Redemption Reviews

Irving Thalberg did not leave anything out in this expensive adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's "The Live Corpse," which was to be billed as Gilbert's first talkie. But the result was so bad and in such desperate need of repair that the film spent a year in the cutting room, allowing HIS GLORIOUS NIGHT to earn the billing as Gilbert's first talking picture. This heavy-handed story has Gilbert mistaken as dead, which gives his wife and best friend, Boardman and Nagel respectively, the chance to marry. When it is discovered that Gilbert is indeed alive, a trial leads to Gilbert's suicide, so the two lovers may carry on their lives. The script has little of the moral ironies found in Tolstoy's play, therefore coming out as an unrealistic and overly dramatic mess.