Heroes for Sale

There's something strange about watching most pre-code WB movies: they don't end so much as they just STOP. It's as if Jack Warner doled out a budget and the director just shut the production down when the film stock quit being delivered. Wild Bill Wellman's a top-notch director knee deep into his socialist fervor period (see WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD as a double bill), Barthemless is a hapless WWI vet who traded heroism for a morphine addiction--- his cowardly platoon commander got the glory and he faces the next 14 years dealing with everything life throws at him. His fortunes ironically change when his cartoon-Red neighbor (played to the usual hilt by Robert Barratt) invents a machine that allows them both to get rich, but Barthemless has gains a deeper social conscious as Barratt loses his. This is really a big budget (for Warners!) soap opera. An uplifting ending is tacked on after Barthemless disappears into the Land of the Hobos. Watchable as an example of early 30's "realism."

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.

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.

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.

Interesting, bleak depression-era story of man whose life swings back and forth from success to horrible tragedy. A lot like WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD, another great but weird slice of depression era bleakness directed by William Wellman. Here, Richard Barthelmess survives WWI only to get addicted to morphine, rises to the top of the business world before he's cheated out of his work, and that's just the beginning of his troubles. The portrait of labor strife, Bolshevik organizers, and violent oppression by the cops presents a far more political portrait of the depression from the perspective of the poor than usually seen in these films. It's a schizophrenic but fascinating film, bouncing between goofy comedy, heavy tragedy, and gritty, grim resolve. The armies of homeless men tramping the rails and the countryside is an image that won't go away soon.