Surprised and Glad

Surprised that this is a Lubitsch movie, glad that I saw it.

It had been on my shelf for a long time, after someone on the US recorded it for me a few years ago from TCM, and I hadn't know anything about it, other than that it was on the list of Lubitsch-directed movies.

It was surprised also how good it was. Reading the synopsis I might have expected something more melodramatic (not that it didn't have its moments). But the famous "Lubitsch touch" was evident here also, in how the movie steered away from the possible extremes of melodrama. While the acting was not uniformly great, the emotions were real.

I was expecting a huge dramatic scene, where the French soldier confesses to the parents. But the way the story did develop, with the girl convincing him that it might be best for HIM to confess, but certainly better for THEM that he continues the lie. A more complex moral development than what I'd expect from a Hollywood movie from the early 30s.

I'm thankful also for the ending, that could have shown a romantic connection between the ex-fiancée and the French soldier, but didn't. Just having her join him in the music was a wonderful way to end the story, with a more open ending.

I also loved Lubitsch's use of sound (he was one of the few Hollywood directors who understood the potential of the new medium, as he did with Trouble in Paradise). I'm thinking of the short bit where the Lionel Barrymore character, after berating himself and the group for cheering their sons going off to war, walks out of the restaurant, and "hears" the marching boots, as he looks at the empty street. Then, in the scene where the soldier tells the Phillips Holmes character tells the Nancy Carroll character the truth, all we hear is the clock ticking, which puts the drama into a tight emotional frame.

It's a shame that the film didn't succeed, and is considered a Lubitsch failure. Well worth seeking out and seeing.

Don't lend your hand to raise no flag atop no ship of fools.