The Light That Failed (1939)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

William A. Wellman

Writers:

Robert Carson (writer)
Rudyard Kipling (novel)

Release Date:

24 December 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Only Rudyard Kipling could write such a romance! Only Ronald Colman could play such a role!

Plot:

Dick Heldar, a London artist, is gradually losing his sight. He struggles to complete his masterpiece...

Plot Keywords:

Blindness | Painting | Based On Novel

Cast

Ronald Colman	...	Dick Heldar
Walter Huston	...	Torpenhow
Muriel Angelus	...	Maisie
Ida Lupino	...	Bessie Broke
Dudley Digges	...	The Nilghai
Ernest Cossart	...	Beeton
Ferike Boros	...	Madame Binat
Pedro de Cordoba	...	Monsieur Binat
Colin Tapley	...	Gardner
Ronald Sinclair	...	Dick as a boy
Sarita Wooton	...	Maisie as a girl
Halliwell Hobbes	...	Doctor
Charles Irwin	...	Soldier model
Francis McDonald	...	George
George Regas	...	Cassavetti

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Espanola, New Mexico, 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.

Quotes:

Dick Heldar: Painting is seeing, then remembering better than you saw.

Movie Connections:

Edited into Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 3 (1942)

Well done, beautifully acted, and as melodramatic as possible

Authors just don't have the nerve to write melodrama any more. They're afraid of big issues and larger-than-life emotions, they're afraid that if they put any real passion or sentiment on the page, they'll make fools of themselves. They're probably right, but when a story as sappy as this works, it really, uh, "tugs at the heartstrings" as they used to say.

Rudyard Kipling's war horse story works because it's well acted and directed. Ronald Colman is even more wonderful than usual as a Victorian artist who finds he's going blind, and has just enough time left to paint a masterpiece. Never was an actor more admirable, earnest, and lovable as Colman. Ida Lupino got her big break as the model for "Melancholy". Oh, she's wonderful; a mean, vicious, petty little tart, never again would anybody dismiss her as just another pretty face. This part established her as one of the all-time great Bad Girls, beautiful and strong enough to make over-the-top hysteria seem like bravura acting. She's great.

The direction is as lively as can be for what's largely two characters in one room, and the B&W photography is beautifully expressive. Recommended for when you want some old-fashioned unashamed emotion.