Smilin' Through (1932) - Sidney Franklin 

Oh lord sometimes I wonder why I bother. Franklin's film is not as hated as it probably deserves to be, it is a melodramatic love story that is so laughably over the top its rather difficult to watch. Now perhaps some of my disappointment comes from the misleading title. Based on a stage play, and a remake of a 1922 film of the same name, also directed by Franklin perhaps MGM didn't feel a need to give it a more accurate re-titling. With something like Smilin' Through you'd expect something of a musical, or at the very least something light hearted. Norma Shearer goes laughably over the top, crying and yelling and throwing herself around a much better restrained Frederic March. Leslie Howard is somewhat useless as the patriarchal figure, and his own love affair is dealt with all too quickly. Besides the makeup job on him is laughable at best. Take the man, make his hair gray, and that's it, not a wrinkle on his face. Still perhaps better than the aging job done on Gene Tierney in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. March is clearly the highlight of this film, particularly in his late scene returning from the war. The plot itself is so non-sensicle that even something that might have worked gets mutilated and butchered into crap.

*Smilin' Through was one of 10 films nominated for best picture in 1932/33. This would be the last year that the award season didn't coincide with the calendar year. It has only been released on VHS, and has long since gone out of print.