After several successes in his native Germany in silent films, he worked in London and in Hollywood, California.

This film, about an ex-trapeze artist, was noted for its innovative camerawork with highly expressive movement through space, accomplished by the expressionist cinematographer Karl Freund.

Dupont then headed to Britain and made the film Piccadilly (1929), a late silent, which is remembered for the central performance of the Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong.

Atlantic (also 1929) is a retelling of the Titanic disaster and is seen as one of the most innovative uses of sound film technology available at the time.

After a brief return to Germany, the Jewish director emigrated to the United States in 1933, where he was assigned to several B movies and low budget "programmer" films.