The Valiant

If ever you ever wanted a definition of melodrama then this is it but don't let that put you off - it's is also a unexpectedly intelligent, grown-up and by 1929 standards, a well-made little film. A man kills another man - we don't know why, we don't know who the killer is, we don't know whom he killed. He's sentenced to death - is he resigned to his fate, does he want to die, is he planning an escape? By not giving anything at all away your curiosity is instantly engaged. It's such a clever little device - and one you wouldn't expect from a 1929 Fox Film.

In 1929 a handful of directors hit the ground running when it came to switching from silents to talkies. Most however, as was amusingly shown in the Margot Robbie film BABYLON hadn't a clue resulting in so much unwatchable awfulness. Although William Howard wasn't one of those up there with the likes of De Mille, von Sternberg, Mamoulian or even Roland West, he wasn't one the worst either. There's nothing wrong with this at all it simply doesn't have the 'wow factor' some of his contemporaries managed to achieve. He clearly knew how to make a silent film and especially his 'film parts' as opposed to the main 'stage play part' at the end (this picture is an expanded version of a very popular one-act play) are excellent. His skill is shown in the first scenes where he perfectly captures an authentic feel of pre-depression America as Muni traipses down some tatty street past tatty kids born a hundred years ago playing out their ordinary lives. He gives us a real time-machine moment.

The acting is also miles better than a lot of the very early talkies but it's still far from natural.... except for Paul Muni. His portrayal of detachment, hopelessness and quiet resignation is outstanding. Although this gets crazily melodramatic, Muni's stoic performance is both intriguing and really rather moving. He easily makes up for the shortcomings of his fellow actors....apart from Johnny Mack Brown who cannot be forgiven on any grounds. Fortunately he's not in this too much. You almost feel embarrassed for him. Whereas MGM and Paramount targeted those who considered themselves sophisticated, Fox's audience were more blue collar. Presumably Mr Brown was picked to appeal to Fox Film's rural audience in middle America but I'd imagine even the humblest of farm hands back then must have found that patronising.

I know people looked older in the past but Edith York, playing the mother looks about two hundred years old. She must have given birth to her daughter when she was about 90 which can only be explained by her daughter Mary being some sort of miracle you read about in The Bible. That's actually feasible and confirmed when you look at Marguerite Churchill because if you had to imagine what an angel looked like, you'd imagine her. She's almost too pretty to be real! You can easily forgive her slightly uneasy performance doing something completely new to her simply because she's so pretty but even so she's not just a (very) pretty face - she really can act - her emotional longing, purity and positiveness actually blends really well with Paul Muni's mysterious self-sacrificing moodiness.

I saw this film originally in 2005 after making a special appointment at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. (It has shown a few times on TCM, I believe.) THE VALIANT is an excellent showcase for Paul Muni's performance as an anonymous man sentenced to death for a murder he refuses to discuss. His scenes become exemplars of powerful understatement, particularly in his penultimate scene with Mauguerite Churchill's character, who comes to Muni's prison (probably New York's Sing Sing) to find out if he is her long-lost brother. The resulting emotional scene moved my partner to tears, and she is not an easily moved person! I first became attracted to Muni's acting when I watched his powerful performance in I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG (1932) as a child. His performance in THE VALIANT earned Muni his first Academy Award nomination. I've seen the other extant nominations, and they are substandard at best (Chester Morris in ALIBI, George Bancroft in THUNDERBOLT, and especially the winner, Warner Baxter in IN OLD ARIZONA.) The film suffers a bit from the limitations associated with the early sound era, particularly from the somewhat wooden supporting performances by Churchill and the future cowboy star John Mack Brown. But the writing and direction by William Howard are still powerful enough to help support Muni's outstanding performance.

Directed by William K. Brown. Starring Paul Muni, Marguerite Churchill, DeWitt Jennings, John Mack Brown, Edith Yorke, Clifford Dempsey, Richard Carlyle.

After killing a man who "deserved to die," Muni turns himself in to authorities under a false identity to protect his family; when Churchill sees his picture in the paper and believes it to be the brother she hasn't seen in years, she travels to the prison to meet him before his execution. Simple, unfussy drama, clocking in at just over an hour, has moments of quiet power emerging from the often stiff, static presentation. In his screen debut, Muni establishes an intuitive, naturalistic acting style, avoiding nearly all the industry-wide creaky performance tricks that severely date most early talkies (Brown, on the other hand, inspires giggles just about every time he opens his mouth). Even at its short length, signs of padding when Muni is offscreen are apparent, while other aspects would have benefited from deeper development; sentimentality during the final reel is earned.

61/100

Of what interest "The Valiant' may be of today is probably mostly due to its receiving a couple of nominations from the second Academy Awards (Paul Muni for Best Actor along with one for Writing) and for those interested in surveying Hollywood's transition to talkies or Muni's career, with this being his first picture in an oeuvre that would include six Oscar nominations and one win. Three years later, he would star in two of his best roles, "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang" and "Scarface" (both 1932). Here, thankfully, he's relatively restrained, although the line readings for most of the cast tend to be very stilted, which isn't helped by the creaky and primitive sound-recording technology. Being based on a one-act play, however, "The Valiant" is an interesting adaptation that "opens up" the play to about-an-hour-long feature-length film, while commendably leaving much of its story unexplained, or open. Looking beyond its primitive deficiencies, it's even a subtly powerful picture in its treatment of war.

Technically, "The Valiant" is superior to some other talkies from this period; although, silent cinema was at an artistic peak and remains better than these early sound pictures. The first scene makes good use of off-screen action as indicated by sound (a gun shot) and shadows. There are also a few crane and dolly shots throughout the picture. A hold-over from the silent era, the film is divided by five title cards that set-up the proceeding acts. The lack of a musical score is probably beneficial here, as it would surely be overly mawkish otherwise; what music there is consists of three diegetic musical scenes: a Jazz band in prison and a dance party and piano playing in the country house. I've seen quite a few films from 1929, and it seems that even the "silent" ones included such diegetic musical scenes. At least two other 1929 prison pictures, "Thunderbolt" and "Weary River," also include the playing of musical instruments. Evidently, it was a popular notion for exploiting the new synchronized film-sound recordings. Fortunately, the dialogue is clear, too, and the picture, overall, is relatively restrained. Even the hokey superimposed flashbacks and thoughts of the mother are forgivable compared to the over-the-top melodramatics of some other contemporary films, and they play well into the film's implications about war and the perceptions of it.

The narrative has a John Doe (he uses the false name "James Dyke") sentenced to be executed for murder after he turns himself into the police. But, he refuses to admit his true identity and, eventually, invents a story of himself dying in WWI. He also writes articles for the newspaper "warning the youth on the folly of crime." From the press coverage he receives, his mother and sister suspect that he's their long-lost Joe, with his sister traveling to meet him setting up the scene from the one-act stage version. Although rather creepy, their past of quoting "Romeo and Juliet" to each other is central to his identification.

There's the clichéd theme of the corrupting city contrasted with the idyllic country, with James/Joe killing a man in the city, while his mother oversees the wholesome coupling of her daughter, Mary, with an upstanding young man named Bob (who's so dull he spends the entire picture staring at Mary like one of her dogs waiting for attention). More interesting is the past of the Great War. The protagonist hasn't seen his family since it; at one point, he openly wishes he'd died a soldier. "The Valiant" doesn't answer every question raised in the plot. We never discover why he abandoned his family, the reason he murdered a man, or what his true involvement in the war was. It's as though the war did take away his life.

Paul Muni's (1895>1967) initial role in film earned him a Academy Award nomination for 'Best Actor' in a understated performance. He plays his role without the 'bravura' or 'historonics' that would mark most of his later roles the rest of his career. Just for that, THE VALIANT (1929) is worth watching.

Muni plays 'James Dyke' a alias to protect his Family back in Ohio. He is a self-confessed murderer who killed a Man for a undisclosed discretion with his only explanation 'he deserved it and God will understand'. Later suspected as a long lost Son he concocts a story to put his Family at ease which his Sister (first) and Mother buys. He is their Son's Friend who witnessed him get killed during the GREAT WAR (WWI) by a direct hit from a artillery shell, a '5.9'. For the historically interested that would be a German 15 Centimeter.

Running only 66" it will not tax the modern viewer. Like most early 'talky' films it is relatively static. Even though it is made at the FOX STUDIOS who used the advanced 'sound on film' technology from Western Electric. Marguerite Churchill (1910>2000) best know for Dracula's DAUGHTER (1936) and JOHNNY MACK BROWN (1904>1974) 'B' Westerns are also here for the ride. It is Muni though that will hold your interest. Recently restored, it is a fine illustration of the early sound Cinema.