The Devil's in Love

1933's "The Devil's in Love" was yet another Fox entry in the French Foreign Legion adventures so popular at the time. Major Bertram (Robert H. Barrat) has just transferred his best doctor, Andre Morand (Victor Jory), to an outpost that means certain death, then ends up poisoned after taking some medication. Andre is quickly convicted of murder, but his good friend, Capt. Jean Fabien (David Manners), ensures his escape to Port Zamba, where he resumes his practice under the name Paul Vernay, gaining time to prove himself innocent before Chief of Police Radak (C. Henry Gordon) can find him. Both Victor Jory and Bela Lugosi (as well as C. Henry Gordon) had previously appeared in a 1930 Legion feature at Fox, "Renegades" (Jory's film debut), and had another connection for the same studio: Lugosi had played the fortune teller Tarneverro in 1931's Charlie Chan feature "The Black Camel," while in the 1941 remake "Charlie Chan in Rio," Jory played the role, now called Alfredo Marana. David Manners, from "Dracula" and "The Death Kiss," would work with Lugosi once more in 1934's "The Black Cat," while Loretta Young would actually work with Boris Karloff this same year, in "The House of Rothschild." Lugosi found steady employment at Fox prior to Dracula, but this one-shot return went unnoticed at the time; inexplicably, he receives no on-screen credit (for the last time), though it's clearly a showy part that served him well (about five minutes screen time). Wearing a bushy moustache and clad in military uniform, Bela's smug and confident prosecutor actually wins his case. Other impressive performances are essayed by J. Carrol Naish and Akim Tamiroff.

Victor Jory, a French Foreign Legion medic unjustly charged with murdering a superior officer, escapes the firing squad with the aid of best pal David Manners. He finds sanctuary in Loretta Young's mission and falls in love with her, not knowing that just a few months ago she was in Paris and met and became engaged to... David Manners! Other implausibilities and co-inky-dinks dot this sub-Hemingway nonsense, which also features the alleged comic relief of Herbert Mundin and Vivienne Osborne as Jory's old flame -- an independent-minded, self-sacrificing, and thoroughly admirable Bad Woman who makes the Latin Quarter of whatever North African outpost this is supposed to be look infinitely more fun than the virtuous surroundings of Young's mission. Young, required only to look pretty and play holier-than-thou, does so competently, and the director, William (still billed as "Wilhelm" at this point in his career) Dieterle, was always good for some striking compositions. It's also interesting to see Jory, usually in supporting and/or villainous roles, attempt a Gary Cooper-type hero. He's a little stolid and you're never aware of anything much going on in his head, but that would be asking a lot of a character drawn this broadly. An amiable time-waster with a pointless title, and it's fun to watch the audacious turns of plot and twists of fate pile up.

Funny to see as the non-French people see the Legion Etrangère;generally in the French movies ,the hero has done something very wrong and takes refuge there;to be honest,it was the same in "Beau Geste" .Here ,the hero is unfairly charged with murder and sentenced to death and he takes refuge in civilian life.

William (Wilhem) Dieterle has a good knowledge of the French popular culture ;after all he did the best version of "Notre Dame De Paris" (The hunchback of Notre Dame ,1939)not to mention his Madame Du Barrry and his Pasteur biopics.Here in the fort,we can hear the Legion classic "As-Tu Vu la Casquette Du Père Bugeaud?" which I used to sing in nursery school (or is it my grandma who taught me the song?);the native brats sing "Cadet Rousselle" in English ;the hero's name is Morand ,the same as Pierre Benoit's legionnaire in "L'Atlantide" which was transferred to the screen several times ,even in the silent age.

The rebels who attack the fort are given the same treatment as those in Ford 's "lost patrol" (1934)or Julien Duvivier's "La Bandera" (1935):they are bastards,period.

The movie is too short and the ending is rather implausible,but it is quite entertaining and it's always a joy to see Loretta Young as the comforter angel.

"The Devil's in Love" is a very interesting movie, and fans of old movies consider this a gem. A good cast and a compelling plot are highlights. This could have been just another story of intrigue in the Foreign Legion, but Bela Lugosi gives a stand-out performance as the Military Prosecutor. Although Bela had a small role (remember the famous quote: "There are no small parts, only small actors") it was a key role and pivotal to the story. The scene Bela is in is actually fairly lengthy. Whereas Bela's name is absent from the main credits, Bela's performance did not go unnoticed by his growing number of fans-- who were now becoming, pardon the pun, Legion.

When I first thought of writing a review of The Devil's In Love, made by William (here "Wilhelm") Dieterle for Fox Films in 1933, I thought I would begin by calling it the most von Sternberg-like film by another director that I know of. On reflection, while I think this is still true, I don't think Dieterle thought for a minute "This is going to be an imitation JvS" the way many directors decades later made obvious Hitchcock imitations, I think the similarities to JvS's Dietrich films are worth considering but the differences are really more important.

First, the similarities: There is a scene between Loretta Young and Victor Jory where the effect of shadows from an overhead trellis or some such on her face is reminiscent of the shots in JvS's Morocco where we see the French Legionnaires overlaid with similar shadow patterns. Probably Hal Mohr, the excellent cameraman, had taken notice of Lee Garmes's photography of JvS films and this sort of thing came naturally, without being intended as imitation or "homage."

When the hero (Victor Jory, more often a villain), fleeing from unjust punishment in the Legion, takes up residence in a new town under a new name, he is visited by an old flame, Rena (the excellent Vivianne Osborne), who operates a cabaret-brothel in town. Her joint looks like a seedier, more low-rent version of the one LoTinto (Paul Porcasi) operates in Morocco, which at least aspired to "class." (Interestingly, Paul Porcasi, who played LoTinto in Morocco here appears as an irascible bartender--much more butch-looking than LoTinto was.) Where LoTinto's cabaret had a special section for the "society" of Morocco, so they wouldn't have to mingle with the hoi polloi, Rena's clientele appears to be all hoi polloi.

Rena's floor show is the tackiest imaginable with no-talent dancers who, it is implied, can be rented out for other purposes. Her floor show opens with a brash, untalented comedienne in a ridiculous oversized headdress rushing on to perform a cockney comic song--a blatant "distanciation effect" of the kind JvS used in The Blue Angel and, though it came later, in unexpected moments in The Devil is a Woman to emphasize the painful humiliation of Lionel Atwill's obsession with Dietrich. Perhaps to Dieterle, with his cultured German background, this sort of thing came naturally, with any similarity to JvS unintended.

Even with these similarities, the differences are more salient. Dieterle moves his film along at a brisk pace, in the manner of WB films of the period and doesn't indulge in the dreamy languorousness of JvS films. The dialogue is delivered crisply and so the whole feeling of the acting is different, more realistic. (I suspect that JvS had Dietrich speak her lines so slowly not for any aesthetic reason but simply to compensate for her lack to fluency in English.) Dieterle gives his actors many big close-ups, which JvS used sparingly. Loretta Young is Dieterle's lovely leading lady, a fine actress who JvS would surely have found uncongenial--but that just shows his limitations! Victor Jory makes for a tough, virile, no-nonsense leading man, a distinct improvement over Victor McLaglen, Clive Brook and--dare I say it?--even Gary Cooper.

Since screenwriting is not often celebrated unless it calls attention to itself, I'd like to say a good word for Howard Estabrook's script--a model of compression that covers a lot of ground without seeming rushed. His dialogue scenes, though they lack the wit of Sternberg and Furthman, are good at conveying characters' backstories without seeming to, without any of the languid reminiscence common to JvS's principals.

All in all, an unusually interesting film that combines the pace and zest of the best WB films with the conscious artistry common not just to JvS but also to Paramount films of the time. Highly recommended. -- Patrick O'Neill, 3/12/22.