Whom the Gods Destroy

I only rented this very obscure movie because I was honoring Robert Young as Star of the Week, so imagine my surprise to discover an incredibly acted tearjerker with an interesting directing style. Walter Connelly is not a household name, but if you recognize his face, it'll most likely be from It Happened One Night, where he played Claudette Colbert's father. Talk about hidden talents-Walter can act!

Walter starts the film as a successful Broadway producer, and he sails on a Titanic-esque ocean liner that crashes into unexpected debris and sinks. While the women and children are being helped into lifeboats, Walter panics. He thinks of his loving wife and adoring little son at home, and in a moment of desperation, he dons women's clothes and gets into a lifeboat. As it turns out, all the men go down with the ship, and when the women get rescued, Walter develops pneumonia. No one knows his name, so no one can get word to his family that he's survived.

Walter finally makes it back to New York, and he sees that his wife Doris Kenyon is in mourning, praising her hero husband who helped save lives before sacrificing his own. There's a bronzed likeness of him at the theater with an engraved similar sentiment. Walter feels sick, and in his intense shame and fear of what would happen to his family if he made his survival story known, he retreats into the shadows.

I won't tell you any more of what happens, only that it's an incredibly sad and touching story. Bring out a box of Kleenex when you watch Whom the Gods Destroy. Walter's transformation from boisterous millionaire to hopeless, homeless dishwasher is nothing short of incredible. After you watch this hidden gem, you'll be filled with admiration for a man whose greatest claim to fame was saying, "I haven't the faintest idea," after Claudette Colbert runs away from her wedding.

DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie might not be your friend. There are several scene transitions that have spinning camerawork or montages faded over one another, and it will make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"