This is a wonderful film provided you can suspend all sense of disbelief. Otherwise, you will soon find yourself saying "hey...this can't possibly happen" again and again.
The film begins with Richard Barthelmess in the army during WWI. He does something very heroic and appears to die in the process. The cowardly and weak commanding officer is assumed to be the hero and with Barthelmess apparently dead, he decides to keep up the charade and he takes credit for Barthelmess' actions. However, the man IS alive and is taken prisoner by the Germans, who nurse him back to health--and he's eventually sent home after the war. The problem is that he's badly injured and is now dependent upon morphine to deal with debilitating pain.
In his new job at the bank owned by the father of the man who claimed to be a hero, Barthelmess is having difficulties due to his dependence on morphine. Instead of coming forward and admitting he needs the drug OR getting off the drug (or taking credit for his war heroics), he is soon exposed and sent to the hospital for treatment. It is interesting that during all this time, although he had access to all that money and couldn't afford to pay for his growing drug habit, he never stole a dime from the bank. For his loyalty, he's cast aside like a used band-aid and when he gets out of the hospital, he leaves town in disgrace.
Dirt poor and alone in a new town, Barthelmess makes good because down deep he's still a very decent guy. He meets a sweet lady (Loretta Young) and marries. He also does great at his job--so much so that he is promoted and life looks grand. However, in a complicated plot twist, he goes from hero to all at work to goat when he is incorrectly blamed for the plant firing most of the employees. These displaced workers are mad and as they are about to riot and destroy the factory, Barthelmess tries to stop them and HE is convicted of starting the riot AND his wife is killed in the fight!!! This guy just can't catch a break and his son is left in the care of Aunt Mary while Barthelmess does a five year stretch in prison.
When he gets out and is ready to assume responsibility for raising his son, local thugs threaten to revoke his parole if he doesn't leave town because he's been branded "a dirty red" for his supposed hand in the riot years earlier. Now, at this point, Richard has over $50,000 in the bank and he could easily have gotten a lawyer and fought this or just taken his boy and moved to another town to live in luxury. After all, $50,000 back then meant you were set for life--plus he still had more royalty money coming each month. Instead, he gave his money to Aunt Mary to run a free food program for the hungry during the Depression. In the final scenes, Barthelmess is being chased and hated throughout the country along with countless other homeless men. Yet, despite this, his faith in America never is diminished and the film ends--with no real resolution to his messed up life.
Now if you think about it, this film consists of Barthelmess doing good again and again and is rewarded each time with a kick in the teeth. Yet repeatedly, he remains optimistic about the future--even as those about him question the direction the country is taking and are about to give up on the American way of life. I know....this must be a remake of Pollyanna!!! Well, actually, it's supposed to be a metaphor about America at the beginning of the Roosevelt administration.
While a very interesting social commentary by pointing out correctly that the country handled its WWI vets shabbily as well as its poor, the film also suffers from perhaps too much optimism from the main character. In addition, some of the characters also seemed a bit hard to believe. While at first, I loved the Communist inventor played by Robert Barrat, when he made his rapid switch to angry Capitalist, it seemed way too much like a stereotype, not a real person. The message that money often corrupts was muddled because the guy simply became a caricature. Additionally, many of the "bad guys" were just too black and white in how they were portrayed. Softening this a bit might have made a more realistic and satisfying film. Still, for 1933, it was a very brave film because it dared to question the system...even though it did occasionally pull its punches. An interesting historical curio and one of the few films of the era that actually acknowledged the Depression and the desperation many Americans were feeling at the time.
The film begins with Richard Barthelmess in the army during WWI. He does something very heroic and appears to die in the process. The cowardly and weak commanding officer is assumed to be the hero and with Barthelmess apparently dead, he decides to keep up the charade and he takes credit for Barthelmess' actions. However, the man IS alive and is taken prisoner by the Germans, who nurse him back to health--and he's eventually sent home after the war. The problem is that he's badly injured and is now dependent upon morphine to deal with debilitating pain.
In his new job at the bank owned by the father of the man who claimed to be a hero, Barthelmess is having difficulties due to his dependence on morphine. Instead of coming forward and admitting he needs the drug OR getting off the drug (or taking credit for his war heroics), he is soon exposed and sent to the hospital for treatment. It is interesting that during all this time, although he had access to all that money and couldn't afford to pay for his growing drug habit, he never stole a dime from the bank. For his loyalty, he's cast aside like a used band-aid and when he gets out of the hospital, he leaves town in disgrace.
Dirt poor and alone in a new town, Barthelmess makes good because down deep he's still a very decent guy. He meets a sweet lady (Loretta Young) and marries. He also does great at his job--so much so that he is promoted and life looks grand. However, in a complicated plot twist, he goes from hero to all at work to goat when he is incorrectly blamed for the plant firing most of the employees. These displaced workers are mad and as they are about to riot and destroy the factory, Barthelmess tries to stop them and HE is convicted of starting the riot AND his wife is killed in the fight!!! This guy just can't catch a break and his son is left in the care of Aunt Mary while Barthelmess does a five year stretch in prison.
When he gets out and is ready to assume responsibility for raising his son, local thugs threaten to revoke his parole if he doesn't leave town because he's been branded "a dirty red" for his supposed hand in the riot years earlier. Now, at this point, Richard has over $50,000 in the bank and he could easily have gotten a lawyer and fought this or just taken his boy and moved to another town to live in luxury. After all, $50,000 back then meant you were set for life--plus he still had more royalty money coming each month. Instead, he gave his money to Aunt Mary to run a free food program for the hungry during the Depression. In the final scenes, Barthelmess is being chased and hated throughout the country along with countless other homeless men. Yet, despite this, his faith in America never is diminished and the film ends--with no real resolution to his messed up life.
Now if you think about it, this film consists of Barthelmess doing good again and again and is rewarded each time with a kick in the teeth. Yet repeatedly, he remains optimistic about the future--even as those about him question the direction the country is taking and are about to give up on the American way of life. I know....this must be a remake of Pollyanna!!! Well, actually, it's supposed to be a metaphor about America at the beginning of the Roosevelt administration.
While a very interesting social commentary by pointing out correctly that the country handled its WWI vets shabbily as well as its poor, the film also suffers from perhaps too much optimism from the main character. In addition, some of the characters also seemed a bit hard to believe. While at first, I loved the Communist inventor played by Robert Barrat, when he made his rapid switch to angry Capitalist, it seemed way too much like a stereotype, not a real person. The message that money often corrupts was muddled because the guy simply became a caricature. Additionally, many of the "bad guys" were just too black and white in how they were portrayed. Softening this a bit might have made a more realistic and satisfying film. Still, for 1933, it was a very brave film because it dared to question the system...even though it did occasionally pull its punches. An interesting historical curio and one of the few films of the era that actually acknowledged the Depression and the desperation many Americans were feeling at the time.