Vivamos de nuevo

Russia-set costume drama from United Artists, Samuel Goldwyn, and director Rouben Mamoulian. Callow young nobleman and soldier Prince Dmitri (Fredric March) has an affair with peasant girl Katusha (Anna Sten), unknowingly leaving her pregnant and without support. Many years later, he encounters her again when he is serving jury duty and she comes up for trial on charges of murder, and he swears to help her however he can. Also featuring C. Aubrey Smith, Jane Baxter, Ethel Griffies, Sam Jaffe, Charles Middleton, Jessie Ralph, Leonid Kinskey, Dale Fuller, Richard Alexander, and Halliwell Hobbes.

Based on the Tolstoy novel Resurrection, what this lacks in script polish it makes up for in handsome visuals. Mamoulian was one of the few directors who seemed to recall, after the advent of sound, that film is a visual medium. Too many early thirties films are static, turgid gabfests, whereas Mamoulian takes care to frame beautiful compositions with striking lighting and visual splendor. The highlight here is a lengthy Russian Orthodox church ceremony. March and Sten turn in decent performances, but the film is hampered by a rushed telling of the tale, and a trite ending.