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Little Man, What Now?  /  No Greater Glory

Little Man, What Now?  (1934)
August 29, 2015 - 7:30 pm

Little Man, What Now?  (1934)


Director Frank Borzage’s “Weimar Trilogy” begins here with Margaret Sullavan, the trilogy’s radiant, fragile muse, as one half of a young married couple struggling to make their way in 1930s Germany.  Borzage doesn’t shy from depicting the grim realities of a country plunged into economic and, more importantly, spiritual despair, making the film’s sense of humanity all the more moving for being hard won.

Production: Universal Pictures Corp.  A Frank Borzage Production.  Distribution: Universal Pictures Corp.  Producer:  Carl Laemmle Jr., Frank Borzage.  Director: Frank Borzage.  Based on the novel Kleiner Mann, was nun? by Hans Fallada.  Screenwriter: William Anthony McGuire.  Cinematographer: Norbert Brodine.  Art Director: Charles D. Hall.  Editor: Milton Carruth.  With: Margaret Sullavan, Douglass Montgomery, Alan Hale, Catharine Doucet, DeWitt Jennings.  35mm, b/w, 98 min.

Preserved by the Library of Congress.

No Greater Glory  (1934)


Intended as an avowed “indictment against war,” director Frank Borzage’s second adaptation of a work by Hungarian writer Ferenc Molnár broadly heralded the anti-Fascist themes of the “Weimar Trilogy” films to follow.  Two rival gangs of school kids mimic the patriotic slogans and militaristic posturing of the adults around them as they war over control of a vacant lot.

Production: Columbia Pictures Corp.  A Frank Borzage Production.  Distribution: Columbia Pictures Corp.  Producer: Frank Borzage.  Director: Frank Borzage.  Based on the novel The Children of Pál Street (A pal utcai fiuk) by Ferenc Molnár.  Screenwriter: Jo Swerling.  Cinematographer: Joseph August.  Editor: Viola Lawrence.  With: George Breakston, Frankie Darro, Jackie Searl, Jimmie Butler, Donald Haines.  35mm, b/w, 74 min.