The version I saw was on a russian website called Vk and it was in spanish. I saw the film as I am a spanish speaker myself. Anyways the only english dialouge is when they sing at the church. The movie was mediocre but not slow in any way and it was very entertaining regardless of it not being in its original langueage. I might watch again if an english copy is avaliable but I could not find any one you tube or another russian website that is notorious for having almost every early 1930s movie and that is ok ru. The last time someone who reviewed this movie i was in kindergarten. Gwynplaine is known to have seen films that are deemed lost from private collectors.
Add a Review
-
CinedeEden21 March 2024
-
F Gwynplaine MacIntyre15 August 2004'Village Tale' is based on a novel by Philip Stong, an Iowa newspaperman who is now best remembered for writing 'State Fair', which became a Rodgers & Hammerstein musical. Actually, the best-known piece of text authored by Stong is not usually attributed to him. It was Stong who wrote the widely-reprinted statement that was purportedly spoken in prison by anarchist Bartolomeo Vanzetti shortly before his execution: the document that figures prominently in 'The Male Animal'. Stong once attributed his writing career to having fallen out of a bath at age two. Although Stong was born and raised in Iowa, and most of his fiction is set there, it's significant that - as soon as his stories and novels about Iowans became successful - he moved to Connecticut and stayed there. On a lighter note, I once interviewed Stong's niece Norma Lyon at an Iowa agricultural fair while she carved a life-size statue of Elvis out of butter!
I saw 'Village Tale' in New York City in 1992, at the New School for Social Research, during one of William K Everson's screenings. This IMDb review is based on notes that I took at that screening. Apart from my notes, I'm dismayed that I have almost no memories of this film; 'Village Tale' made almost no impression on me. It's a boring, sententious movie: most of the characters are archetypes on the verge of becoming stereotypes.
The village in this movie could be Mayberry's evil twin. It's one of those soap-opera whistle-stops where everyone has a Dark Secret: like Peyton Place, but with less sex. Most of the local yokels spend their days hanging about the cracker barrel in the general store, whittlin' and chawin' and deciding whose life to destroy next, 'cos there ain't rightly nothin' else to do in these heah parts.
SYNOPSIS WITH SPOILERS. Randolph Scott has an innocent crush on Kay Johnson, who's trapped in a loveless marriage to Arthur Hohl. The village gossips - purely from spite, and lacking anything else to do - convince Hohl that Scott has cuckolded him, driving Hohl to attempt to murder Scott. Meanwhile, meek little Donald Meek gets beaten to death by village bully Robert Barrat. Donald Meek was a character actor whom I consistently find annoying and overly mannered, so I was glad that he got beaten to death in this film, but disappointed that it happens offscreen. When the yokels finish having fun with Scott and Johnson, they move on to their next victim.
'Village Tale' is an utterly depressing film, totally devoid of humour or introspection. I wouldn't want to meet any of these people, and I wouldn't much fancy spending five minutes in their village. The direction, by John Cromwell, is up to his usual high standard, but he's got bad material to work with here. The screenplay is by Allan Scott, whose work I usually admire. As I've not read Stong's novel, I can't tell if the badness of this material is down to the source material or Scott's script. Edward Ellis gives his usual good performance as an unsavoury character. Arthur Hohl and Robert Barrat are sadly underrated character actors who deserve to be better known, but neither of them gives an especially good performance here. I'll rate 'Village Tale' just one point out of 10.