Film Perfection

Boring

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

What Price Glory (1926) *** (out of 4) Raoul Walsh's version of the popular Maxwell Anderson play about U.S. Marines Flagg (Victor McLaglen) and Quirt (Edmund Lowe), two rivals who soon find themselves in France during WWI but their personal battle is over a beautiful woman (Dolores del Rio) they've both fallen for. There's no question that this here is much better than the John Ford remake with James Cagney but in regards to the war pictures of the silent era, I'd rank this one here a little towards the bottom as it certainly doesn't measure up to stuff like THE BIG PARADE and WINGS. With that said, I think there's enough good things here to make it worth viewing. One of the highlights is certainly the battle sequences that take place towards the end of the movie. I think these are directed with a lot of skill as there's no question that Walsh knew had to build up these scenes and make them tense. Another thing the film has going for it are the performances by the three leads. McLaglen clearly steals the picture since he's got the more memorable character but he has no problem playing the giant brute with a heart. Lowe plays that good-looking fun guy, something he'd do throughout his career. Dolores del Rio wasn't all that believable being a French woman but she too still did a nice job with the part. My biggest problem with this film is that I just never really cared about the love story. This here turned out to be a rather big problem because this really eats up the majority of the running time and I think the anti-war message and war scenes would have been much stronger had the love stuff not brought everything down. I'd also say that the stereotypes were rather boring and it made everything way too easy to figure out. From who gets the girl to which characters will eventually die. Still, WHAT PRICE GLORY is worth watching for the battle scenes and performances.

Marine buddies Edmund Lowe (as Sergeant Quirt) and Victor McLaglen (as Captain Flagg) carouse through World War I, and eventually become rivals for the affections of sexy Dolores del Rio (as Charmaine de la Cognac). This successful stage comedy-drama became one of the biggest late-term "silent" hits, also making it to several top five lists and winning a "Best Picture" honor from Quigley Publications. The comedy hits a high note when Mr. McLaglen tells new recruits three things not tolerated are, "Running wild with these French dames, getting drunk, and fighting among yourselves." McLaglen's adept at all three, of course...Moments later, he dramatically notes, "There's something rotten about a world that's got to be wet down every thirty years with the blood of boys like those..." Director Raoul Walsh throws the film slightly off pace by increasing the comedy quotient, though he certainly must be admired for his celebration of the female "derriere" and the ability to get animals in camera range. The wild motor-scooter ride seems too slapstick. Like their characters in the original play, the co-stars used some mild vulgarities; at the time, lip readers were shocked. Of the principles, McLaglen received the best notices. Among the supporting actors, "mother's boy" Barry Norton (as Kenneth Lewisohn) was most singled out for praise; you should have no trouble determining why. Production values are excellent.******* What Price Glory (11/23/26) Raoul Walsh ~ Victor McLaglen, Edmund Lowe, Dolores del Rio, Barry Norton

Fox's answer to MGM's "The Big Parade," and I think it's a markedly superior movie, thanks to better pacing and the rousing direction of Raoul Walsh. He's in his element here: a big war movie with loads of comedy and romance, and three strong personalities at its center. McLaglen was born for this sort of stuff; Lowe wasn't, but he's a very convincing roistering-randy soldier. And Del Rio is so beautiful you don't much care what she does. The horrors of war are amply displayed, and the Hollywood hills doubling for the French countryside work just fine. But what made it such a hit, I guess, was the utterly winning frenemy relationship of Quirt and Flagg. They fight for dames, they hurl insults back and forth, they curse each other with all-too-lip-readable epithets, but you never doubt their loyalty and respect for each other. Maybe there's one skirmish too many--it gets a little repetitive-- but it's much faster-moving than "The Big Parade," and the soldier stereotypes commented on elsewhere don't hurt so much. Also, Leslie Fenton is excellent.

The First World War was a terrible milestone of the last century, a huge catastrophe that destroyed the life of many youngsters. Besides meaning the end of an era, especially the associated implicit innocence, a great influence was the shock that such horrible war cause in the Arts.Such an important happening was depicted in the cinema, during the conflict or after, in very different ways. With various degrees of success, documentaries, dramas, realistic or even funny features were put on the screen. "What Price Glory", a film directed by Herr Raoul Walsh, was one of those films with the First World War in the background.The underlying problem of this film for this German count for not considering this oeuvre as remarkable as others with similar subject is the concept, the personal artistic intentions and way the director faces the story and its surroundings. That is to say, "What Price Glory" is a film that uses the Great War as an excuse not as a whole. The director is interested in especially depicting the love affairs included in the film and a strange comradeship between the two male main characters.And that it would not be a problem if Herr Walsh avoided many stereotyped characters: - Two U.S. Marine sergeants, that is to say, two hard-boiled, cursing and womanizing men: -Herr Victor McLaglen und Herr Edmund Lowe who fight among themselves for the love of a naughty French peasant ( Dame Dolores del Rio ) and from time to time, against the Germans - Stereotyped characters and situations that probably worked in those ancient times but today are dated.The film is a classic representation, a film with a war in background that lacks emotion in spite some interesting war scenes that are not enough to avoid having an enormous sensation of "déjà vu" during its long two hours. That's the worst comment that can be said about any silent film, a feeling of indifference, a sense that it's all the same to the spectator.And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must return to the aristocratic trenches.Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com/