David Golder

Harry Baur stars as the title man, a vastly wealthy and powerful financier and dealmaker. He's as ruthless as he is successful, and as the film begins, he refuses to help his former business partner get out of a jam that will leave him broke. The distraught man commits suicide, an act which causes Golder to slowly begin taking stock of his own life, particularly the spendthrift ways of his wife Gloria (Paule Andral) and his spoiled daughter Joyce (Jackie Monnier). As Golder's health begins to deteriorate and his fortunes fade, he learns how those around him truly feel.

This was the sound film debut for both director Duvivier and star Baur, and they craft a moving character study, an examination of what drives powerful men, and what the outcome of such a life can be. There are some rough patches, such as visible crew shadows and obvious miniature effects, but not enough to sink the film. This movie makes a nice addition to any list of films concerning the idle rich and the downfall of "big" men.

This marvellous film represents a triple 'first'. It is not only the first 'talkie' of director Julien Duvivier but also that of actor Harry Baur, as well as being the first of six films they made together in the 1930's. Of these 'Behold the Man' is the weakest but Baur's appearance as Herod is mesmerising. Even by Duvivier's standards this tale of a Jewish businessman's downfall, adapted from the novel of the ill-fated Irene Nemirovsky, is a bleak and deeply cynical piece in which most of the characters are utterly devoid of the finer qualities. They are by turns venal, rapacious and thoroughly ignoble. Golder is regarded by his wife and daughter as a moneymaking machine and they are understandably indignant when his near-fatal heart attack causes the flow of funds to dry up. He is, ironically enough, shown kindness in his dying moments by a young Jewish immigrant going to Paris in search of wealth who probably reflects Golder as he once was and as he would most likely become. The technical virtuosity is astounding for a film made ninety years ago and the credits include names that are awe-inspiring. Georges Perinal and Armand Thirard as cinematographers with art direction by Lazare Meerson! Bauer was of course a genius on a par with Charles Laughton and Heinrich George and his David Golder is another in his gallery of unforgettable characterisations. Paula Andrial and Jackie Monnier are perfectly cast as his monstrous wife and daughter. Needless to say this film has been labelled by some as 'anti-Semitic'. This accusation is frankly ridiculous and not even worthy of consideration. This powerful piece serves to remind us that the only thing more soul-destroying than the love of money is the lack of it!

With "David Golder" ,Duvivier the great director,the master of the darker side of the human soul was born.It contained the seeds of all that would be developed afterward.

Harry-Baur gives a powerful performance of a wealthy Jewish businessman;he is so good that the actresses seem mediocre by comparison.

David Golder thinks that money can buy everything;he does not want to help his associate who takes his own life ("I do not care"°;his wife and his daughter live in luxury and would not imagine it any other way:see the daughter stroke the banknotes which her dad won for her.She displays no love,no tenderness,no human emotion at all.Later when she comes back to her desperate father,she will have the same behavior.

And then David has a heart attack! The missus is not prepared to accept poverty.While the man is lying on his bed she begins to tell him he may die soon and she has not a Franc to her name.A masterful scene where David grabs her by the throat and almost strangles her with her valuable necklace:"What about that?" he thunders.There's a similar scene in "Chair de Poule" (1963) when Catherine Rouvel tries to worm information from a wounded bedridden Robert Hossein;and Golder's shrew is not unlike Danielle Delorme's abominable mother in "Voici le temps des assassins" (1956) Like many Duvivier heroes ,Golder ,although a ruthless financier ,is still a human being.When he loses the power that gives money ,he thinks that his daughter's love will make up for it.Unfortunately there's no place for love in a world where rapaciousness and greed run rampant.

Duvivier's blackness is absolute disembodied blackness.David will go to his grave a broken man .on his death bed,his sufferings are so intense we feel them within our body and our soul.

Some people think that there's anti-Semitism in the film .There isn't: Harry Baur's wife was a Jew.

Based on Irene Nemirovsky's novel; a writer who sadly was to die in the concentration camps.

David Golder is an average movie from the legendary French Film maker Julien Duvivier. The story is impressive and interesting about how a person spends his life time earning a fortune, and finally die miserably. Wealth was the only interest of everyone surrounding the central character. There are some amazing shots in the movie. The beginning felt too boring and became interesting towards the end.

This was Julien Duvivier's first talking film, but the pace and type of story feels much more like a late silent in its bleak and unvarnished honesty. There's not much effort to "entertain" the audience, and yet the story, of a rich man reaching the end of his life and realizing he has nothing, is loved by no-one, and is viewed only as a cash cow by everyone in his life, makes a lot out of really very little, and cuts deep, mostly due to Harry Baur's performance in the title role, which put me in mind of some of Emil Jannings' great performances in films like The Last Command, Variety and The Blue Angel. Alone and unattractive, unloved and unloveable, his David Golder seems today a strange character for us to be following the fate of with such sympathy and yet we can't take our eyes off him. He's not a good or admirable man by any means, but everyone else we see is even worse, and under those conditions his is as good a story as any to pick out and tell.

The film has an often patchy feel to it, and the camerawork is by turns functional and dazzling (the aerial stock market shots, the sea, the nature photography). It falls some way short of greatness, and there's perhaps a little too much talking and not enough action, but it's a real film nonetheless and a good one at that.

6½ /10.