Beyond Victory

"Beyond Victory" (1931) went way beyond my expectations! Starring William Boyd (later Hopalong Cassidy), James Gleason, ZaSu Pitts, Lew Cody, Russell Gleason, Lissy Arna, Marion Shilling, Theodore von Eltz, Fred Scott, and Mary Carr, with a host of others in small parts, this is a WWI thriller with intermittent scenes in flashback regarding the people these people in the trenches left behind - and how and why. Coming just on the heels of "All Quiet on the Western Front", this also has several overtones of anti-war sentiment, though it simultaneously makes it clear that democracy is better than tyranny or despotism. The battle scenes are superior, very realistic - and incredibly noisy and continual. Boyd, a serjeant, is given an order to take three men to a settlement in a small village where he is to set up machine guns and fire at intervals to make the enemy think the village is still full of soldiers. Then, when Boyd and crew are finally raided and the enemy crosses a bridge, Boyd is to blow up the bridge. It's basically a suicide mission, and it allows the rest of the platoons that are presently getting ready to leave the ability to leave. All leave but the four men, and the show begins... Some make it. Some don't. Meanwhile, the stories of the four men are told, too, in flashback. It seems very standard, if not clichéd today, but it is done superbly and it was part of a seminal formula that has followed.

Exceptional acting, wonderfully directed by John S. Robertson and Edward Griffith, and written by, among others, Horace Jackson and James Gleason (the actor in the film). The Gleason family was obviously very much interested in this film. Father and son act in it, while father wrote a good amount of it. Watch for ZaSu Pitts who plays Gleason's wife in the film. She's a - wait a minute! Is this right? A professional knife thrower??!! Yes! She plays a straight part with comedic corners, and her scenes with Gleason are diversionary and lighten up a very serious piece of film. Highly recommended! Worth a good 8 out of 10 stars.

I was surprised by "Beyond Victory" as I assumed based on the scores and other reviews that it was a pretty mediocre film. However, I was impressed by it and think it's well worth seeing.

The story is about four American soldiers during WWI. With each, you see a flashback sequence during which you learn about their motivations to join the Army as well as its impact on the women in their lives. The first two, the dying Bud and Lew (yes, the choice of names was a bit ironic) were much shorter stories. The final two, Bill (Bill Boyd) and Jim (James Gleason) intertwine much more and are much longer and more interesting.

The strengths of the film are its realism. The battle sequences are loud with tons of explosions and realism--much of which, most likely, is because the war had only ended a short time before and the equipment was much easier to come by. Additionally, while it was a bit difficult to believe, I really liked the anti-war sequence involving Bill and his fiancé. Seeing such anti-war sentiments, by the way, was NOT unusual for the 1930s as the Great War had undergone a transformation in American minds. Gone was the jingoism and anti-German rhetoric and instead it was replaced by a cynicism about the necessity of the country's involvement in the bloody war. Well worth seeing and well made.

Wonderful movie. I have become tired writing movie reviews, but I had to write this one when I saw that the film had only a 5.9 User Rating. How could that be?

I chose to watch the film because I am a Hopalong Cassidy fan, who is played by William Boyd, the star of this movie. I had never seen him out of the Cassidy role. My biggest delight was with the actors Lew Cody and Marion Shilling, who was adorable; I have to catch their movies. One of the best parts of the movie was the cinema-photography: the war-time explosions, smoke and noise were great for 1931, and would look likewise today. The film was relatively short time-wise, and it moved along quickly. The anti-war humanitarian theme was the major part of the film, especially the romance, impending marriage and war issues between Boyd (a non-German-American) and Lissy Arna (a German-American). See it, you won't be disappointed.

This film is not the greatest war film ever made but is an intriguing tale of soldiers and the ones they left behind. It stars William Boyd near the beginning of his career before he became famous as the B Western Star Hopalong Cassidy.

It was filmed close enough to the original times so that there are few inaccuracies in procedures or equipment. The combat scenes are realistically done in the context of the times without excessive blood and gore as was the Search for Private Ryan.

I saw this many years ago in late night TV so cannot remember much detail, however, it is worth the watching.