Marianne (1929) - A weirdly charming war movie with a pig

If you can get past the fake French accent, Marianne is actually kinda sweet. You should watch it if you like those old movies where everyone is just trying so hard to be charming. Don't watch it if you want a serious, gritty war movie though. It’s mostly just soldiers hanging out in a farm yard and making eyes at the lead girl.

Marion Davies is the main reason to even click play on this one. She plays a French peasant girl who basically runs the whole village because all the men are gone. She has this incredible energy. You can tell she was a natural comedian because she spends a lot of time just mimicking the soldiers and bossing them around. It's way more fun than something like Midnight Lovers, which feels way more stiff and boring.

There is a pig named Adolphe. He might be the best actor in the whole thing. The way Marion carries him around like a baby is actually pretty funny. 🐷 It’s a very specific kind of 1920s humor that doesn't always land today, but here it works. The pig just looks confused the whole time.

The movie gets weirdly sad out of nowhere. Her fiancé comes back from the front and he’s blind. The mood shifts so fast it almost gave me whiplash, like, really fast. One second they are singing and the next it's all heavy guilt and long stares. It’s not quite as balanced as Heart to Heart, but it tries its best to make you feel something.

The American soldier, Stagg, is played by Lawrence Gray. He has that very specific 1920s 'leading man' face that looks like it was drawn with a ruler. 📏 Their chemistry is okay but I mostly just felt bad for the blind guy. Stagg is just a bit too confident, you know? He feels like he walked off the set of Hard-Boiled Haggerty and forgot to change his personality.

There’s this one scene where they are all in a barn. The lighting is actually really nice for 1929. You can see the dust in the air. It felt real for a second. Then someone started singing again and the spell was broken. This was right when movies were starting to talk, so they really wanted to cram in the music.

I noticed one of the extras in the background of the village scene just staring at the camera for like three seconds. Nobody caught it in editing. I love stuff like that. It reminds you that this was just a bunch of people on a set 100 years ago. It’s a little messy, but it has more life than The Winding Stair.

Cliff Edwards is in this too. He’s the guy who voiced Jiminy Cricket later on. He plays his ukulele and does his little 'effin' and 'uffin' sounds. It's a total distraction from the plot but I didn't mind. The plot is pretty thin anyway. It's basically just: will she pick the American or the guy she's supposed to marry?

The ending feels a bit rushed. Like they realized they had to wrap up the love triangle in five minutes because they ran out of film. It’s not a perfect film by any means. But it has a soul. It's better than those empty war epics like Famous Battles of Napoleon because it actually cares about the characters.

Sometimes the dialogue is a bit clunky. You can tell the writers were still figuring out how people actually talk in movies. Some of the lines are so dramatic they become funny. "I am a French girl! I have a heart of stone!" Okay, sure you do, Marion. 🙄

I think the most interesting thing is the sets. They built this whole little French village and it looks lived in. There are chickens everywhere. Someone had to wrangle all those chickens. I kept wondering if they ever got loose during the serious scenes. Probably.

If you're bored on a Sunday, give it a go. It’s a nice little time capsule. Just be ready for the accent. It's very thick and not very accurate. But that's part of the charm, I guess. It’s a movie that really wants you to like it. And for the most part, I did.