Love Never Dies Reviews

Although this bucolic melodrama remains a far cry from his late-silent masterpieces, King Vidor ingeniously plays around with non-existent sound in Love Never Dies. Such as depicting the arrival of an unwelcome visitor by showing heavy feet trampling up the stairs to the porch; or a young man hoping to romance his new bride by bringing home a newfangled gramophone player complete with a recording of "Love's Old Sweet Song" by the "Neapolitan Trio." But the bride has gone back to papa and as the recording comes to an end, the youngster sinks into despair. Vidor also creates a convincing train wreck sequence and even manages to coax a good performance from Madge Bellamy, a Mary Pickford-wannabe who was usually merely decorative. In the end, however, she and everyone else are thoroughly upstaged by little Julia Brown as Lloyd Hughes freckled and tomboyish kid sister.