"Lonesome" can be seen as sort of a precursor to Chaplin's "City Lights", without quite the same level of artistry. It is certainly an audiovisual whirlwind: director Paul Fejos uses every trick he can think of (and that technology of the time would allow), including color snippets, abstract images, miniatures, rollercoaster POV shots, a non-stop musical score, sound effects, crowd noises, songs heard by the characters & the audience, and even three short dialogue scenes. The story is thin, though. Purportedly a film about loneliness in the Big City, it is actually more successful in indicating that people had a lot more fun a century ago, when they didn't have smart phones so they actually had to spend time with each other. Barbara Kent is beautiful and cute and I bet she melted many hearts in the 1928 theaters where this played. **1/2 out of 4.
Review of Lonesome
