This could be used in a film class to demonstrate how to make a perfect one-hour movie. All the elements combine brilliantly:
The expressionistic design of Anton Grot
The "telling" visual style of directors Michael Curtiz and Lloyd Bacon. The final operation alone is as perfectly shot as the shower scene in "Psycho."
The acting. Richard Barthelmess shows why he was the best pre-Code actor; Lucile LaVerne is a revelation to me; and everyone else in smaller parts does a bang-up job.
Also interesting as a display of state-of-the-art medicine in the early 1930's.
The expressionistic design of Anton Grot
The "telling" visual style of directors Michael Curtiz and Lloyd Bacon. The final operation alone is as perfectly shot as the shower scene in "Psycho."
The acting. Richard Barthelmess shows why he was the best pre-Code actor; Lucile LaVerne is a revelation to me; and everyone else in smaller parts does a bang-up job.
Also interesting as a display of state-of-the-art medicine in the early 1930's.