"We Live Again" from 1934 is filled with balalaika and Russians singing. If you can tolerate that, which is endless, you can perhaps find a kernel of interest in this film, which stars Frederic March and Anna Sten.
March plays a socialist who returns to his family farm, where he preaches equality of the people and romances a servant (Sten). However, he soon is seduced by the comforts of the upper class, with no knowledge of the hurt he has left behind.
Some time later, he is ordered to do jury duty and the servant has been accused of poisoning and robbing a man.
This is not an exciting film -- in fact, it's downright boring, particularly in the beginning. I watched it to get a gander at Anna Sten, who was brought over to the states by MGM with the intent of making her into a Garbo/Dietrich. She was very beautiful as well as a good actress, but it didn't take a genius to know that sticking her in this kind of film wasn't going to endear her to the public. She would have done better in the type of lighter film that Zanuck gave the actress Annabella. She appears to have stayed in the United States after MGM dropped her, married a producer, and worked in film and television until the mid-'60s.
Normally I love Rouben Mamoulian's films, but this one was a miss.
March plays a socialist who returns to his family farm, where he preaches equality of the people and romances a servant (Sten). However, he soon is seduced by the comforts of the upper class, with no knowledge of the hurt he has left behind.
Some time later, he is ordered to do jury duty and the servant has been accused of poisoning and robbing a man.
This is not an exciting film -- in fact, it's downright boring, particularly in the beginning. I watched it to get a gander at Anna Sten, who was brought over to the states by MGM with the intent of making her into a Garbo/Dietrich. She was very beautiful as well as a good actress, but it didn't take a genius to know that sticking her in this kind of film wasn't going to endear her to the public. She would have done better in the type of lighter film that Zanuck gave the actress Annabella. She appears to have stayed in the United States after MGM dropped her, married a producer, and worked in film and television until the mid-'60s.
Normally I love Rouben Mamoulian's films, but this one was a miss.