It's hard to say much about this picture, because quite frankly it appeared to be the worst print I'd ever seen; out of focus, bleached out, suffering from decay, and with sizeable slices missing off all sides of the frame so that the ends of titles got cropped, heads went missing off the top of the screen, and characters disappeared altogether to left and to right. The intertitle text on screen didn't always bear a close relationship to what was actually shown afterwards (e.g. characters supposedly regretting their actions or terrified by their predicament),and I did wonder whether some kind of attempt had been made to 'improve the morals' of the story by editing the titles and/or action for the original American release. But it really didn't seem to be a terribly good film.

It was the first time I'd seen Pola Negri, and she was undoubtedly lovely (when you could actually see her!) She appeared to be rather better at acting than most of the rest of the cast, as well; and her character was the only one to show flashes of wit and decency into the bargain. This makes it all the harder to understand, to be honest, why this 'wild beast' is apparently being punished and moralised over for the twin crimes of repaying the money she borrowed and rejecting the advances of a married man...

Very little actually seems to happen during the running time of this film, and what does happen (the stern father beats his daughter; the cad attempts to seduce the dancer; the abandoned wife contracts a convenient mortal illness and dies, allowing the remorseful husband to cover his eyes over her grave) tends to be predictable enough to raise a groan. Dmitri's actions seem odd to say the least: he fails even to recognise his former girlfriend when they meet, yet is so incensed by the fact that she pays back the borrowed money as promised that he goes out and shoots her?

I found the picture to be hard work to concentrate on (not helped by the lack of clear focus) and unrewarding. It's a curiosity to see Pola Negri in her Polish years, but nothing more.

Poland's Pola Negri, a silent movie star in the 1920's who was one of the few actresses to make the successful transition to sound in the 1930's has only one surviving film from her native country produced in her early days of cinema, January 1917's "The Polish Dancer," aka "Bestia." Only 20 years old at the time of production, Negri already displayed an unusual wealth of talent and spunk in her fourth feature film. Negri three years earlier had a role in Poland's first ever feature film, 1914's "Niewolnica zmystow," but because of World War One, most of Poland's early features are lost. "The Polish Dancer" is credited as being one of the earliest viewable Polish feature films today.

It's only natural Negri was cast in "Bestia" as a dancer. As a poor young girl who lost her father when he was arrested and sent to Siberia for alleged revolutionary activities, Pola was accepted to Warsaw's Imperial Ballet Academy for her exceptional coordination. She eventually received a role in a 1912 play at 15-years-old, and in the following year was in her first movie. Both the stage play and the film were dancing roles for her.

"The Polish Dancer" displays Negri's adroit dancing skills during one sequence in particular. Her role as Pola Basznikow appears to be written just for the young actress. In the film, Pola runs away from home, decides to take a "loan" from her drunken boyfriend, and then audition, and win, a position for a cabaret dancer. A married man takes to the winsome Pola, setting the ball rolling for a series of tragedies.

A print of "The Polish Dancer" was able to survive the destruction of WW1 in Central Europe when a United States distributor was able to purchase the rights of the movie and import it. Thankfully for those Pola Negri fans who admire her body of work, the film gives a rare insight on the beginnings of one of cinema's first international movie stars.