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Heroes for Sale [VHS]

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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.

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.

"Heroes for Sale" (1933) is really 2 films for the price of one. The first is a tale about heroism in the face of battle, where a soldier combats his morphine addiction when he returns to civilian life, working for the coward who took credit for his heroic exploits on the battlefield. Part 2 concerns the fight for worker's rights in the light of the expansion of machines, and in general deals with the plight of the depression. The two stories are united by the central character played by Richard Barthelmess (1895-1963).

Barthelmess was one of the brightest stars of the silent screen and was nominated for the very first Oscar for his performances in "The Patent Leather Kid" (1927) and "The Noose" (1928). He made a few talkies in the early 30s ("Dawn Patrol", "Show of Shows") but gradually stopped making films and lived off his investments. In this film he gives his usual earnest performance, showing his roots in silent films.

Loretta Young (1913-2000) plays Barthlemess' wife in Part 2. Young won an Oscar in 1948 for "The Farmer's Daughter" as was nominated in 1950 for "Come to the Stable". She won 3 Emmys for "The Loretta Young Show" 1953 to 1961. The 20 year old actress is so fresh and lovable in this early film it's hard to realize that she was already a veteran of nearly 50 films.

Aline MacMahon (1899-1991) plays Mary Dennis who works in her father's soup kitchen and helps Barthlemess as a good friend. MacMahon was known for his wise cracking demeanor and was popular in the 30s and 40s and nominated for an Oscar as the Chinese mother of Katherine Hepburn in "Dragon Seed" (1944). She gives her usual great performance.

Robert Barrat (1889-1970) plays a "Red" who invents a machine that revolutionizes laundry work. He appeared in more than 100 films and such classics as "The Life of Emile Zola" (1937), "Captain Blood" (1935), "Union Pacific" (1939), and "They Were Expendable" (1945). He's best remembered for his role as Chingachgook in "Last of the Mohicans" (1939). He is a hoot in this film adopting a Germanic accent and playing the "Red" as a buffoon.

Charley Grapewin (1869-1956) plays Pa Dennis, the owner of the soup kitchen. He made over 100 films between 1900 and 1951 and is probably best remembered as Uncle Henry from "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) and Grandpa Joad in "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940).

Look for Ward Bond in an uncredited role as a hobo named "Red". Also check out the hoboes which include some real life homeless people, and the laundry workers who aren't actresses, but real workers.

William "Wild Bill" Wellman (1986-1975) directs. Wellman was nominated 4 times for an Oscar, winning for Best Writer in 1938 ("A Star is Born"). He was nominated for an Oscar and a DGA for "The High and the Mighty" (1954). Among his notable films were "Wings" (1927), "Public Enemy" (1931), "Beau Geste" (1939), "The Ox Bow Incident" (1943), and "Battleground" (1949).

The struggles of the returning WW 1 vets were fodder for many films - "J'accuse" (1919), "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (1921), "The Big Parade" (1925), "Lucky Star" (1929), "Broken Lullaby" (1932), "Farewell to Arms" (1932), "The Lost Squadron" (1932), "Three Comrades" (1938), "The Roaring Twenties" (1939), and even dealt with in a Laurel and Hardy comedy "Block Heads" (1938).

This is a strange film - in some respects it is an American version of "Les Miserables" with Barthelmess in the Jean Valjean role and society as the relentless Inspector Javert. In other respects, it is an early version of "The Grapes of Wrath". It hits you hard with its Warner Brothers "torn from the headlines" realism but there is a sentimentality running beneath most of Wellman's great films, and here it is like a strong current, assuring us that all the troubles and tribulations placed in front of our hero will only spur him on to greater (moral) achievements.

Bottom line - a great film for fans of Warner Brothers 30s real life films,

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.

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.

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.

one movie, Heroes For Sale. They pretty much succeed in the life of one man. Tom Holmes. He gets it all good & bad. Forgotten war hero, addiction for his injuries, humiliation, success, love of a beautiful woman, fatherhood, death of his wife in a riot, prison, losing his job to automation, accuastions of being a Commusnist & the depression. Quit a full life, right there. Had this movie been attempted a few months later it would have been watered down by the code. As is it doessn't pull any punches & ranks right up there. Wild Boys 0f the Road & I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang come immediately to mind. Loretta Young is wonderful in a smallish part as his devoted wife, who is killed in a labor riot. Tom tries to stop. I had not heard much of Aline MacMahon. She had a great part as Tom's best friend, the other woman who loves him & raises his son. Still, the end tries to be hopeful. Tom, always the optimist, is straggling down a deserted road somewhere in the midwest with a bunch of likewise homeless men ("at least it stopped raining"). A fine addition on Forbidden Hollywood volume 3 . A real gem from William Wellman.