Broken Lullaby

A film set in Germany after the First World War. Paul is French. He killed a young German soldier in a trench during the war and has not recovered since. He read the letter found in the dead man's pocket; he knows his name, his family and his fiancée. He confesses at church, finds no relief and goes to Germany. He means to tell the family the truth and ask forgiveness. He arrives in a small town. The dead man's father is a doctor; he visits his son's grave every week and is bitter towards the French. The fiancée lives in the same house. At the door Paul cannot say what he came to say. The family take him for a friend of their son's from Paris and bring him in. From there the film is about a closeness built on a lie. Paul enters the family's life, fills an emptiness in the house, and the chance to tell the truth shrinks a little every day. The opening is the most striking passage: a victory parade is shown folded into a church service, and the celebration of war and the mourning enter the same frame. Phillips Holmes plays Paul, Lionel Barrymore the doctor and Nancy Carroll the fiancée. Ernst Lubitsch directed; known for his comedies, this is his most serious film. A strong production for anyone who likes postwar drama and classic Hollywood. For a viewer expecting a light Lubitsch, there is no joke here at all.