If you liked Of Mice And Men, you will like this.
Although the story has more misery, bad luck, heartbreak and then even more misery avalanching onto our hero than you'd find in the most cynical of Roger Waters' Pink Floyd songs, this film somehow manages to remain positive. It makes you angry, it makes you sad but it also gives you faith in humanity. Tom Holmes, our hero never gives up, there's always hope for just around the corner. However much life batters him down, he retains a glimmer of light, a dignified belief in his fellow man, a belief that surely things can't get any worse (even though they do!). This makes this film palatable for the audience of 1933 and watchable for us ninety years later.
For 1933 it's exceptionally well made. It's totally believable because of its very natural and 'modern' style of acting. William Wellman directs with imagination and style creating 75 minutes of completely engaging first rate entertainment without recoursing to cliched melodrama or sentimentality. That such character development happens in such a short movie is astounding - in the hands of a modern tv maker getting to know a character in such depth would take a couple of TV seasons. Although so much happens in such a small period it time, it doesn't feel rushed at all. Some scenes are beautifully and often poignantly extended allowing us to fully appreciate what we're experiencing. The roll of the tear down Loretta Young's cheek for example.
Without giving anything away, the ending might seem like someone just decided that an uplifting, positive piece of optimism needed to be stuck on the end. This is what did happen but as incongruous as it feels, it's perfect. It was indeed added as an afterthought but with good reason. During production Pres. Hoover (who was partly responsible for making the Depression the Great Depression) was ousted by FDR (the guy who slowly fixed America). This didn't just give hope to Warner's 'socially conscious' head of production, Daryl Zanuck, apparently it really did inspire the nation. Zanuck therefore shoe-horned some of FDR's speech of hope and optimism into the end of the film because at that point in time, that really was the mood of the nation.
I can't say I'm that familiar with Richard Barthelmess but he is outstanding in this, he is a real person, he's nothing special just an ordinary man. He's someone we will like, someone we will believe in and as we discover, someone who is a real inspirational hero.
Although the story has more misery, bad luck, heartbreak and then even more misery avalanching onto our hero than you'd find in the most cynical of Roger Waters' Pink Floyd songs, this film somehow manages to remain positive. It makes you angry, it makes you sad but it also gives you faith in humanity. Tom Holmes, our hero never gives up, there's always hope for just around the corner. However much life batters him down, he retains a glimmer of light, a dignified belief in his fellow man, a belief that surely things can't get any worse (even though they do!). This makes this film palatable for the audience of 1933 and watchable for us ninety years later.
For 1933 it's exceptionally well made. It's totally believable because of its very natural and 'modern' style of acting. William Wellman directs with imagination and style creating 75 minutes of completely engaging first rate entertainment without recoursing to cliched melodrama or sentimentality. That such character development happens in such a short movie is astounding - in the hands of a modern tv maker getting to know a character in such depth would take a couple of TV seasons. Although so much happens in such a small period it time, it doesn't feel rushed at all. Some scenes are beautifully and often poignantly extended allowing us to fully appreciate what we're experiencing. The roll of the tear down Loretta Young's cheek for example.
Without giving anything away, the ending might seem like someone just decided that an uplifting, positive piece of optimism needed to be stuck on the end. This is what did happen but as incongruous as it feels, it's perfect. It was indeed added as an afterthought but with good reason. During production Pres. Hoover (who was partly responsible for making the Depression the Great Depression) was ousted by FDR (the guy who slowly fixed America). This didn't just give hope to Warner's 'socially conscious' head of production, Daryl Zanuck, apparently it really did inspire the nation. Zanuck therefore shoe-horned some of FDR's speech of hope and optimism into the end of the film because at that point in time, that really was the mood of the nation.
I can't say I'm that familiar with Richard Barthelmess but he is outstanding in this, he is a real person, he's nothing special just an ordinary man. He's someone we will like, someone we will believe in and as we discover, someone who is a real inspirational hero.