User Comments:
3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful:-
Solid, surprisingly interesting early talkie, 23 November 2002
Author:
the_mysteriousx from LI, NY
This Ronald Colman film was his second talkie, following a rousing success
in Bulldog Drummond earlier in 1929. For these two films, Colman received
an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and his work in this one is
good.
Samuel Goldwyn went through great pains to prepare Colman for talkies and
for audiences' expectations of his voice to match his on-screen persona.
In
this film, Colman plays a suave thief who is sentenced to prison on
Devil's
Island. Once there, the warden employs him to aid his wife in household
chores and there Colman falls in love with the beautiful Ann Harding.
The plot is surprisingly not too ridiculous as both Colman's and Harding's
characters really don't want to start an affair out of respect for each
other and for the warden (a solid Dudley Digges). However, once the
warden
buys into local gossip that his wife is having an affair, he cannot help
but
constantly become angry. Each time the plot has a chance to become silly
and over-melodramatic, it takes a step back and seems to have a
conscience.
For an early talkie, that is impressive.
Further more impressive were the many dolly moves employed by the
cameraman.
This is not too static for such an early sound film and there is good use
of sound effects being layed over the montage.
All that being said, it is not a great film. It is never fully engrossing
as Alibi and Applause were at times, but for a film from the class of 1929
this one is a winner and Colman, Harding, Digges and Louis Wolheim as
Colman's convict friend are all excellent.
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