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INK ABOUTGREASEPAINTBy Alice Alworthh“The Man I Killed”Of all the movie porducers’ attemptsd to draw tears in the past few months,n : they have succeeded only three times § ! as far as I am concerned. I wept atpreviews ofonfv»1-/ I.t'IS3' ! leie1r»odw0h'Sg“Emma,” and j “The Champ,”and the picture j now showing atI the Criterion1 Theatre, called“The Man I J Killed.”When thei film is shownI out of town it| will be knownas “The Fifth Commandment taking that title from the story which is based upon the “Honor thy father and thy mother” theme.The action takes place in a small German village a year after the World j ( War. It concerns a young French ex-soldier who is tortured with the mem' ory of the man he killed in the trenches. A musican by profession and a highly tempermental person, Paul, the Frenchman, is driven almost mad at the thought of his “murder1]e ! for duty.” He seeks solace in thel:edisilx.s:ritnddr*eechurch, but failing to find it there, he goes to the home of Walter Holder' lin, the man he killed, and tries to confess to Walter’s bereaved parents that he is the murderer of their son. He is unable to do it, so he pretends to have known Walter in Paris before the war. He wins the love of the old couple, and that of Walter’s sweet' heart. Paul confesses to the girl thelie he has been living, and that helearned Walter’s address from a letter that he found on his victim’s body. The girl convinces him that to reveal the truth to the parents now, after they have come to love him as a son, would be like killing Walter a second time.“The Man I Killed” is an Ernst:ttilt;(iirdi..tosLubitsch production, and he has pro' vided the picture with faultless direc-tion and casting. Phillips Holmes, as Paul, is not only convincing, but emo' tionally stirring; Lionel Barrymore, as Walter’s father, gives a rare perform' ance. He has forgotten, for this pic' ture, the well known and well worn Barrymore growls and eye'squints, and has given a sincere and honest per' formance as the old German doctor.S I, Nancy Carroll also gives a genuineftcc€IiSc1t!tSryyySttyeIperformance. She made no effort tobe incredibly beautiful for this role. She left off the false eyedashes and wasn’t afraid to make unattractive faces. The result is a believable per' formance. Tom Douglas, as Walter, is effective in the brief moment for which he remained alive. Tom is the youngster who appeared on the Los Angeles legitimate stage and brought the house down in leading roles oppO' site Elsie Ferguson and Mrs. Patrick Campbell. He was signed for movies and was unfortunately given bad or insignificant parts. But the boy is good—he’s on the road to the top.“The Man I Killed” is a timely pic' ture. I don’t think that anyone who sees it will ever again cheer a military parade. It sets one to thinking about war to hear Lionel Barrymore as the old father say, “I stood in front of this building and watched my son march to war. I watched him march to his death. And I cheered, do you hear me?—I cheered!” The contempt for himself, the remorse and sorrow that the old man expresses in those lines will stir the most phlegmatic ofpicture audiences.* * *ttcat.IftatIcrinEvIII hutidIS
Newspaper Details
Bronxville Press
Bronxville, New York, US
Tue, Feb 09, 1932
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Rotten T.
USA 08 Sep 2021
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