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| G. W. Pabst: A Modern Hero (US 1934). Jean Muir (Joanna Ryan Croy) and Richard Barthelmess (Pierre Radier / Paul Rader). |
US © 1934 Warner Bros. Pictures Inc.
D: G. W. Pabst. Dialogue D: Arthur Greville Collins. SC: Gene Markey & Kathryn Scola – based on the novel (1932) by Louis Bromfield. Cin: William Rees – b&w – 1:1,37. AD: Robert M. Haas. Cost: Orry-Kelly. M: Heinz Roemheld (n.c.). Conductor of Vitaphone Orchestra: Leo F. Forbstein. S: mono. ED: James Gibbon.
C: Richard Barthelmess (Pierre Radier / Paul Rader), Jean Muir (Joanna Ryan Croy), Marjorie Rambeau (Mme Azais), Verree Teasdale (Lady Claire Benston), Florence Eldridge (Leah Ernst), Dorothy Burgess (Hazel Flint Radier), Hobart Cavanaugh (Henry Mueller), William Janney (Young Pierre Croy), Arthur Hohl (Homer Flint), Theodore Newton (Elmer Croy), J. M. Kerrigan (Mr. Ryan), Maidel Turner (Aunt Clara Weingartner), Mickey Rentschler (Young Pierre as a Child), Richard Tucker (Mr. Eggelson), Judith Vosselli (Mrs. Eggelson), Theresa Harris (Leah's maid).
71 min
Production ended 20 Dec 1933.
Distribution companies: Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. ; The Vitaphone Corp.
U.S. premiere: 3 April 1934.
Not released in Finland.
A Warner Archive Collection dvd released in 2018.
Dvd viewed at home, 2 Nov 2025.
AA: In Die 3-Groschen-Oper / The Threepenny Opera (DE 1931) G. W. Pabst worked for Warner Bros. Pictures GmbH (Berlin), which produced the movie in collaboration with Tobis. In 1933 the film was banned by the Nazis, who destroyed the negative and all prints they could get their hands on. When Hitler rose to power Pabst was in France directing a series of internationally co-produced films.
In 1933 Pabst was invited to direct for Warner Bros. in America. Though known for his criticism of the Hollywood studio system, Pabst accepted the invitation. The Burbank experience was unhappy for all involved. The director of The Joyless Street and The Threepenny Opera might have had a connection with the hard-boiled Warner Bros. studio style, but the match failed. Pabst did not accept the screenplay nor the casting, but he directed the assignment dutifully and professionally. Pabst as the editor of his own films was known as the master of "the invisible cut". He cut in movement, achieving a smooth continuity. Warner Bros. imposed its own signature staccato edit to the movie.
What the priorities were for Warner Bros. we can read from the poster above. The name above the title is Richard Barthelmess. Below the title: Louis Bromfield. Further below: Jean Muir. The rest is in small print.
Richard Barthelmess is never at home in his role as Pierre Radier / Paul Rader, which is kind of the point of the film. But he never feels at home in his own skin. He is a stranger in his own life. He is insincerity incarnate.
The film belongs to the female cast. The greatest performance is by Marjorie Rambeau as the mother of Pierre / Paul. Jean Muir is excellent as Joanna, Pierre's first love and the mother of his son. Florence Eldridge impresses as Leah, the wealthy widow. Finally there is the refined Dorothy Burgess, the daughter of a financier. All Pierre betrays, and by so doing he betrays himself the most.
The women speak truth to Pierre, but he does not listen to them. "You are a real love child". "Being a woman ain't much fun". "I'm sorry for any woman who gets mixed with him". "He ain't the same person". "Is the past always finished?"
The plot involves a crash course of history from the breakthrough of the automobile to World War One to the Roaring Twenties and the Wall Street Crash. This brings to mind The Roaring Twenties the movie. Other associations include Back Street and The Power and the Glory.
Pabst juxtaposes the circus world with the Wall Street world. The sympathy for the circus world is the most affecting aspect of the movie next to the four leading female performances.
But A Modern Hero is an unfulfilled film. A studio hack might have turned a better result. Pabst refused to be a hack, and Warner Bros. refused him the freedom he required.
The dvd is based on a straight digital transfer of materials of variable quality, including perhaps 16 mm or telecine sources. It is perfectly watchable but a long way from Pabst's Weimar glory.
Circus bareback rider Pierre Radier meets small town woman Joanna Ryan, and they have a brief affair, which leaves her pregnant. Although Pierre offers to marry her, Joanne refuses, preferring to marry a more stable local man who knows about her pregnancy.
Pierre has long wanted to leave the circus, even though his alcoholic mother, Madame Azais, advises against it. When Henry Mueller, the circus handyman, asks Pierre to join him in a business venture, Azais refuses to lend Pierre the necessary money.
While secretly visiting Joanna after the birth of her baby son, Pierre meets Leah Ernst, a wealthy widow who falls in love with him. Pierre begins an affair with Leah and she lends him the money to open a bicycle shop with Mueller. The shop is a big success, but Mueller is not satisfied. He designs an automobile, which catches the eye of financier Homer Flint.
To cement the deal, Pierre marries Flint's daughter Hazel after ending his relationship with Leah. He also becomes an American citizen, changing his name to Paul Rader. Together Flint and Pierre start an auto factory.
When he is playing golf one day, Pierre meets his son, Pierre Croy, who is now a young boy. He asks Joanna to allow him to adopt the boy, but she refuses, convinced he will have a better life on the farm.
Pierre continues to amass money, and when World War I starts, he diversifies into munitions. He sends his son gifts, and when Pierre, Jr. is old enough, sends him away to school. His marriage to Hazel is not a success, and soon he is spending his time in New York visiting with his son and a series of attractive women.
Carried away with a sense of his own importance and invulnerability, Pierre invests his and Flint's money in stocks. After his son is killed driving the car he gave him for his birthday, Pierre's life starts to fall apart.
Hazel discovers Pierre, Jr's parentage, and finally ends her marriage. Pierre loses all his money in stock speculation as well as that of his father-in-law.
Joanna blames Pierre for the death of her oldest son. Penniless and friendless, Pierre seeks out his mother, who is now making a living as a fortune-teller. They plan to return to Europe, where Pierre hopes he will be worthy of her.
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