Max Ophüls's only film in the Netherlands was the most elaborate and expensive Dutch production of the period. The episodic exploration of the shifting value of currency anticipates the circular systems of exchange central to the later French Ophüls films La Ronde (1950) and The Earrings of Madame De... (1953), but it is infused with the Brechtian musical didacticism of The Threepenny Opera (1928). Ophüls's carefully calibrated mise-en-scène is perfectly complemented by the masterful lighting of Expressionist cinematographer (and fellow German exile) Eugen Schüfftan. Restored by EYE Filmmuseum (Amsterdam). With English subtitles.