pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood was an era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry that occurred between the widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship gui ...
Allan Dwan
Allan Dwan (born Joseph Aloysius Dwan; April 3, 1885 – December 28, 1981) was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.
Early life
Born Joseph Aloysius Dwan in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Dwan was ...
and starring
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Douglas Elton Fairbanks Jr. (December 9, 1909 – May 7, 2000) was an American actor, producer, and decorated naval officer of World War II. He is best-known for starring in such films as '' The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1937), '' Gunga Din'' (1939) ...
It is based on the 1930 novel by A. Hamilton Gibbs.
According to Fairbanks, the film was a hit, although in his autobiography he says it was "good, but not good enough."
Plot
In
1914
This year saw the beginning of what became known as the First World War, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip ...
, brother officers Jack and Tom Ingleside are in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, headed home on furlough. In the dense fog, Jack bumps into a young woman and tries to pick her up. She laughs at him, promises they will meet again, and rides off in a cab. When the brothers arrive at the family home, their mother is having tea with Molly Prescott, a childhood neighbor who has grown to be a lovely young woman—the woman in the fog. Tom tells his mother that he has always loved Molly. Jack, who is known as a ladies' man, is smitten.
Mrs. Ingleside is holding a benefit ball for the Red Cross, and Archie, Ruth and Sylvia, friends of the boys, spend the weekend. Sylvia is Jack's old flame. Jack and Molly step away from the dance. He tries to tell her how he feels and she laughingly replies, "How many girls have you said that to?" but they kiss. She returns to the dance where Tom is waiting.
When their mother tells Jack of her joy at the love between Tom and Molly, he is shocked as he had thought that Tom was not interested in girls. Heartbroken, he makes love to Sylvia in Molly's presence. Wounded, Molly turns away. Meanwhile, they have been called to France and their artillery unit. Tom asks Molly to wait for him. Ecstatic, he tells Jack of the engagement, and Jack congratulates him.
At the front, bodies and debris fill a gun emplacement and the communicating trench. Lieutenant Taylor brings the news and dies. Jack is assigned to take a crew of volunteers to put the gun back in order, returning over the same terrain that killed Taylor. The mission is a success, but four men die.
The major sends Jack on leave. Tom gives him a letter for Molly, who does not write to him. In a French town, Jack sees Molly, who is driving for the army. She confesses she agreed to marry Tom out of anger, and she cannot write to him because she doesn't love him. She asks for one day of Jack's leave. He agrees to come back early. She promises to write to Tom and tell him the truth.
They meet as planned and visit the shore. She did not write to Tom. Jack says "Saying goodbye is to die a little." He puts a ring on her left hand. She gives him a picture. They have an hour left, perhaps their last, and she cannot bear to let him go. She curls up on the grass, weeping. They embrace passionately.
Back at the front, Jack tells Tom it was impossible to talk to their mother as there was a stone wall between them. Tom observes that the letters they send home are lies, because they can't talk to her about what is really happening at the front.
Tom takes Jack's coat by mistake and finds Molly's picture. He assumes Jack forgot to give it to him, but when he teases Jack about it, the truth emerges. Tom, furious and betrayed, refuses to listen.
Major Bradford is ordered to withdraw his artillery group. Men, teams of horses and wagons race to a new position under a constant barrage. They fire on the advancing German infantry, then remove the breech blocks and fall back to their trenches, still under constant fire. Tom lingers by the guns, apparently in despair and seemingly waiting and wanting to be killed. Calling Tom, Jack returns through barbed wire and across shattered ground to reach his brother, now wounded. He drags Tom back.
In the final scene, Jack has lost his left arm and walks with a cane. Molly steps out to meet him and they kiss. Tom has died, but Jack finds consolation in the fact that his brother said they were pals at the end. Jack and Moly walk together into the fog, after a neat little scene with the bobby telling them to put out the match Molly lit for Jack's cigarette, mirroring the opening scene where the bobby says the same thing to a newspaper seller.
Cast
*
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Douglas Elton Fairbanks Jr. (December 9, 1909 – May 7, 2000) was an American actor, producer, and decorated naval officer of World War II. He is best-known for starring in such films as '' The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1937), '' Gunga Din'' (1939) ...
as Jack Ingleside
*
Rose Hobart
Rose Hobart (born Rose Kefer; May 1, 1906 – August 29, 2000) was an American actress and a Screen Actors Guild official.
Early years
Born in New York City, Hobart was the daughter of a cellist in the New York Symphony Orchestra, Paul Ke ...
as Molly Prescott
*
Anthony Bushell
Anthony Arnatt Bushell (19 May 1904 – 2 April 1997) was an English film actor and director who appeared in more than 50 films between 1929 and 1961. He played Colonel Breen in the BBC serial ''Quatermass and the Pit'' (1958–59), and also ap ...
as Tom Ingleside
*
Holmes Herbert
Holmes Herbert (born Horace Edward Jenner; 30 July 1882 – 26 December 1956) was an English character actor who appeared in Hollywood films from 1915 to 1952, often as a British gentleman.
Early life
Born Horace Edward Jenner, (some sour ...
as Major Bradford
*
Mary Forbes
Mary Forbes (born Ethel Louise Young; 1 January 1883 – 22 July 1974) was a British-American film actress, based in the United States in her latter years, where she died. She appeared in more than 130 films from 1919 to 1958.Edmund Breon
Edmund Breon (born Iver Edmund de Breon MacLaverty; 12 December 1882 – 24 June 1953) was a Scottish film and stage actor. He appeared in more than 130 films between 1907 and 1952.
Life and career
Born in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Br ...
as The General
Uncredited:
*
Billy Bevan
Billy Bevan (born William Bevan Harris; 29 September 1887 – 26 November 1957) was an Australian-born vaudevillian who became an American film actor. He appeared in more than 250 American films from 1916 to 1952. He died just before new audie ...
as Cuthbert, Pub Waiter
* Florence Britton as Sylvia
* David Cavendish as Bit
* Tyrell Davis as Archie
*
Ethel Griffies
Ethel Griffies (born Ethel Woods; 26 April 1878 – 9 September 1975) was a British actress. She is remembered for portraying the ornithology, ornithologist Mrs. Bundy in Alfred Hitchcock's classic ''The Birds (film), The Birds'' (1963). She app ...
as Drunk Flower Vendor
* Ruth Hall as Girl at Party
*
Forrester Harvey
Forrester Harvey (27 June 1884 – 14 December 1945) was an Irish film actor.
Career
From 1922 until his death year Harvey appeared in more than 115 films. He was credited for about two-thirds of his film appearances, but some of his roles ...
as Joe, News Vendor
*
Mae Madison
Mae Madison (born Mariska Megyzsi, September 17, 1915November 1, 2004) was an American film actress. She was born in Los Angeles, California. Her parents were from Hungary.
Madison started out as a dancer in the late 1920s. She signed a contra ...
as Ruth
* Edward Morgan as Lt. Wickham
*
Jameson Thomas
Jameson Thomas (born Thomas Roland Jameson; 24 March 1888 – 10 January 1939) was an English film actor. He appeared in more than 80 films between 1923 and 1939.
Biography
He was born in St George Hanover Square, London. On the stage from ...
as Lt. Taylor
Reception
In a contemporary review for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', critic
Mordaunt Hall
Mordaunt Hall (1 November 1878 – 2 July 1973) was the first regularly assigned motion picture critic for ''The New York Times'', working from October 1924 to September 1934.
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
.''Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress'' by The American Film Institute (1978), p. 28