Sidney Franklin was perhaps MGM's safest director of the '30s, being handed a series of prestige projects and always bringing an unadventurous classiness to them. This one, from a Jane Cowl Broadway war horse, has two sad love stories in different eras, sumptuous photography, and a small, starry cast. Leslie Howard, forced to spend most of the movie behind unflattering I'm-a-70-year-old makeup, lends it dignity, and Norma Shearer and Fredric March deliver a one-two punch of star quality. She was always a little artificial, a little too love-me, but she did have the individuality that spells 1930s movie star. He was usually excellent, and he is here, infusing his noble-soldier persona with a modern immediacy that's the antithesis of her actressy histrionics. Speaking of actressy, I've never been able to tolerate Beryl Mercer, and she's at her most unforgivable here, but at least it's a small part. It's less arthritic and overproduced than the Jeanette MacDonald remake, and if the ending steals from "Viennese Nights" and presages the MacDonald-Eddy "Maytime" right down to the double exposure, it doesn't ruin a still-affecting love story.
Review of Smilin' Through
