In 1930s Germany, a congenial gallery owner falls under the spell of Nazism. A chilling work of strong political conviction, the film unfolds through the symmetrically menacing compositions of art-director-turned-director William Cameron Menzies. Based on a 1938 short story by Kathrine Kressmann which originally unfolded through a series of letters exchanged between a Jewish art dealer living in San Francisco and his business partner, the film was made thanks to a group of talented exiles and refugees. The cast includes Viennese actors Carl Esmond and Mady Christians, Hungarian Paul Lukas and German Peter van Eyck, and it was shot by Polish-Hungarian cinematographer Rudolph Maté, with a score composed by the Austrian Ernst Toch. But the most striking aspect of the film is its design. Menzies—widely regarded as the father of production design—created 800 sketches that served as the film’s visual blueprint. Shapes and forms, vertical and horizontal lines, all add new layers of meaning to Menzies’ finest directorial work.