Heroes for Sale

In under 65 minutes, "Heroes for Sale" deals with drug addiction, Red Squads, automation, the Great Depression and World War I. This movie's time frame covers the end of the Great War to the election of FDR, and makes some very pointed observations about America along the way. There are no stereotypes in this movie, and except for the sanctimonious fadeout, I would have rated this movie a 10. "Heroes for Sale" was the last movie William Wellman directed under contract at Warner Bros. and he did a great job. With the onset of the production code in July, 1934, this movie was buried because of its treatment of drug addiction. "Heroes for Sale" is a top notch movie ahead of its time.

After the dawn of sound, Warner Bros. wandered through the early-talkie wilderness trying their hand at Technicolor musicals and revues that largely did not work out. Around 1930 they changed their output to be what we think of when we think about the Warner Bros. of the 1930's - gritty Depression era films that pulled no punches in depicting the hardships of those days. Here Richard Barthelemess is Tom Holmes. Tom's life is a metaphor for just about every social injustice from 1917 through 1933 you can pack into a 70-plus minute film. Through his life we visit the post-war hardships of WWI doughboys including morphine addiction, the double-edged sword of automation, the Red scares and hysteria of the 1920's, and finally the armies of unemployed Depression-era men treated as lepers as they wandered from town to town in search of non-existent jobs.

It's an interesting picture of a bleak world populated with largely unlikable characters such as the socialist who becomes a capitalist as soon as he becomes wealthy and the soldier that stole a wartime honor from Tom only to return home and not stand up for him when Tom really needs him. You do have to overcome some obvious problems in logic to enjoy this film. For one, nobody is as long-suffering as Tom Holmes is in this film, having so much adversity unjustly piled on him and still at heart an optimist. However, the film is a great political precode, and one whose script would not have been possible even a year later with its explicit sarcasm about the American social and economic order.

I rented this movie after reading about William Wellman and his adventure filled life. Heroes for Sale captures the mood of the Great Depression, a time when rich people were not celebrities to be worshiped and envied, but villains who oppressed the working class. The movie is noteworthy as a benchmark for how we lived during a period of economic turmoil 75 years ago versus today. The unemployment ratio is about 1/3 of what is was then and we now have safety nets that weren't available 75 years ago. Also we treat our returning veterans better for the most part. This movie is enjoyable from start to finish and the beauty of it is there is no Hollywood ending per Se. One of the enjoyments is the way early 30's movies had the ability to encapsulate so much plot into a little over an hour. No wonder it was possible to watch a double bill back then. I am looking forward to watching more of Wellman if this movie is any indication of his work. Loretta Young was certainly one of the Hollywood beauties of that era, and a good actress even at that early age. The movie appears faithful to the history of that period in its portrayal of the "Red Squads", treatment of veterans, soup kitchens, and authoritarian figures in general. The morphine segment at the start of the movie is very realistic and not far from the pain killing addition medications of the 21st century.

HEROES FOR SALE is available on videotape as part of the "Forbidden Hollywood" series of pre-Hayes Code films. Since it is not salacious, unlike most of this line, its inclusion is a bit of a stretch-- its hero's morphine addiction is honestly come-by. Still, it is a grabber-- I have shown it to three acquaintances, and each has been as surprised as I. Why isn't this film better known? If you trouble yourself to find a copy, what you will get is a furiously compacted plot line that resembles an Americanized LES MISERABLES. Won't spoil the surprises, which are frequent. But the plot is hardly more surprising than the film's anger-- watch for the series of quick scenes late in the film documenting a Red-scare vendetta by Chicago police. What really seems "forbidden" here are the politics.

Heroes for Sale (1933)

Okay, this is frankly a great movie. It's a "type" of movie that may or may not be your thing--a social conscience film. Warner Bros. in particular was famous for these, and the year before had made the astonishing "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang."

In a way, this one owes a lot to that previous film. The theme is similar--a returning WWI vet runs into trouble adjusting to life at home. And the progression is similar, as this leading man goes through huge ups and downs over many years. There are even similar devices used, like showing several places on the map as he wanders the country, showing his paychecks go up over the years (during a successful period), and using a dates to move the narrative ahead quickly.

The crisis in this movie is not a man wrongly accused of a crime, but a man struggling with morphine addiction from war injuries. Once he overcomes that he rises up but because of his compassion for the poor he's labelled a "Red" meaning a communist and is targeted again. The cycle gets worse and worse.

The leading man, Richard Barthelmess, is (like Paul Muni in "Fugitive") a real actor, less a matinée idol and more a compassionate, emotive performer. And he makes the movie complex and heartwrenching. His wife, when you get to that point, is a young, chipper Loretta Young, who is great, but even better is Young's sidekick, who has a growing part as the movie goes, Aline MacMahon. She represents the truest goodness of all the people in the movie, matching the more exaggerated kindness of Barthelmess.

Eventually the movies moves from 1918 (in the war, actual battle scenes) to 1933, with the depths of the Depression kicking in. And so a whole new kind of despair is on view--something the audience itself felt very much. That's something hard to remember or feel is that the audience was not only suffering much like the people in the movie, they had no idea (!!) when and if the suffering, the Depression, would end. Like "Fugitive," this movie ends with that despair on screen.

But boy is this well made. Well photographed, great modern sound, and wonderful direction by the undervalued great Hollywood master William Wellman. Wellman is one of a handful of terrific directors who never developed his own style outside of what the studio was creating as an institution. But for about twelve years or so (up to "Ox-Bow Incident") he made, on and off, some really terrific, classic, still-powerful movies. "Heroes for Sale" is one of them.