WE ARE NOT ALONE

US, 1939, 112 minutes, Black and white.
Paul Muni, Jane Bryan, Flora Robson, Raymond Severn, Una O’ Connor, Henry Daniell, James Stephenson, Alan Napier.
Directed by Edmund Goulding.

We Are Not Alone is based on a novel by James Hilton. Hilton was a significant Hollywood presence with films based on his novels including Lost Horizon, Goodbye Mr Chips, Random Harvest, Rage in Heaven, So Well Remembered. Hilton himself did the narration for Random Harvest and So Well Remembered.

The film had an unfortunate release date, opening at the beginning of World War Two, offering a sympathetic picture of a victim of British xenophobia during World War One.

The film is set during World War One, in an English village. Paul Muni is a gentle and quiet, high spirited, absentminded doctor. It shows the versatility of Muni’s acting ability, his films in the 1930s offering an enormous range from Chain Gang to Louis Pasteur for which he won an Oscar and Emile Zola. Flora Robson is very effective as his domineering wife. Jane Bryan is the Austrian dancer who attempts suicide, is helped by the doctor, and becomes, with him, the victim of accidental accusations of murder. Una O’ Connor, always sharp and peckish, is the maid who gives evidence against the two. Henry Daniell, always looking superior, is the prosecutor.

The first part of the film is about the doctor and his family, his love for his little boy (Raymond Severn) and his ability to put up with his continually critical wife. When he tends the Austrian dancer, the wife thinks it a good idea to invite her to be governess for their boy. However, she becomes jealous, discovers that the dancer has attempted suicide, begins gossip in the town, aided and abetted by the maid, Susan.

The second part of the film consists of the arrest, the court case, the aftermath of the guilty verdict and the doctor’s preparation, in very high-minded spiritual terms, for his death. He asserts that we are not alone, that at the same time during World War One, the authorities were sending many people to their deaths. This would not have gone down so well in 1939, nor the scenes of extreme bigotry against Germans at the outbreak of World War One.

The film is very much dialogue-oriented, giving Paul Muni a chance to present a very virtuous and spiritual man, Jane Bryan to be a young victim of circumstances, Flora Robson to exercise that strong screen presence that she did in most of her films, especially Fire Over England and The Sea Hawk, as Queen Elizabeth I.

Not a well-known film, but an interesting example from the golden years of Hollywood. It was directed by songwriter and director, Edmund Goulding, best known for such films in the 1930s as Grand Hotel, The Old Maid, Dark Victory, and in the 40s The Razor’s Edge and Nightmare Alley.

1. A film of the 30s? Warner Bros and production qualities? The title, the implications of criticism of authorities sending people to war and death? Human solidarity?

2. The black and white photography, the re-creation of the English village? The strong cast, the range of character actors? Making the story credible?

3. The introduction to Doctor David Newcome, his diligence, his kindliness, on his bicycle, singing his song? At home, his love for his son, tolerant and understanding? His response to his critical wife? His devotion? Going out at all hours, helping those in need? His absentmindedness, being late, meals? His wife forcing him to go to local meetings and his dislike of them? His being called out to Leni? Helping her? The attempted suicide? The rehabilitation? Receiving her into the house, his delight in her kindness towards Gerald? His fondness for her, their talking? Her revealing her story? His shock at his wife’s reaction in wanting her to go? His explanation of not giving her the information about the attempted suicide? His wife taking Gerald to her brother? His organising Leni’s leaving the village, urging her to go back to Germany at the beginning of the war? His experience of the xenophobia in his village? The bicycle ride? At the station? The arrest?

4. Jessica, domineering, her headaches, her hypochondria, her medication? Her sense of discipline, with Gerald, his fearfulness and her keeping him in the dark, demanding that David have his meals? Her putting on the musical night, the importance of her reputation in the town? Her reliance on Susan, Susan’s devotion and antipathy towards the doctor? Her concern about Leni, bringing her into the house? Her being told the truth? Her confrontation with Leni, not able to speak directly to her in terms of the accusations? Taking Gerald away? Her confrontation with her husband, the quarrels, the discussion about poisonous attitudes? Susan overhearing these? Her taking the medicine, her sudden death?

5. Leni, age, dancer, coming to England, the passport for Russia? Her despair? Attempted suicide? Tended by the doctor, her devotion to him? In the house, her love for Gerald, playing with him, caring for him? The contrast with Jessica? Leni and the doctor playing the violin, her fears at the outbreak of the war, her being sent away, the doctor taking her side? His helping her escape, going to the train? The arrest?

6. The people in the village? Their devotion to the doctor? Reliance on him?

7. The arrest, the imprisonment? The details of the trial? The benign presiding judge, the sympathetic defence lawyer, David not wanting his son to come to the court or know anything firsthand about what happened? The prosecutor? His superior attitude? His being pulled up for arrogance? The range of witnesses, the innuendo about the relationship? Susan, her place in the household, her anti-German feeling, her antagonism towards Leni, devotion to Jessica? The evidence, her innuendos? Her being called back, describing the discussion at the cabinet? At the end, her tending to Gerald, nine o’clock and the time of execution, Gerald’s kind words about the doctor’s attitude towards her? The film ending with the execution and the audience watching Susan and her reaction?

8. Gerald, little boy, frightened, the discipline of his mother, the care of his father? His being with Leni, her company, singing the German song – and at the end in the bath? The accident with the tablets? His being responsible for his mother’s death but never knowing?

9. The court, the judge, the lawyers, the witnesses? How persuasive?

10. David accepting the guilty verdict, playing draughts with the police, caring for their health, the visit of the doctor, the military and the suspicions that Leni was a spy, listening in to their conversation? His being asked in court whether he loved Leni, his coming to the realisation that he did, a chaste and committed love? His discussions about death, to his dying day, with his brother-in-law, the spiritual comfort? His concern about his son? The high-minded heroic figure?

11. The humanity of the film? As presenting different attitudes from the 1930s from the conventional and propaganda attitudes?