I immediately felt the tension in the movie. When the survivors trekked their way for a mile through heavy snow to the church, the tension in the church was palpable--the viewer felt anything could happen. The physical and psychological atmospherics rivaled what Hitchcock would do. The bleak snow clad landscape mirroring the psychological bleak lives they all lead, the bleakness of prison for two of the six characters.
Six people (3 men/3 women--one male, one female on their way to prison) trapped in a church during a snow storm; the central character is aware they could be trapped for ten days at a minimum, and knows there is only food for five days; the central character plays the heavy enforcing the distribution of food, which makes him the heavy and the central character. Eventually, the food runs out, the wood for heating fuel runs out. (They seemed to have used the organ for fuel. Do they burn the wooden cross by the end of the film?) "Singing in the Rain" pointed out the difficulties of recording of early talkies, none of those difficulties were apparent in this movie.
In a day when we are all spoiled with more than a century of film excellence, when we come to an early talkie such as this, we cannot expect the level of sophistication modern film brings. And yet, this film excelled in the sophistication of simplicity, simplicity of atmospherics, and with a simple and heart warming message for a conclusion.
liked a Jack London short story, the narrative held up and was taut for its one hour unfolding.
Six people (3 men/3 women--one male, one female on their way to prison) trapped in a church during a snow storm; the central character is aware they could be trapped for ten days at a minimum, and knows there is only food for five days; the central character plays the heavy enforcing the distribution of food, which makes him the heavy and the central character. Eventually, the food runs out, the wood for heating fuel runs out. (They seemed to have used the organ for fuel. Do they burn the wooden cross by the end of the film?) "Singing in the Rain" pointed out the difficulties of recording of early talkies, none of those difficulties were apparent in this movie.
In a day when we are all spoiled with more than a century of film excellence, when we come to an early talkie such as this, we cannot expect the level of sophistication modern film brings. And yet, this film excelled in the sophistication of simplicity, simplicity of atmospherics, and with a simple and heart warming message for a conclusion.
liked a Jack London short story, the narrative held up and was taut for its one hour unfolding.