Sam Goldwyn trots out his Garbo manqué Anna Sten for the second time with the same disastrous results as the first (Nana) in a Tolstoy adaptation We Live Again. Once again Sam pulls out all the stops; top shelf production design and director (Ruben Mamoulian), legendary lensman Gregg Toland and major leading man Fredric March to buttress the "star" power of Sten who shines like a five watt bulb.
Prince Dmitri drops by the old homestead to check in on the family and knock off a piece of serf tail with his all grown up childhood playmate Katusha (Sten). The next day he bolts without saying goodbye, leaving her a few rubles and pregnant. Being in a family way she is forced to leave the homestead spiraling into a life of dissolution and desperation over time. Dmitri on the other hand continues to live a princely existence until he crosses paths with defendant Katusha in a murder trial in which he is a juror. He passionately defends her innocence, feeling he is possibly responsible for her crime but she is convicted and sent to Siberia. Overwhelmed by guilt and love he joins her.
Sten once again underwhelms with her big button eyes and mushy diction as the put upon Katusha. One would think living a life of hard knocks would have toughened and jaded her but Sten can not sustain anything outside of her mousy sensitivity and she remains grounded in clueless little girl. March brings the same Vronsky like dash to Dmitri and holds up his end well but all Anna can do is respond all wide eyed and wimpy. C. Aubrey Smith as a symbol of Russian Monarchy justice is right on while Sam Jaffe's radical is allowed brief but effective rebuttal.
Toland's camera-work ( evening scenes in particular) is typically flawless and the set design lavish but Anna in the lead swings and misses again while Mamoulian hammers the lid shut on this turkey in the final scene with our lovers reuniting and walking off hand in hand, smiles on their faces to a life and more than likely demise serving a five year stretch laboring in a Siberian gulag surrounded by prisoners who fail to share their optimism.
Prince Dmitri drops by the old homestead to check in on the family and knock off a piece of serf tail with his all grown up childhood playmate Katusha (Sten). The next day he bolts without saying goodbye, leaving her a few rubles and pregnant. Being in a family way she is forced to leave the homestead spiraling into a life of dissolution and desperation over time. Dmitri on the other hand continues to live a princely existence until he crosses paths with defendant Katusha in a murder trial in which he is a juror. He passionately defends her innocence, feeling he is possibly responsible for her crime but she is convicted and sent to Siberia. Overwhelmed by guilt and love he joins her.
Sten once again underwhelms with her big button eyes and mushy diction as the put upon Katusha. One would think living a life of hard knocks would have toughened and jaded her but Sten can not sustain anything outside of her mousy sensitivity and she remains grounded in clueless little girl. March brings the same Vronsky like dash to Dmitri and holds up his end well but all Anna can do is respond all wide eyed and wimpy. C. Aubrey Smith as a symbol of Russian Monarchy justice is right on while Sam Jaffe's radical is allowed brief but effective rebuttal.
Toland's camera-work ( evening scenes in particular) is typically flawless and the set design lavish but Anna in the lead swings and misses again while Mamoulian hammers the lid shut on this turkey in the final scene with our lovers reuniting and walking off hand in hand, smiles on their faces to a life and more than likely demise serving a five year stretch laboring in a Siberian gulag surrounded by prisoners who fail to share their optimism.