Broken Lullaby

What a pleasant surprise! This touching story of the misery visited upon one man by the First World War leads to memorable statement about who is responsible for war. I will definitely share this video with my friends.

Broken Lullaby is a story in the vein of All Quiet on the Western Front. Paul Renaud (Phillips Holmes) is a soldier for France during WWI. He does his duty and kills an enemy, but the ordeal scars him painfully. He becomes obsessed with his victim, discovers his name is Walter Holderlin, and even goes to Walter's hometown to visit with his family. He intends to tell them of his crime, to apologize and explain himself. However, when he goes to their home and meets with his father (Lionel Barrymore), he finds he cannot go through with it. He decieves them into thinking he was friends with Walter, and that he came to offer himself as a replacement for their son. In a way, he does take over Walters life, and even falls in love with his fiancée (Nancy Carroll).

A highly sophisticated but atypical Lubitsch film, Broken Lullaby has many memorable scenes and great photographic elements. The camera is hardly static, even for such an early talking picture. The major flaw with it is Holmes' acting style. While the others are more subdued and natural, his stagy performance is a bit offputting.

'The Man I Killed', or 'Broken Lullaby' to others, appealed to me right away. There are many great war films out there (though admittedly do prefer slightly other types of films) and its message is an admirable one. It is notable for being an atypical effort for the great Ernst Lubitsch, instead of comedy, romantic comedy and musicals, 'The Man I Killed' is perhaps his most serious film. Seeing Lionel Barrymore in one of his more dramatic roles was interesting too.

While there was no doubt in my mind that it would be good at least, 'The Man I Killed' was more than good. It was very, very good and so close to being great. It was great to see a change of pace from Lubitsch, and just as much to see excel so well at it. Not everybody succeeds when they do something different to usual, some have even failed, but Lubitsch does succeed wonderfully. He never directed a more moving or more emotionally powerful film and in its own right there is so much to recommend.

Am going to get the very few not so good things out of the way. It is a little over-sentimental in places, though there is a big emphasis on in places and on a little.

Despite some excellent moments that do bring a lump to the throat, Phillips Holmes at times overacts and it is at odds with the more subtle acting of everybody else.

Lubitsch however directs impeccably, he directs with a darker touch but it didn't to me get too dark or too heavy generally. Of the performances, which are near uniformly good, Barrymore is particularly magnificent. One of his most subtle performances and one of his most poignant and intense too, especially in one of the most powerful speeches of any film seen recently. ZaSu Pitts is also excellent. The production values have both grit and elegance, with some beautifully crafted and clever shots at the start especially.

Some very effective use of sound too, like with agreed the marching feet which was quite unsettling. The script is literate without being talky and the message is delivered with force and sincerity without being laid on too thick. The story is harrowing and poignant, as well as sensitively handled. If the sentiment was a little less, the storytelling would have been perfect.

In conclusion, very, very good and nearly great with almost everything being outstanding. 8/10

Sandwiched as it is between his more usual fair (i.e. saucy operetta), Lubitsch's "Broken Lullaby" has not only been eclipsed, it has been forgotten. This is a crime.

While the subject matter is entirely serious, there are several "Lubitsch touches" that reveal the scope of the message behind "Broken Lullaby," particularly the sequence wherein the wives of the town open their windows to call to the neighbors, passing along a chain of gossip that follows the hero and heroine on their way home. Another brilliant community sequence involves the town elders gathered together to drink beer and pass judgment, which stops cold once Barrymore (who has made the Ftrench soldier a sort of surrogate son) joins them.

The plot of "Broken Lullaby" is doubly suspenseful: for the first half of the film, you wonder how Paul will reveal his secret to the Holderlin family; when he opts to follow a non-confrontational line of masquerade, the new suspense sets in as you wonder when he'll tell them the truth (or will they find out on their own?).

Phillips Holmes is strikingly handsome, and while his performance may seem too old school for modern eyes, he is completely honest as the soldier who is near-to-bursting with guilt (although remorse is a better way to put it). Lionel Barrymore should have received his Oscar nod for this film, and his speech to his peers at the inn is delivered with all the fire of a later Capra idealist. Only Nancy Carroll (so good in the same year's "Hot Saturday) seems out of place as Elsa: she is too American for this tale.

Brilliant details such as a glimpse of a military parade as seen from behind a soldier who has lost one leg, Barrymore adjusting the clock in his dead son's immaculately kept room (shrine?), and the many battle montages overlapping the opening church service culminate in the most understated, moving, and beautiful final moments of any film, one in which dialog is jettisoned in favor of two instruments joining to play one gorgeous song.

"Broken Lullaby" deserves restoration and a release on DVD immediately, not only for Lubitsch fans interested in seeing another side of the master's art, but also for those who embrace the ethos of acceptance and love.

it is easy to define it as pathetic. but it has the virtue to be one of the most convincing anti-war film. not only for the touching speech of the character of Lionel Barrymore front to his friends, for the need of Paul Renard to correct a terrible sin or for the final lullaby, but for the status of message between the two World Wars. this is the detail who gives more value to an exercise to define the need of peace than many others films about the same theme. because the ordinary recipes has fascinating nuances in this case. nuances who gives to it a special beauty. and a profound expression of compassion. the delicacy of feelings , the strong emotions, the preconceptions and the image of the other in dark nuances are covered in a real inspired eulogy of humanity.