A MODERN HERO (43)

Directed by: G. W. Pabst (1934)

Starring: Richard Barthelmess, Florence Eldridge, Jean Muir

The Pitch: An immigrant rises from circus artist to self-made millionaire, using people along the way.

Theo Sez: A highly moralistic 30s movie, which not only punishes its hero by having him lose his son, his money and everything dear to him but actually has another character tell him (and us) that he's being punished with losing his son, his money, etc.; all of which is actually a little strange, since his behaviour hasn't been particularly odious, just the ruthless ambition of every successful businessman - which is very much the film's point. It's odd to see a movie so unblinkingly, almost casually anti-business in our hypercapitalist age - right from its sarcastic title it seems to assume not just that it's deeply wrong to think only of the bottom line but that it's unnecessary even to explain this, that it's self-evident. Like OUR DAILY BREAD (released in the same year) it's very much a child of the Depression - no Hollywood film of the 90s could leave its hero broke and defeated but a better human being (the kinder gentler Jerry Maguire is also, at the end of that movie, massively successful). A bit thin as a movie - the interest is mostly in the ideology ; but it is interesting.