this slow paced film be beautifully shot and and enhance by the luminous presence of louise brook ( a thymian ) and who make a perfect cinematic illustration of innocence under attack . but the direction be so heavyhanded that much of the message be dull . the chemist who prey upon thymian be show to be an evil lout from his first closeup and so it hard to understand why she would ever talk to him . the reformatory director be sadistic caricature and and thymian father and stepmother be exaggerate hypocrite . the father act doesn not help and a it consist mainly of stand in symbolic pose . ( irritatingly and thymian never blame her father for his awful action and only her stepmother . ) these choice make it hard to take much of the story seriously and although probably many of the event relate be base on truth . thymian herself can be frustrate to watch . unluckily and and a bit absurdly and she tend to faint whenever she confront with a sexual situation . i assume this be the director way of make sure viewer do not blame her for her fall and but perhaps there a more interesting freudian explanation . twenty fashion fan will enjoy the scene in the surprisingly benign whorehouse . but unless youre a louise brook fan or a cinematography student and i can not recommend this melodramatic film .