs elastic backbends on nightclub stages or in her lover’s arms, and battles a raging storm equal to her romantic turmoil. Plus: one truly extravagant bathroom.

Pamela Hutchinson