LABOUR OF LOVE

Radio Record, 15 July 1938, Page 25

LABOUR OF LOVE

Director’s Dream Comes True In One ot the Ten Best Films o7 1938

("Of Human Hearts." M-G-M, Directeg by Clarence Brown. With Walter Huston, Beulah Bondi. James Stewart, First release: Auckland, July 22.] y me 7, tat or

N 1920, Clarence Brown, M.-G.-M. director, bought for himself the screen rights to a novel by Honore Morrow, entitled "Benefits Forgot." He then, I can imagine, tied it up with a pretty pink ribbon and put it away. with a sprig of lavender in his bot--tom drawer, hoping for the day when he could give his story to the world. It rather alters one’s conception of the typically level-headed, businesslike magnate of. Hollywood, doesn’t it-this thought of a director sentimentally treasuring an embryo screen play through 18 long years? And I think the fact is of practical importance. Clarence Brown has at Jast brought his story to the sereen, under the title of "Of Human Hearts’; and if ever a film gave evidence of being a labour of love, it is this one,

"Of Human Hearts" has a certain quality very few other films possessand that tale about a script cherished by a director for 18 years helps to explain what that quality is. It is almost as,if Brown’s devotion {9 his subject has been transmitted to everyone connected ith the making of the film, so that it finds an outlet not only in his almost inspired direction, but also in the utter honesty of the acting, the sanity and deep feeling of the dialogue, the quiet, moving beauty of the photography. Of Any Age T is necessary, | suppose, to deseribe "Of Human Hearts" as a "period" picture, in that its action takes place in the middle of last century. But the whole atmosphere.is so convincing, the characters and situations so real and recognisable, that the picture has an everyday intimacy which modern drama seldom achieves and historical drama practically never. This story, one feels, could be set in the twentieth century, the nineteenth, or the ninth. and it would make little real difference to its power to touch the heart, There is more genuine feeling, more simple humour, more truth and, more dignity per foot of this film than al most anything we've seen since Hollywood learned the meaning of sophistieation.and fell a victim to it.

"Good And Bad UST a simple story ... Plain people living plain lives in a small: backwoods village in Ohio round about the time of the American Civil War... No tangled young romance. .. No heroes, heroines or villains in the conventional sense... ' With one exception, no character is either all-virtuous or all-bad. The parson who comes to guide the spiritual destinies of this little flock in the wilderness is an upright, wise, and godly man-but guilty of the sin of pious intolerance toward his own son. To his parishioners he is a model of virtue; to the boy he is a martinet. Even when the text is hammered home by a leather strap in a strong paternal hand, seriptural precepts about being grateful for small mercies do not make much appeal to a boy whose heart is young and rebellious-especially when those small mercies consist of -the neighbours’ cast-off clothing. To the lad, the very pants he wears, the very food he eats, are a reminder of shameful dependence upon other, -less worthy people; to the father, secure in his faith, they are honourable rewards for service. Scanty rewards, it is true, but that is just another cross to be bravely ‘and uncomplainingly berne. Man’s Ingratitude NERE is as much light and shade in the character of the son as there is in that of the father. As the ‘boy grows to manhood, the breach widens,

until at last he leaves home to attend medical school. He will win fame and fortune’so that his ‘mother will ne longer ‘have to suffer poverty. But in seeking to achieve that .ambition he almost breaks his. mother’s heart when, with. the. thoughtless eruelty of youth, he drains her of her few treasured possessions so that he May continue his education and keep up appearances. . . He is going to the wars. He must have a surgeon’s uniform. Couldn’t his mother sell that old ornament which she got as a wedding present? It was no use to her. but it would fetch a few pounds. .. And while the mother snaps another precious link with her past, and goes’ hungry and cold, the son spends the few pounds on a pair of doeskin gloves. After all, every officer is wearing them! I’m afraid I have made that son sound like a skunk; but actually his behaviour is made to seem so natural that it is hard.to condemn it. For all his base ingratitude, it is easy to like this young man who means so well, but is.so humanly fallible. Gems Of Acting NHERD is, however, outright, un- shadowed nobility in the character of the mother (Beulah Bondi), who is prepared to sacrifice everything for her family, and who bears malice toward none. Such virtue as this could easily have been made the excuse for artificial sentiment anu maudlin moralising, iIt never is. Beulah Bondi as the mother is as lifelike a figure as the father, the son, or the drunken doctor who is held up +o scorn by the pious villagers, but actually is the best man among them. This character.of the doctor is just another example of the film’s perfection. Charles Coburn plays him; put

I am not prepared -to say that Coburn acts better than Walter Huston as ‘the father, or Guy Kibbee as the niggardly Ox even better than. the unknow. actor who appears for a. few brief seconds here and there as the oldest inhabitant. Hach performance is a clear-cut. gem in. a setting of drowsy, rural beauty that is so real you can almost feel the warmth of the sunshine that glints on -the river. The Boy Stands Out qT. AM, however, prepared to make special reference to Gene Reynolds, Who plays the part of the son as a young boy. I can remember nothing so sensitive, so moving as‘this performance. With so many brilliant children coming to the forefront these days the.Academy should give a special. juvenile Award. If they did, Gene-Rey-nolds would ‘be the first to win it. There is only one sequence in "Of Human Hearts." which, at the time, gave me the impression of being rather far-fetched. That was the meeting between President Lincoln and the young soldier, whom the great .man reprimands for not having written to his mother for two years. I have since learned, however, that this Lincoln episode is widely. accepted as being anthentic. Even if it isn’t, John Carradine’s portrayal of Lincoln more than excuses if. It Gets A Shirt! MAKE no apologies for having been rather carried away by my-enthu-siasn for "Of Human Hearts," nor for giving it the "Re-ord’s" highest grading, though I must confess to having been somewhat dubious on the © last point. In some ways, perhaps, a "Dark Horse". grading might have been

better,. because with. its lack of..star value, and its lack of sensationalism or sophistication, . "Of Human .° Hearts" may quite possibly not.make the hearts of theatre managers beat. with. joy at the sound of shillings tinkling ‘into the cash-desk. And yet, to dismiss "Of Human Hearts" merely as‘a: dark horse would hardly be fair-to a film which shows such outstanding ‘merit on every: side. No, it gets a "shirt." ‘See it, every mother's son-and daughter-of you!