Blu Ray Review: Broken Lullaby (1932)

Ernst Lubitsch’s brilliant screen version of the 1930 play L'homme que j'ai tué by Maurice Rostand and its 1931 English-language adaptation, The Man I Killed, by Reginald Berkeley has been released to blu ray by Kino Lorber.

Phillips Holmes stars as a French soldier who is haunted by the image of a same-aged German he killed during the world war. After being given absolution by his priest, he still is not satisfied, so he goes to Germany where the deceased soldier’s family lives, and meets his family. Rather than reveal his true identity, he claims to be a friend who had studied at the same music conservatory. Embraced by the family as a replacement for their lost son, he falls in love with the dead man’s fiancée and eventually succumbs and tells her the truth. She insists he not tell the family, as they have healed from their son’s death by embracing this man.

Lubistch’s film addresses not only the post-war pacifism of many soldiers who fought, but also the anti-French sentiment maintained in Germany. Lionel Barrymore’s performance as the dead solider’s father is magnificently heartbreaking, while Nancy Carroll as the fiancée is earnest and moving. The director’s artistic shots (leaves blowing to reveal the dead soldier’s tombstone, panning up to his sobbing mother) are never extreme or distracting, but organically settle into the narrative, making it that much more powerful. The elderly mother notices a friend, and comforts her weeping in the graveyard filled with young men. She realizes, aloud, “there are so many years ahead of us…” indicating her having to somehow live with a pain and loss she’ll never get past.

Perhaps some of the melodramatics that were common in pre-code cinema might seem a bit dated when viewed in the 21st century, but this is really a part of the film's historical aesthetic. Broken Lullaby is a powerfully moving drama because of its naked sincerity. The shot of Barrymore reaching down to embrace Holmes' hand shortly after meeting the man who he doesn't realize killed his son in the war, is one of the most striking images in pre-code films.

Kino Lorber’s blu ray is from a new 2K master and features a commentary track by film historian Joseph McBride, author of How Did Lubitsch Do It?

The blu ray is available at this link: LULLABY