Minor spoiler ahead.
This is a classic weepy, derived from a play. I am not very fond of Fredric March (who wrecked Anna Karenina) or Norma Shearer (a 30s taste if there ever was one), but will watch anything with Leslie Howard in it (even though he spends most of the movie in old man makeup). It isn't that good of a movie, really, though there are some interesting camera moments here and there. The writing is pretty clunky. The most compelling thing is the startling scene between the two lovers, on the verge of his leaving for the front in World War I, where they actually have a serious conversation about sleeping together before he goes in case he dies, and she is at least as eager as he is -- a symptom of a just barely prior to code film. The film buffers it with vague stuff about going to Dover and getting married overnight, etc., but the real issue is blatantly obvious.
This is a classic weepy, derived from a play. I am not very fond of Fredric March (who wrecked Anna Karenina) or Norma Shearer (a 30s taste if there ever was one), but will watch anything with Leslie Howard in it (even though he spends most of the movie in old man makeup). It isn't that good of a movie, really, though there are some interesting camera moments here and there. The writing is pretty clunky. The most compelling thing is the startling scene between the two lovers, on the verge of his leaving for the front in World War I, where they actually have a serious conversation about sleeping together before he goes in case he dies, and she is at least as eager as he is -- a symptom of a just barely prior to code film. The film buffers it with vague stuff about going to Dover and getting married overnight, etc., but the real issue is blatantly obvious.