PAUL MUNI : Only The Valiant.

The sound films of the twenties remain an interesting study. Generally they are dismissed
as terrible, which isn’t far from the truth, but they do have the unique fascination of
showing Hollywood, which pretty much had the monopoly, going through the greatest
re-tooling in its history.

With this in mind then celebrated Jewish theatre star Muni Wigsenfreund’s screen debut, 1929’s The Valiant is a must-see item. As with the bulk of these, the opening is the most filmic part where a title describes “A city street where laughter and tragedy rub elbows” and we get the first of the film’s many moving camera shots down an apartment corridor to a closed door. A shot rings out and after a pause a round-shouldered figure emerges. A second glance confirms that it’s a young Paul Muni in a crumpled hat. (Muni - Above)

He makes his way onto the pavement where the beat cop is excusing the priest for parking next to a fire plug, news boys are selling and ranks of uniformed police pass as Muni goes into the local station house and declares “I have killed a man” handing over a pistol. Well that’s as good as it gets.

The rest is the cast delivering awkward lines on cue to follow Muni’s progress as he tells the judicial system that he and his victim will face the same God for his vindication. He refuses to give his name though he’s told that countless families will be wondering if the anonymous killer hobo is actually their missing relative. Judge Henry Kolker sends him up state to burn and he is, of course, a model prisoner in Warden De Witt Jennings jail.

Meanwhile a thousand miles away in Pennington Ohio the rather fetching Marguerite
Churchill (The Big Trail below) is tending the livestock in her picturesque farm while frail
mother Edith Murgatroyd sits on the porch approving as Johny Mack Brown proposes to
Marguerite. You’ve got to worry about Southern Gentleman Johnny who joins in washing
the Collie dog while still in his freshly pressed city suit.

The only thing that clouds their happiness is the absence of Marguerite’s older brother - Oh Oh!

He used to do Romeo & Juliet’s balcony scene with her at bedtime each night in a fuzzy special effect. Reading about the anonymous drifter facing execution, Murgatroyd stares at the newsprint photo and feels it may be her missing son. The way to calm her is for Marguerite to take the train across the country and face the man.

Meanwhile, Muni’s newspaper articles from the Big House have earned a handsome bundle of war bonds. Jennings urges him to see the girl who has made the immense journey and she is ushered into his office to face Muni who disclaims any connection. The heart of the work is the sustained scene between the pair (“I've been everything but a success”) which still plays like the original piece of theater despite all director William K. Howard’s attempt to break it up into two shots and induce natural delivery.

It’s unlikely that this stretched probability item carried all that much conviction in the first production of Holworthy Hall & Robert Middlemass’ one act play and whatever it may have had has been drained away by our exposure to ninety years of more sophisticated drama. However this is Paul Muni who would soon be the world’s most respected performer and we wait for any justification of his enormous reputation. We do find ourselves watching with him for a hint that Churchill has bought his fabrication of seeing the brother’s heroic death at Vimy Ridge and when, as we know he’s going to, he drops his pretense of being an uneducated vagrant, his brief Shakespeare reading does ring. It’s not much to wade through all the stodge for but it is there.

It's easy to understand the critics of the day who deplored the disappearance of the silent film. About the only hint that this talk bound melodrama is from the company that had just made Sunrise is the ingenious three plane Vimy Ridge effect of the final scene. What is notable is not the clumsiness of these first talkies but the speed with which they were replaced by the accomplished films we still watch with enthusiasm.

Barrie Pattison 2020.