Tonight's Movie: Men Must Fight (1933) - A Warner Archive DVD Review

MEN MUST FIGHT (1933) is a rather fascinating film, available on DVD from the Warner Archive.

The main theme of the film is pacifism versus patriotism and protecting one's country, but what makes it especially interesting is its amazingly prescient view of the future. The movie was made in 1933, but it essentially predicts World War II, FaceTime and similar "picture phones," and the popularity of television. Shots of the Empire State Building being destroyed are eerily reminiscent of 9/11.

And as the film ends, young Phillips Holmes' character has become a military pilot; in real life Holmes would join the Royal Canadian Air Force and die in an airplane crash while serving in Canada in 1942.

As the movie opens, lovers Laura (Diana Wynard), a nurse, and pilot Geoffrey Aiken (Robert Young) part as Geoffrey heads for combat. Geoffrey is almost immediately killed in action, and the grief-stricken Laura marries Ned (Lewis Stone), who loves her and is willing to give the baby she's expecting a name and security. (Side note, I wonder how many times Stone played that type of noble role...)

Laura and Ned have a successful marriage, but when he eventually becomes Secretary of State and war breaks out in 1940, he must support the President and the United States in the conflict, which is at odds with Laura's intractable pacifist views. Laura is determined that her son Bob (Phillips Holmes) will not die in a war like Geoffrey did. Bob initially holds to his mother's views, which puts him at odds with his fiancee Peggy (Ruth Selwyn).

The family story, as scripted by C. Gardner Sullivan (from a play by S.K. Lauren and Reginald Laurence), is actually fairly absorbing, including allowing for reasoned debate on both sides of the pacifism/self-defense issue; it ultimately acknowledges, in actions if not in words, that there is evil in the world and sometimes there is no choice but to fight it, which is reflected in the film's title.

What really makes the movie interesting is the wider setting; the 1933 predictions for what life would look like in 1940 are great fun. Laura and Ned's apartment is sort of Art Deco meets THE JETSONS, with gorgeous "swirls" in the chairs and walls; the elevator is simply fabulous. This 1933 film also imagines a world where televisions are commonplace, and the "picture phone" is pretty much what Skype or FaceTime is now.

On a less happy note, the world war the film envisions would come to pass within a very few short years; by the time 1940 arrived for real, much of the world was either already in the conflict, or soon would be.

It's not a great film, but as may be clear from the foregoing, I felt it was definitely one worth seeing.

The supporting cast includes plus May Robson and Hedda Hopper, both pictured here, along with lovely Mary Carlisle. This was the second film this week where I saw Robert Greig play a butler! Robert Young is dashing and handsome in his brief appearance as the movie opens.

MEN MUST FIGHT was directed by Edgar Selwyn and filmed by George J. Folsey. It runs 72 minutes.

The Warner Archive print is good, with a strong soundtrack for a film of this era. There are no extras on the disc.

Thanks to the Warner Archive for providing a review copy of this DVD. Warner Archive releases are MOD (manufactured on demand) and may be ordered from the Warner Archive Collection Store at Amazon or from any online retailers where DVDs and Blu-rays are sold.