"The Valiant" is one of those movies from that brief silents to sound transition period that is virtually impossible to enjoy for any of the things we usually watch movies for. You have to have both a curiosity about and knowledge of the history of film technology to make it through a movie like this, and even then it can be a real slog. Take Paul Muni for example, one of the best actors of the 1930s. A mere three years after making his film debut in "The Valiant," he would deliver one of the best performances of the decade in "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang," but the actor who would go on to give that performance is nowhere to be found here. Why? Because sound technology was so new and clunky that actors weren't allowed to move. Muni clearly has no idea what to do with himself and apparently wasn't given much direction, because he spends the entire movie standing stock still and delivering every line as if he's seconds away from being comatose. He looks terrified to even move his head from side to side.
"The Valiant" is a terrible bore and again only of real interest if you're a film buff (like me) who's fascinated by these transition movies.
1928-29, no doubt because of all this transition business, offered up perhaps the worst collective batch of Academy Award nominees in the institution's history. It was also maybe one of the weirdest years for the Academy. "The Valiant" snagged nominations for Best Actor and for Best Writing (Tom Barry), but technically there weren't nominees that year. A combination of historical records and insider knowledge now clues us in on what films were under serious consideration in each category, but no one was nominated in advance and just a winner in each category was announced at the actual Oscar ceremony.
Grade: C-
"The Valiant" is a terrible bore and again only of real interest if you're a film buff (like me) who's fascinated by these transition movies.
1928-29, no doubt because of all this transition business, offered up perhaps the worst collective batch of Academy Award nominees in the institution's history. It was also maybe one of the weirdest years for the Academy. "The Valiant" snagged nominations for Best Actor and for Best Writing (Tom Barry), but technically there weren't nominees that year. A combination of historical records and insider knowledge now clues us in on what films were under serious consideration in each category, but no one was nominated in advance and just a winner in each category was announced at the actual Oscar ceremony.
Grade: C-