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Tarfumes.com - Heroes for Sale
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List Price: $19.98
Our Price: $28.00
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: MGM (Warner)
Starring: Loretta Young, Richard Barthelmess, Aline MacMahon, Gordon Westcott, Robert Barrat
Directed By: William A. Wellman
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786302208894
Format: Black & White
ISBN: 6302208890
Label: MGM (Warner)
Manufacturer: MGM (Warner)
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: MGM (Warner)
Release Date: 1998-09-01
Running Time: 71
Studio: MGM (Warner)
Theatrical Release Date: 1933-06-17
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A different kind of precode
Comment: After the dawn of sound, Warner Bros. wandered through the early-talkie wilderness trying their hand at Technicolor musicals and revues that largely did not work out. Around 1930 they changed their output to be what we think of when we think about the Warner Bros. of the 1930's - gritty Depression era films that pulled no punches in depicting the hardships of those days. Here Richard Barthelemess is Tom Holmes. Tom's life is a metaphor for just about every social injustice from 1917 through 1933 you can pack into a 70-plus minute film. Through his life we visit the post-war hardships of WWI doughboys including morphine addiction, the double-edged sword of automation, the Red scares and hysteria of the 1920's, and finally the armies of unemployed Depression-era men treated as lepers as they wandered from town to town in search of non-existent jobs.
It's an interesting picture of a bleak world populated with largely unlikeable characters such as the socialist who becomes a capitalist as soon as he becomes wealthy and the soldier that stole a wartime honor from Tom only to return home and not stand up for him when Tom really needs him. You do have to overcome some obvious problems in logic to enjoy this film. For one, nobody is as long-suffering as Tom Holmes is in this film, having so much adversity unjustly piled on him and still at heart an optimist. However, the film is a great political precode, and one whose script would not have been possible even a year later with its explicit sarcasm about the American social and economic order.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Realistic Pre-Code
Comment: Heroes for Sale is one of the few films from classic Hollywood that showed the dark side of the Depression. Thanks to the production code and the desire for escapist films, few realistic portrayals of the Depression were made, but this film in the Forbidden Hollywood series does just that. It is about a man (Richard Barthelmess) who fought in WWI, had a hard time adjusting to life when he got home thanks to a morphine addiction, and found himself going through the ups (marriage and a child) and downs (being labeled a "Red" and serving time) of life.
Even though the story sounds gloomy, there is an underlying hint of optimism, that the human race can never be beaten. It is a powerful film.
It boasts a great cast too. The wonderful Barthelmess, beautiful Loretta Young, and snappy Aline MacMahone grace yet another pre-code.
Leonard Maltin introduces this film as one of the shining stars of the pre-code era.
Customer Rating:
Summary: FASCINATING BARTHELMESS PRE-CODER.
Comment: A war veteran becomes in turn a drug addict, a millionaire and the central figure in a labour dispute. During WWI, Lieutenant Roger Winston is assigned to capture a German prisoner. Overcome by fear, he hides in a foxhole while Tom Holmes (Barthelmess), another soldier from the same town, carries out the mission. On the way back Tom is struck by a shell and Roger slyly returns with the prisoner: Roger is promoted and decorated for bravery. Tom's life is saved by the Germans, but he becomes a morphine addict to relieve his pain...An interestingly realistic film - with a less than believable storyline - it nevertheless gives viewers a glimpse of the nearly forgotten vastly underrated Richard Barthelmess. The man was a fine actor who had a unique magnetism rarely seen on film. BREADLINE was the film's working title: Wellman - the director - used real hoboes for the hobo scenes & real laundry workers for the laundry scenes. 2O year-old Loretta Young and Aline MacMahon are fine in their roles.
Customer Rating:
Summary: No Studio Gloss Here
Comment: Richard Barthelmess stars as a man who reminds us that heroes aren't just the people who do the big, newsworthy things, but can be the ordinary person who does what they should when the odds are stacked against him. Robbed of his hero status following bravery in WWI, Barthelmess returns to America a drug addicted shell of his former self. Throughout the course of the film, he rises and falls several times, battling labor strife, drugs, and the Communism scare, all the while trying to save himself and those he loves during the Great Depression. Barthelmess is effective in the central role, as is Loretta Young as his wife. The real standout, however, is Aline MacMahon as their friend, a loyal woman with a big, but broken heart. While other studios were making glossy films about impossibly rich people, Warner Bros made films about ordinary people struggling to survive. It's a startling look at the Thirties, well directed, acted, and written. It appeals to the social conscience in all of us.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Realistic, Gritty Drama from the 1930's
Comment: There's nothing sugar-coated in this movie! Silent film star Richard Barthlemess appears as a WWI veteran who endures a narcotic addiction, rehabilitation, career advancement, marriage, parenthood, wealth, labor riots, death, prison, a "Red" scare, police scare tactics, and homelessness. Loretta Young portrays his wife, and the wonderful actress Aline MacMahon appears as his most loyal friend. She raises his son when he's wrongly imprisoned, and is the executor of his accumulated wealth, which he requests she use to run a soup kitchen for the poor. Her performance is beautifully understated, and her love for him shines through. Although this movie is from the early 1930's, the topics and problems Barthlemess faces could come right off the newspaper headlines from today. This is an interesting social commentary, and certainly worthy of your time.
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