The Valiant

The Valiant (1929)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This is a rather bizarre film that has been forgotten over the years but it does have some historical importance to it as it earned Paul Muni his first Best Actor Oscar nomination. As the film starts off we witness him killing a man and then turning himself into the police. He refuses to give his real name, defend himself or explain anything so he is sentenced to die. On a farm in Ohio, a mother sees his picture in the paper and believes that he is her son that went missing over a decade earlier so she sends her daughter (Marguerite Churchill) to see. THE VALIANT really isn't a good movie but there are some interesting things going on in it that makes it worth viewing for film buffs. The biggest reason are for the performances, which are all fairly good. This includes Muni who looks so incredibly young here. It's rather fun to see him in a performance like this because it's so different from what we'd see later in his life and especially in stuff like SCARFACE. What really caught me off guard was how laid back Muni was in the part and the restraint he showed by not going over-the-top or reaching for some sort of melodrama. Churchill is also very good in her role as the possible sister. DeWitt Jennings does a nice job as the warden of the prison and we even have Johnny Mack Brown playing the sister's fiancé. On a technical level the film is also rather impressive and especially the audio, which is among the best I've ever heard from an early talkie. The cinematography is also quite impressive for the time and especially some tracking shots that are seen early on. With that being said, the story itself really isn't a very strong one and you can't help but grow somewhat frustrated that there's not a better pay off to the story. There are also a few scenes that come off way too stagey and this here takes the film down a few notches. With that said, fans of Muni or early sound films will want to check this out and at 61-minutes the thing never gets boring.

This 60-minute film earned two Oscar noms: best actor for Paul Muni (in his film debut), and and writing nom.

A rather intriguing narrative setup has Muni turning himself in for murder, giving a false name, and refusing to give any information about the murder or offer an defense. Back in Ohio, a family reads the story and wonders if the killer is the long-lost brother. The younger sister heads to New York to see if she can discover his identity.

After a few implausible turns of events, the two meet, but the young woman (Marguerite Churchill) goes back home, convinced the killer is not her brother and that he may still be alive and well somewhere in the world.

Johnny Mack Brown plays the boy friend, Edith Yorke is the old mother, Henry Kolker is the judge, and DeWitt Jennings is the warden. This film was released right after Brown's talkie debut in Coquette with Mary Pickford. He has little to do here. As for Muni (never a favorite of mine) he gives a very subtle and subdued performance. He lost the Oscar to Warner Baxter for In Old Arizona.

...because basically he gives the only three-dimensional performance in the film as his fellow players appear as cardboard cut-outs when compared to him. However, since this was released very early in talking picture history in the spring of 1929, I can overlook that. In fact, because this is one of the first all talking pictures Fox made it makes Muni's performance all the more remarkable and his colleagues' performances all the more forgivable.

This is a very simple short little film with little back story given. The film opens with a man (Paul Muni) having just shot another man in the heart of the big city, leaving the scene of the crime, and turning himself in for murder at the local police precinct. When asked his name, he picks one off of a nearby calendar - James Dyke. When he's asked why he committed the murder he simply says that the man deserved to die for what he did and he's not sorry, but he also realizes he himself has to pay for what he did and he is ready to accept the consequences. The papers pick up the story of this mystery man, soon to be executed for murder. Out in rural Ohio, an old sick woman sees pictures and stories of this man, whom nobody has been able to identify and is unwilling to identify himself, and wonders if it isn't her son who has left home 15 years before and from whom she has received no word in all this time. Worried sick this is her son, her daughter and her daughter's fiancé make the trip cross-country to visit the condemned man and find out if he is the long lost man - Joe Douglas.

The best scene is the last scene, where Dyke meets Mary Douglas (Marguerite Churchill) in the warden's office and has time with her alone where she is sure she can determine if this man is her brother. This is where you realize where the title comes from and who it is that is being valiant here and why. I'd recommend this one primarily for those interested in the transition to sound, plus it's a pretty good example of the kind of material Fox Films specialized in at least up until 1940 or so, that being entertainment for rural audiences in which it was common for their films to warn people of being tempted by the big city versus valuing the simple charm of hearth, home, and farm.

The organ music announcing the credits fades, the sound tracks buzzes and hums, and the camera focuses on a door at the end of a bleak hallway. A shot rings out, and Paul Muni stumbles out holding a gun. He says not a word, as he stumbles down a noisy street, tries to get the attention of a cop. While everyone around him chatters on (in the aimless way sometimes one finds in the early talkie), and life goes on, Muni is a man apart, in his own silent world, his motives a mystery, his identity a mystery, but his guilt written all over him. Muni, through the operation of the rather simple and simplistic plot, will prove himself one of THE VALIANT, but will remain almost a total mystery as he goes willingly to the electric chair.

This is a movie with a dynamite opening sequence -- which takes superb advantage of the primitive state of movie-making technology circa 1929 -- that, alas, does not live up to the opening. Paul Muni is good enough to deserve his Oscar nomination (and a heck of a lot better than the guy that got the Oscar that year -- Warner Baxter), but everyone else is wedded to the over-enunciated acting of 1929. And, as is the case with so much of the 1929 product, the pace is so verrrry slow, with the overlong scenes that suggest a filmed play. Any scene that does not feature Muni is downright terrible. He is the one that makes the movie work.

So, this is a movie you might want to see, but you might want to give up on halfway through. It is exceptionally brave plotting though, that while we do sort of settle the mystery of who Paul Muni is, we never quite find out why he did what he did, or even if the story he tells at the end has some element of truth. It's a pity this play does not seem to have been remade, when talkie acting styles had improved.

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.