Broken Lullaby (1932)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Ernst Lubitsch

Writers:

Reginald Berkeley (writer)
Samson Raphaelson (writer)

Release Date:

24 January 1932 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A young French soldier in World War I is overcome with guilt whenever he kills a German soldier who...

Plot Keywords:

Guilt | German Soldier | French Soldier | Anti War | Haunted By Past

Cast

Lionel Barrymore	...	Dr. H. Holderlin
Nancy Carroll	...	Fraulein Elsa, Walter's Fiancée
Phillips Holmes	...	Paul Renaud
Louise Carter	...	Frau Holderlin
Tom Douglas	...	Walter Holderlin, German soldier killed by Paul
Emma Dunn	...	Frau Muller
Lucien Littlefield	...	Herr Walter Schultz
Tully Marshall	...	Gravedigger
Zasu Pitts	...	Anna, Holderlin's Maid
George Bickel	...	Herr Bresslauer, Dress Shop Owner
Rodney McLennan	...	War Veteran (as Rodney McLennon)
Reginald Pasch	...	Fritz's Father

Also Known As:

The Man I Killed (UK)

Runtime:

76 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Paramount Ranch - 2813 Cornell Road, Agoura, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

Anti-war movie about a remorseful French soldier...

It's hard to believe that Ernst Lubitsch directed this melodramatic story of a French soldier obsessed with the memory of the German soldier he killed in the trenches during WWI.

PHILLIPS HOLMES plays the soldier in a tortured acting style reminiscent of the sort later essayed by Montgomery Clift. In fact, Holmes would go on to play one of the roles Clift is most associated with--the young man accused of murder in "An American Tragedy" (later made as "A Place in the Sun" with Clift and Elizabeth Taylor).

LIONEL BARRYMORE is the murdered soldier's father, touched by the fact that Holmes came to Germany to place flowers on his son's grave. His actions are also misunderstood by the soldier's fiancé (NANCY CARROLL) and his mother. Holmes sets out to tell them the truth, but changes his mind and stays in the household where he gradually falls in love with Carroll.

The villagers are all agog with gossip that the Frenchman and the German girl are getting on so well. Meanwhile, the viewer is left pondering how it will all turn out once the truth is known among the participants in the household.

Obviously made as an anti-war drama, it's done in the heavy-handed style often adapted in films of the '30s based on stage plays. Holmes tends to overact is role, but is very impressive in some scenes. It's too bad that this untimely death left us with a broken record of what his career might have been.