A striking, deeply felt version of Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises" -- even though it purports to be derived from a novel by John Monk Saunders.
The Lost Generation of disillusioned post-Armistice Yanks is vividly etched in this episodic portrait of four wounded vets in Paris. Refusing to return home to the pity of their loved ones, they decide to remain in Europe, sleeping all day and spending their nights hopping from bistro to bistro in an orgy of self-destructive benders. Along the way they happen upon Nikki, a dizzy American heiress with more than a passing resemblance to Lady Brett Ashley (minus the promiscuity), and she quickly becomes part of their ranks. There's also a sixth wheel, the smug, lecherous Robert Cohn-like newsman Frink, who makes graceless advances toward Nikki.
Richard Barthelmess, John Mack Brown, Elliot Nugent and David Manners, actors who rarely got to work with such superior material, show surprising sensitivity and conviction (especially Manners, released from his insipid juvenile fetters and displaying sharp tragicomic skills). But the film pivots around the beautiful performance by Helen Chandler. The screwball, naively erotic Nikki and the ethereal, bird-like Chandler merge into one, and though the character is rather vague and underdeveloped, the wistful actress turns this to her advantage -- she makes Nikki seem mysterious and dreamy, like the product of a wounded man's delirious vision.
With Walter Byron as Frink; directed by William Dieterle in his American debut.
The Lost Generation of disillusioned post-Armistice Yanks is vividly etched in this episodic portrait of four wounded vets in Paris. Refusing to return home to the pity of their loved ones, they decide to remain in Europe, sleeping all day and spending their nights hopping from bistro to bistro in an orgy of self-destructive benders. Along the way they happen upon Nikki, a dizzy American heiress with more than a passing resemblance to Lady Brett Ashley (minus the promiscuity), and she quickly becomes part of their ranks. There's also a sixth wheel, the smug, lecherous Robert Cohn-like newsman Frink, who makes graceless advances toward Nikki.
Richard Barthelmess, John Mack Brown, Elliot Nugent and David Manners, actors who rarely got to work with such superior material, show surprising sensitivity and conviction (especially Manners, released from his insipid juvenile fetters and displaying sharp tragicomic skills). But the film pivots around the beautiful performance by Helen Chandler. The screwball, naively erotic Nikki and the ethereal, bird-like Chandler merge into one, and though the character is rather vague and underdeveloped, the wistful actress turns this to her advantage -- she makes Nikki seem mysterious and dreamy, like the product of a wounded man's delirious vision.
With Walter Byron as Frink; directed by William Dieterle in his American debut.