Little Man, What Now?

One of Frank Borzage's remarkable romantic weepies, dealing - like A Farewell to Arms, Three Comrades and The Mortal Storm - with the transcendent power of love to survive in times of horrific spiritual and economic poverty. Here the couple - Sullavan, at her most radiant, and Montgomery - manage to stay together whatever the '20s depression in post-war Germany can throw at them. Beautiful, committed, and deeply moving, it's the sort of film that it would be virtually impossible to make today without falling into banality. (From the novel by Hans Fallada.