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spencer-warren
Reviews
The Shopworn Angel (1938)
The kind they don't and can't make any more
I first saw this gem, knowing nothing about it, over thirty years ago in the much missed Theater 80 St. Marks in the east Village in NYC. I remember how deeply the film moved me as vividly today as back then. This is the kind of modest, sweet and emotionally true - and superbly written, acted and directed - movie that is the glory of the Golden Age.
I cannot add to the perfect reviews above (especially the first few) except to reiterate their points about the emotional maturity and complexity of the picture. We feel the raw, physical nature of the relationship between Daisy and Sam - amazingly, with no nudity or the crudeness of films today.
May I add the highly accomplished direction of the unsung pro H.C.Potter. His direction of the final scene is masterly: heartbreaking, with no dialogue, thereby heightening the very emotional climax's impact on the viewer., One of the chief techniques which make those films so superior to the vulgar, self-indulgent excess of today.