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jennariaThe first thing you need to know about the 1935 movie adaptation of LES MISERABLES is that it was made during the era of the Motion Picture Production Code, also known as the Hays Code. This required, among other things, that 'special care' be taken when portraying the history of another country, theft, sympathy for criminals, sedition, "the sale of women, or of a woman selling her virtue," and "titles or scenes having to do with law enforcement or law-enforcing officers."
Why Thia, I hear you say, doesn't that cover pretty much the entirety of Les Mis? What's left, an overview of the sewers of Paris?
Nope: they do manage something resembling Hugo's plot. Vaguely. That's the second thing: the entire movie is an hour and 48 minutes.
It's not terrible. It's just not good either. Mostly it's sort of confused, which makes sense because it's trying to compress everything into less than two hours, so every random detail they include isn't just a random detail, it's a random detail that they specifically chose, at the expense of this heap of other plot points.
Mostly it's Because Hays Code. Cosette's father is "in heaven," which I'm sure would be news to him. Fantine is thrown out of her job because - which makes no sense, if she's a widow - and finally goes and confronts Madeleine because she "can't find respectable work." Is she a prostitute? Unclear! She's wearing a black lace shawl, so maybe? The Thenardiers make a brief appearance at the inn, being mean to Cosette, and then never appear again (except Eponine). And Marius is secretly Enjolras, except for the critical 'FUCK THIS, BUILDING A BARRICADE NOW' moment, which is given to someone else who the end credits claim was Enjolras all the time, so that Marius can have all the fun bits of being a revolutionary but never actually commit violent sedition.[1]
(When we first see him, Marius is giving a speech during which he claims, simultaneously, that his student group isn't soft on crime - "far from it, we want the laws to be even more strict!" - and then, immediately, that sentencing is too harsh and prisons are terrible. How, exactly, he thinks 'even more strict' laws work is not made clear.)
Sometimes, though...
Javert is played by Charles Laughton, who mostly played villains. Maybe that's my problem, the lack of any sense that Javert is the hero of his own side of the story. He comes across as small and sneaking - 'lacking imagination,' says one of the other characters, and it feels true. He manages to achieve loathsome during the Confrontation over Fantine's deathbed, but not the kind of depth that might explain how and why he breaks. Unfortunately, that also means his interactions with Valjean fizzle.
To be fair, part of that problem might be Valjean. We're told Valjean is good, and we see him argue for mercy over Javert's law in M-sur-M, but even as Madeleine, the only good deed we see him do, besides the obligatory lifting of the cart, is donate money to the convent where he and Cosette later hide. He's good, but he's not a saint. Unfortunately, this means that when he spares Javert, it came across as less Something Valjean Would Do, and more The Plot Demands It.
Javert does still commit suicide. Valjean does not - or at least, the movie ends with Javert's death. It's not a bad ending, more implications than seen. But wow does it leave out a lot.
[1] Also, the Barricade Boys technically exist, but only in an undifferentiated mass. Apparently-Enjolras snickers at Eponine and her crush once, so I had tentatively identified him as Grantaire. I'm not sure if Grantaire even exists in this version. Maybe they had to leave that out under 'perversion.'
Why Thia, I hear you say, doesn't that cover pretty much the entirety of Les Mis? What's left, an overview of the sewers of Paris?
Nope: they do manage something resembling Hugo's plot. Vaguely. That's the second thing: the entire movie is an hour and 48 minutes.
It's not terrible. It's just not good either. Mostly it's sort of confused, which makes sense because it's trying to compress everything into less than two hours, so every random detail they include isn't just a random detail, it's a random detail that they specifically chose, at the expense of this heap of other plot points.
Mostly it's Because Hays Code. Cosette's father is "in heaven," which I'm sure would be news to him. Fantine is thrown out of her job because - which makes no sense, if she's a widow - and finally goes and confronts Madeleine because she "can't find respectable work." Is she a prostitute? Unclear! She's wearing a black lace shawl, so maybe? The Thenardiers make a brief appearance at the inn, being mean to Cosette, and then never appear again (except Eponine). And Marius is secretly Enjolras, except for the critical 'FUCK THIS, BUILDING A BARRICADE NOW' moment, which is given to someone else who the end credits claim was Enjolras all the time, so that Marius can have all the fun bits of being a revolutionary but never actually commit violent sedition.[1]
(When we first see him, Marius is giving a speech during which he claims, simultaneously, that his student group isn't soft on crime - "far from it, we want the laws to be even more strict!" - and then, immediately, that sentencing is too harsh and prisons are terrible. How, exactly, he thinks 'even more strict' laws work is not made clear.)
Sometimes, though...
Javert is played by Charles Laughton, who mostly played villains. Maybe that's my problem, the lack of any sense that Javert is the hero of his own side of the story. He comes across as small and sneaking - 'lacking imagination,' says one of the other characters, and it feels true. He manages to achieve loathsome during the Confrontation over Fantine's deathbed, but not the kind of depth that might explain how and why he breaks. Unfortunately, that also means his interactions with Valjean fizzle.
To be fair, part of that problem might be Valjean. We're told Valjean is good, and we see him argue for mercy over Javert's law in M-sur-M, but even as Madeleine, the only good deed we see him do, besides the obligatory lifting of the cart, is donate money to the convent where he and Cosette later hide. He's good, but he's not a saint. Unfortunately, this means that when he spares Javert, it came across as less Something Valjean Would Do, and more The Plot Demands It.
Javert does still commit suicide. Valjean does not - or at least, the movie ends with Javert's death. It's not a bad ending, more implications than seen. But wow does it leave out a lot.
[1] Also, the Barricade Boys technically exist, but only in an undifferentiated mass. Apparently-Enjolras snickers at Eponine and her crush once, so I had tentatively identified him as Grantaire. I'm not sure if Grantaire even exists in this version. Maybe they had to leave that out under 'perversion.'