I had never heard of this film before I saw it for sale, but being an early MGM Robert Montgomery vehicle and being the only talking film in which Louis Mann had a role, I thought I would give it a try. I'm glad I did. Mann plays a German immigrant who has fled to the U.S. as a young man because of a violent act he committed during a fit of temper. Here in the U.S. he raises four children and becomes the owner of a barber shop. He has the chance to become the partner in a savings and loan, but discovers that his son Ludwig needs to go to a dry climate for two years so he refuses the deal so he can take his son out west.
Years later the savings and loan has become a success and the man that Louis Mann's character would have partnered with has become wealthy. On top of this, the would-be partner's son (Robert Montgomery) has grown up to be a spoiled rascal who happens to be in love with Mann's daughter. But that is the least of his problems. Although this is a very good drama in the MGM-Irving Thalberg era tradition and I highly recommend it, don't be fooled by Robert Montgomery being placed so prominently in the cast. He actually has a very small supporting role. This is basically a one man show and that man is Louis Mann. He's perfect as the man for whom no sacrifice is too big where his children are concerned. That is mainly because he doesn't consider his acts sacrifices, for his most valuable possession is the love of his children. In fact, at the end, Mann's character is feeling like a failure not because of the horrific things going on in his life at that time. It is because he feels like he has lost the love and affection of his children when he is seemingly forgotten by them at Christmas.
Roan put out a DVD release of this film, and the video quality is excellent. The audio can be troublesome in spots but it is clear enough. There is just that background hiss in places that you often have in early talking films. There are some good extras on this DVD too. There is an introduction plus two featurettes. One featurette is on the film itself and the other is about being a child star. The final extra feature is a weird little dance number by some children entitled "The Radiation March". If you have other Roan DVDs you've likely seen this one before.
Sorry to hawk a particular product, but the Roan release is the only way I know to see this film which has apparently been forgotten by the company I think has the copyright, which is Warner Brothers.
