The Sins of the Children

Dir. Sam Wood

87 Minutes

USA

1930

Starring: Louis Mann, Robert Montgomery, Elliott Nugent, Leila Hyams, Clara Blandick, Mary Doran

***1/2/*****

Sweet and quiet early sound film about a German immigrant who gives up his chances of fortune for the sake of his family. Interesting in it is the only feature film role for Louis Mann, a theater performer and director who passed away the year after the release of this film. But the performance here is quite special, and makes one wonder about the direction that the career could have gone on screen (nowadays the film is probably known and advertised as an early Robert Montgomery movie and while Montgomery certainly has a presence it is a smaller role than may be advertised simply because of the name).

The narrative moves into a rhythm of "good news, bad news" as Mann's patriarch learns about the troubles that his children are in, but he keeps it relatively straight and even the sentimentality in the end (where the family fathers around the table at Christmas and sings "Silent Night" in German) feels appropriate and rather sweet. There are echoes of later Capra here, but I found the results touching instead of saccharine. Director Sam Wood keeps things mostly moving along, with some lulls in the middle. But he refuses to keep things static on a visual level, and seems interested in exploring the things that the camera could do (I hate to think about what Archie Mayo would have done with this material based on the Stanwyck collaborations I have seen). A very nice find.

August 25th, 2019