Although it's a serious story, it is instantly engaging from the very beginning. I challenge anyone to to start watching this and be able to walk away from it - impossible. Everything about this is just right. The story is original without being unrealistic, profound without being heavy and utterly heartbreaking without being miserable.
'Why weren't all films made this well?' That's a question which your mind keeps whispering to you as this magical piece of art unfolds before you. Like the audiences in 1932, you might feel you want to avoid this because of its somber reputation but if you did you'd be missing an amazingly entertaining movie.
Everyone has commented on how perfect the direction is: on how the movement, the almost unbearable suspense, the imagery, the way that sound is used as another character and how the camera is used to reflect different points of view. It is a given that Mr Lubitsch was no ordinary director and is such a shame that this was his only real drama.
What else is special about this is the acting. It's 1919 so all the characters are broken people, their lives have ended, they are the walking dead trying to figure out how to live. This was made shortly after the end of the war so was written from experience. Although the acting seems slow and turgid, this was how things were, it is authentic, it is realistic. Phillips Holmes always seemed a little wooden in his performances to me but that distant and detached unnatural acting style was for once perfect for this role. He and Nancy Carroll and of course Lionel Barrymore all portray those half-alive characters thoroughly believably with emotion, confusion and hope.
It's sad and moving story but it's also extremely uplifting so is both heartbreaking and heartwarming.
'Why weren't all films made this well?' That's a question which your mind keeps whispering to you as this magical piece of art unfolds before you. Like the audiences in 1932, you might feel you want to avoid this because of its somber reputation but if you did you'd be missing an amazingly entertaining movie.
Everyone has commented on how perfect the direction is: on how the movement, the almost unbearable suspense, the imagery, the way that sound is used as another character and how the camera is used to reflect different points of view. It is a given that Mr Lubitsch was no ordinary director and is such a shame that this was his only real drama.
What else is special about this is the acting. It's 1919 so all the characters are broken people, their lives have ended, they are the walking dead trying to figure out how to live. This was made shortly after the end of the war so was written from experience. Although the acting seems slow and turgid, this was how things were, it is authentic, it is realistic. Phillips Holmes always seemed a little wooden in his performances to me but that distant and detached unnatural acting style was for once perfect for this role. He and Nancy Carroll and of course Lionel Barrymore all portray those half-alive characters thoroughly believably with emotion, confusion and hope.
It's sad and moving story but it's also extremely uplifting so is both heartbreaking and heartwarming.