When I hear someone say that an old film is "dated", I attempt to determine in what way is it dated. Some old films are dated because they are cliché-ridden...such as many of the gangster films and high society films of the 1930s, as well as many of the Westerns of the 1950s.
This film, made in 1935, is "dated", but in a different sense. It is dated because it concerns a time that we today cannot imagine...in a place -- England -- of which we actually know little (at least in that era). Really, we have no sense of World War I, what the mores of the time were, how people really behaved, or how they thought. Two years from when I am writing this, it will be a century since WWI began. So I reject that this film is "dated". It is simply a film about a time we know little.
The story begins with 3 close friends -- children -- in England. Merle Oberon and cousins Fredric March and Herbert Marshall)...although I mistakenly thought they were supposed to be brothers. The question is, once they reach adulthood, which of the boys will Oberon marry. It turns out to be March, just as he is ready to go off to World War I. They attempt to get married at the last minute, but that plans fail, so they spend his last night together before he goes to the front. A cousin gives Marshall the idea that March stayed with a prostitute, and Marshall feels March has let Oberon down. So, when it comes time to select a group of soldiers for a dangerous mission, Marshall chooses March out of anger. Marshall lives, though wounded. March dies. Or does he? We discover that he became a POW and was blinded in the battle. After the war, the blind March settles down near his own town, but determined not to see his old friends and relatives. He becomes an author children's' books. But his publisher finds out who he really is and arranges for Marshall and Oberon -- who had planned to marry -- to visit March. What will their reaction be when they find out he is alive but blind? And who will Oberon marry? The cast here is excellent. The Marshall as one of the young men was interesting, particularly because he had lost a leg in real life during WWI..you can notice the limp later in the film here, although it is covered up with a cane due to his film injuries. Marshall was too old for this part...about 20 years older than Oberon...but he doesn't look it, and it works. Marshall was always an excellent actor, and this film is no exception.
Oberson is excellent, as well, and in fact was nominated for the Academy Award for this film. Fredric March is also excellent here, and plays being blind quite well.
Two supporting actors are worth mentioning -- Janet Beecher as the "mother" to Marshall and March, and John Halliday as March's friend and publisher.
The production (by Samuel Goldwyn) is nicely done. Good cinematography and sound, and realistic sets. The only flaw is in the scenes at the hospital for the blind, where it appears some who are blind are looking at one of the other blind men as he speaks. Not a big deal, but noticeable.
A technique is used in this film, perhaps the first??? Not sure. An ill wind brings bad luck. Quite effective here, and not overdone.
Highly recommended.
This film, made in 1935, is "dated", but in a different sense. It is dated because it concerns a time that we today cannot imagine...in a place -- England -- of which we actually know little (at least in that era). Really, we have no sense of World War I, what the mores of the time were, how people really behaved, or how they thought. Two years from when I am writing this, it will be a century since WWI began. So I reject that this film is "dated". It is simply a film about a time we know little.
The story begins with 3 close friends -- children -- in England. Merle Oberon and cousins Fredric March and Herbert Marshall)...although I mistakenly thought they were supposed to be brothers. The question is, once they reach adulthood, which of the boys will Oberon marry. It turns out to be March, just as he is ready to go off to World War I. They attempt to get married at the last minute, but that plans fail, so they spend his last night together before he goes to the front. A cousin gives Marshall the idea that March stayed with a prostitute, and Marshall feels March has let Oberon down. So, when it comes time to select a group of soldiers for a dangerous mission, Marshall chooses March out of anger. Marshall lives, though wounded. March dies. Or does he? We discover that he became a POW and was blinded in the battle. After the war, the blind March settles down near his own town, but determined not to see his old friends and relatives. He becomes an author children's' books. But his publisher finds out who he really is and arranges for Marshall and Oberon -- who had planned to marry -- to visit March. What will their reaction be when they find out he is alive but blind? And who will Oberon marry? The cast here is excellent. The Marshall as one of the young men was interesting, particularly because he had lost a leg in real life during WWI..you can notice the limp later in the film here, although it is covered up with a cane due to his film injuries. Marshall was too old for this part...about 20 years older than Oberon...but he doesn't look it, and it works. Marshall was always an excellent actor, and this film is no exception.
Oberson is excellent, as well, and in fact was nominated for the Academy Award for this film. Fredric March is also excellent here, and plays being blind quite well.
Two supporting actors are worth mentioning -- Janet Beecher as the "mother" to Marshall and March, and John Halliday as March's friend and publisher.
The production (by Samuel Goldwyn) is nicely done. Good cinematography and sound, and realistic sets. The only flaw is in the scenes at the hospital for the blind, where it appears some who are blind are looking at one of the other blind men as he speaks. Not a big deal, but noticeable.
A technique is used in this film, perhaps the first??? Not sure. An ill wind brings bad luck. Quite effective here, and not overdone.
Highly recommended.