Glória e Poder

This movie, apart from its innovative narrative style and a few great scenes, is rather disappointing. It tells the story of a millionaire, Tom Garner, by inter-cutting between two series of flashbacks, one telling the story of him as a young man -- his rise; the other of him as an old man -- his fall. The inter-cutting, though innovative, doesn't serve much purpose, and seems haphazard. Moreover, it concentrates too much on him as an older man, on the lurid melodramatic tale of how he and his wife meet similar ends through suicide brought on by the adultery of their respective spouses. Hardly as much time is spent fleshing out the character of Tom himself. No scenes are given to the development of the adult friendship between Tom and Henry, Tom's best friend who also serves as narrator of the film. This makes a scene where Henry argues with his wife that Tom was a good man seem pretty hollow; it's hard to take a stand, since so little insight is given into what made Tom truly tick. If this film served as an inspiration to "Citizen Kane," at least those behind Kane remedied the main flaw of "The Power and the Glory," by fully realizing and exploring its main character. 6/10

THE POWER AND THE GLORY (Fox, 1933), directed by William K. Howard, is not so much a religious movie, hence its title, but a narrative story about a fictional character as recalled by a friend who knew him best. Categorized as something ahead of its time where stories told in flashback were commonly stylized a decade later, the original screenplay written by future comedy movie director, Preston Sturges, is noteworthy more for its early screen performance by Spencer Tracy, along with an atypical role by former silent screen flapper of the twenties, Colleen Moore. Though Tracy and Moore have the nominal leads, it's Ralph Morgan whose character participates throughout in both story and voice-over narration through various episodes.

The narrative opens at a church funeral of Tom Garner. As the camera pans around those in attendance, it then captures the presence of an old man named Henry (Ralph Morgan) with bushy mustache, wire glasses and gray hair. Leaving the service as the minister continues officiating about the deceased, Henry comes to the Chicago & Southwestern Railway Company building where he worked under the Tom, the company president. Henry then finds and takes an old photo of Tom and his little boy that rests upon his office desk. Later that evening, Henry, after helping his wife (Sarah Padden) with the dinner dishes, takes out the photograph to then share his memories of a true friend. Henry starts by telling his wife, "It's funny that our friendship began with a fight." Flashbacks recall the initial meeting of Henry (Cullen Johnson) and Tom (Billy O'Brien), and how the older boy was to become an influence in his life. Years later, Tom (Spencer Tracy), who never had any formal education, meets Sally (Colleen Moore), a mountain schoolteacher, who not only tutors him to read and write, but becomes wife and mother to his infant son. As Tom rises from track walker to construction worker to president of a railroad company, his marriage slowly starts to fall apart. Aside from heated arguments with Sally revolving around his pampered adult son (Clifford Jones) being expelled from college, his uncontrollable boozing and wild-living, Tom not only "humiliates" Junior by having him work as a bookkeeper at his company, but ends up having an illicit affair with Eve Borden (Helen Vinson), daughter of a rival railroad magnate (Henry Kolker). After Sally meets with a sad end, Tom marries Eve, who becomes untrue to him. As Tom reaches the pinnacle point to the power and the glory of Tom's life, Henry resumes his memory of a true friend with situations leading to his downfall.

A very interesting premise that tells its story in 76 minutes rather than what possibly could been captured in two hours, Spencer Tracy gives a masterful performance, especially when challenging roles come his way. Playing a natural born leader with unafraid tendencies, his only fear happens to be within himself. Scenes depicting him the silver haired cigar smoking businessman comes to mind of Tracy's later years from the mid-1950s onward when his dark hair turned prematurely white. Colleen Moore, whose character goes through the aging process as well, at one point, makes one think of Margaret Sullavan's golden age sequence from her 1941 edition to Universal's BACK STREET. The similarity between Moore and Sullavan is close to remarkable. While the power of Tracy's super-stardom lay ahead during his peak years at MGM (1935-1954), the glory days of Colleen Moore's era came to an end by 1934. Ralph Morgan, playing the third party, nearly steals the show through his narrative and devotion to a friend he defends to those speaking out against him, even his wife who calls Tom Garner a ruthless egotist. Henry's loyalty of friendship is felt throughout, from their Tom Sawyer-Huckleberry Finn type boyhood summer days by the old swimming hole to their business association during their senior years. Another honorable mention comes from Helen Vinson as the social climbing second wife.

As good as the actors are, there's something amiss to what should have become a celebrated masterpiece and a Academy Award nomination for Tracy, that being the often confusing story structure presented in jumbled fashion rather than in chronological order. Interestingly, it's Morgan's character who, through his narration, puts the pieces together even if not in any round-about way. Whether or not the actual intention of the narrative, chances are possibly deletions of certain key sequences leaving certain questions unanswered could have had something to do with some of its confusion. Take note that the familiar presence of veteran character actor, J. Farrell MacDonald, is briefly spotted that he can easily be missed by anyone familiar by his presence through a blink of an eye. No doubt, this narrative idea was good enough to have been duplicated and improved upon by future film directors who might have used this particular movie as its basic tool.

Long unseen, largely forgotten and at one point feared lost to film history, THE POWER AND THE GLORY finally turned up after many years in revival movie houses before being televised first on public television stations (notably New York City's own WNET, Channel 13, where it premiered in July 1992) and later on cable TV networks as the Fox Movie Channel and Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: September 18, 2011). Through its availability and occasional television revivals, this production from the neglected Fox Film era (1929-1935) should still be of some interest to film scholars and classic movie lovers of modern times. All the power to you. (***)

Spencer Tracy plays a self-made industrialist who worked like a dog to become a major railroad baron. Somewhere along the way, though, he lost track of what motivated him to do this in the first place and by the end of the film he realized, too late, that his work was in vain.

The review by jdeamara seemed right on when it said that this movie suffered because the way of presenting the movie by bouncing back and forth to tell the story seemed haphazard and that the characters needed to be further developed. Spencer Tracy is a complex character but instead of showing him in a comprehensible manner, the story bounces around so much that you never really come to know who he is or his motivations. The same went for many of the supporting characters--especially his wife. When he and his wife argued, it seemed like much of the context was missing. Plus, whether or not Tracy played a jerk or not wasn't really answered--and this question is the basis for the movie that is told by Ralph Morgan through flashbacks.

An interesting effort but that is all. For a much, much better film about the millionaire industrialist starring Tracy, try watching EDWARD, MY SON--a far more complex and enjoyable film.

By the way, according to IMDb the rumor started by Pauline Kael that this film was the inspiration for CITIZEN KANE was unfounded. As for me, I didn't see the parallel either.

The film begins with a funeral to the sound of "nearer my God to thee" and the soundtrack includes Gounod's "Ave Maria" as well.

This is the story of a self-made man,the American dream come true.From a track walker to a railway society tycoon,through the strikes and the strife of life ,Tom makes his way of life,abetted by wife Sally who taught him reading,writing and arithmetic when he was already a grown-up.

This is some kind of "Citizen Kane" in miniature ,relatively speaking ,a decade before Orson Welles' masterpiece happened.The story is told by Tom's good friend Henry,with wife making frequently unsympathetic comments .The movie alternates between present and past,back to childhood's days when Tom taught Henry to swim and to dive.

The story is a bit melodramatic ,mainly towards the end when the son falls in love with his stepmother and illustrates the famous sentence "you gain the world and lose your soul" ,which Tom's last word reinforces.

Henry was an educated man whereas Tom was essentially a self taught person .Tom got it made ,but in the end ,according to Sturges' screenplay,it's Henry's way which leads to true happiness.

A precursor to "Citizen Kane" in its analysis of the life of a just deceased tycoon, here reviewed by his faithful secretary in a series of interlocking flashbacks. In Spencer Tracy's 15th film he already looks middle-aged even in the scenes where he is meant to be young!

A little silent-screen type emoting is understandable given the vintage but this is a most enjoyable, well-written drama.