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6.4/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.4/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. The Silver Lining remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
Should you actually sit down and watch The Silver Lining (1932) today? Only if you are a massive nerd for dusty, creaky Pre-Code melodramas where women yell at each other in tiny jail cells. Anyone else looking for a slick thriller is gonna hate this immediately. 😅
The setup is super simple. You got a rich girl and a poor girl who both end up in the slammer. The movie wants us to care about whether they can make it on the outside after they get released.
Honestly, the prison scenes are the only parts worth your time. The extras in the background look so incredibly bored, like they were paid in soup. One lady in the back just stares directly at the camera for a solid five seconds.
Betty Compson plays the rich girl, and she has this hilarious habit. She *gasps* really loudly right before she says any of her dramatic lines. It is like she is trying to suck all the air out of the room. "Oh!" gasp "The horror of this place!"
Once they get out of jail, the movie gets noticeably slower. It becomes this weird, preachy story about society not letting reformed criminals get a break.
We get introduced to some incredibly bland male characters. Cornelius Keefe shows up and he has the charisma of a wet paper towel. You just want the movie to go back to the prison yard where things actually happened.
If you want a prison movie with some actual energy, you are probably better off finding Jazz and Jailbirds. Or if you want a silent drama that actually has some visual style, check out The Face on the Bar-Room Floor instead.
There is this one oddly specific shot that made me laugh. A guard drops a ring of keys, and the camera just lingers on the floor for way too long. It is like the editor forgot to cut the scene and just went to get a coffee. ☕
Also, Maureen O'Sullivan is supposedly in this movie. I think she plays a tiny role near the start, but if you blink, you will miss her entirely. Don't buy the DVD thinking you are getting a big Maureen film.
The ending comes out of nowhere and solves everything in about two minutes. It is so rushed it feels like the director ran out of physical film and just yelled "okay, we are done!"
It is not a masterpiece, not even close. But there is a weird, imperfect charm to how clunky these early 1930s talkies were. It is like looking at a time capsule that someone dropped in the mud.
IMDb —
1919
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