Richard Barthelmess plays the title role in Henry King's tale of dark clouds in late-19th Century small-town Americana. He's the gawky youngest of two sons, wearing ill-fitting clothes and impatient to be looked upon as a man, who suddenly finds himself burdened with huge responsibilities when his older brother is crippled by three heavies and his father dies of a heart attack. Nothing more than a modern retelling of David and Goliath, but it's told with pace and vigour - and with lumbering Ernest Torrence stealing every scene he's in as the brutish thug with a leery eye on David's sweetheart.
Review of Tol'able David
