User Reviews

Story of Jean Valjean from his arrest for stealing bread, the time in the galleys, to his release and hounding by a certain police inspector to whom the law is all. Its a powerful story masterfully told. I've seen any number of versions of the story and all have to trim Victor Hugo's monster of a novel. Unfortunately most versions trim the material so much that you can feel the missing passages. thats not the case here. Here you feel as though you've seen it all. You actually get to know the characters and aren't marched through the story at a break neck speed that that is required to get it all in. This is possibly the shortest version but it feels complete. the cast headed by Fredrick March and Charles Laughton is excellent across the board. This is a must see.

The film begins with the trial, at which Jean Valjean is sentenced to 10 years for stealing a loaf of bread for his sister's children. While serving time on a galley, he displays extraordinary strength, lifting a beam to free a trapped convict. In so doing, he makes a lasting impression on Javert, one of the guards. Released from the galleys, Valjean is unwelcome nearly everywhere, until Bishop Bienvenue offers him food and shelter. His heart hardened by his experiences in prison and out of it, Valjean steals the bishop's silverware; but, when the police drag him back with the pilfered items, the bishop says that he gave the silver to Valjean, hands him two silver candlesticks, and tells him, "Life is to give and not to take."

Several years later, Valjean has transformed himself into a shaved, and well dressed factory owner and mayor under an alias (M. Madeleine). The factory supervisor dismisses Fantine, one of the factory workers because she is an unwed mother. When her appeals for Javert's assistance are unavailing, Fantine confronts Madeleine, complaining that he threw her out without considering her situation, and spitting at him. In this movie, Fantine does not get into a fight with a drunk, and there is no indication that she has sold her hair and teeth and engaged in prostitution in order to acquire money for her daughter Cosette's upkeep. Javert intends to imprison Fantine, but Madeleine intervenes, and promises to bring Cosette to her. After his authority is thus challenged, Javert initiates inquiries into Madeleine's background. And when Madeleine lifts a heavy cart freeing a man trapped under it, Javert remembers the earlier incident and his suspicions are aroused. Madeleine finds that the family (the Thenardiers, although they are never named) to whom Fantine has entrusted Cosette, have been mistreating her. He takes her to her mother, then seriously ill in a hospital.

Demonstrating his adherence to the law, even when it is directed at him, Javert demands that he be dismissed for denouncing Madeleine as Valjean, since he has just been informed that the real Valjean (who is actually Champmathieu) is soon to go on trial in Arras. After much anguish, Valjean/Madeleine decides to turn himself in so Champmathieu can be released. (Fredric March plays both Valjean and Champmathieu). Expecting to be sent back to the galleys, Valjean says farewell to Cosette, but as he is speaking with Fantine, Javert suddenly arrives to arrest him, causing Fantine to die of shock. Valjean overpowers Javert and races out of town on a carriage with Cosette, pursued by Javert in a long chase scene (which is not in the novel).

Valjean and Cosette, distrusting the landlady, decide to leave the Paris tenement where they are staying, and move to a convent. Valjean writes a note (over the signature of Madeleine) introducing himself and Cosette as M. Duval and his daughter Cosette. Armed with this note, they are welcomed into the convent, Valjean as gardener and Cosette as a student.

After Cosette graduates from the convent school, she and Valjean move to other quarters. One day, their carriage passes a street gathering which Marius is addressing a crowd in the cause of prison reform. Marius steps up to the carriage and hands Valjean and Cosette leaflets. Marius seems to be the leader of the Students Society (for) Law Reform. Valjean writes a check for this group, which Cosette delivers, partly for a chance to see Marius. Here she meets Eponine (whose relationship to the Thenardier family is not mentioned). Portrayals of Eponine perhaps differ more widely than those of any other character in this story. The 1935 film makes major changes in both her appearance (here she is as well-dressed and well- coiffed as Cosette) and activities (she is Marius' secretary). This film puts her into the somewhat hackneyed role of a gal Friday, who devotes herself to the boss she loves, although her love is not reciprocated. This is a major departure from Hugo's Eponine, but it does capture her spirit. Marius is attracted to Cosette, and they meet several times in a park. Javert is ordered to spy on Valjean and Cosette, since they seem to be connected to Marius' group. But Valjean sees Javert observing them, and plans to move immediately. When he comes to visit, Marius finds their house empty. The insurgents are planning a demonstration, although a police crackdown is anticipated. Needless to say, their strategy of a violent confrontation with the authorities in order to bring about prison reform is implausible, to say the least. Eponine tells Marius that he should skip this demonstration and return to his studies as a law student. But Marius plans to attend, although his thoughts are on Cosette.

Valjean's domestic servant Toussaint attempts to deliver Cosette's note telling Marius her new address, but failing to find him, she gives the note to Eponine. On learning this, Cosette is apprehensive, she does not yet understand that Eponine is now her ally, not her rival. Cosette has never told Valjean about her feelings for Marius. Now, desperate, she tells Valjean that she loves Marius and cannot leave him. Valjean resents Cosette's love for Marius. He asks her, "Have you nothing for me?" Valjean suggests that they can make inquiries about Marius after they are in England. Unexpectedly, Eponine bursts through the door. She says she has a message from Marius to Cosette, and laughs bitterly that she, who loves him, must deliver a message expressing his love of Cosette, and, his intention, if he lives, to pursue her to the ends of the earth. Eponine asks Valjean, "What are we going to do about this, you and I?" and suggests that he might be able to get to the barricade to rescue Marius. "Don't you want to save him for your daughter?" Valjean responds, "Why should I? She's all I have." Eponine says, "I know just how you feel. . . . You don't want to give her up, and I don't want to . . . " At the word "give," Valjean remembers the Bishop's words, and decides to go to the barricade with Eponine. Cosette wishes to accompany them, but Valjean tells her it would be too dangerous. She watches them depart, but there is no indication of her thoughts on seeing Eponine risking her life to save Marius.

Javert follows them to the barricade, where he is seized as a police spy. Given permission to take care of Javert, Valjean leads him away from the crowd, evidently thinks about killing him, but then releases him. Javert is highly displeased to owe his life to Valjean. Meanwhile, Eponine reaches Marius and tells him that she has found Cosette, who is now waiting for him. Then, seeing a soldier aim at Marius, she throws herself in front of him and takes the bullet intended for him. Moments later, Marius is wounded, and Valjean carries him through the sewer, pursued by Javert. Valjean carries Marius to his house. As he is standing in an outer room, Valjean senses Javert's presence and turns to see him standing in the shadows. Javert almost apologizes to Valjean: "It isn't me. It's nothing to do with me. It's the law that wants you. It's the law, see." He allows Valjean to say farewell to Cosette. But when Valjean returns, Javert has gone. Valjean runs down the street only to find that Javert has plunged into the river. Thus the film ends.

Somewhat surrealistic are the barricade scenes in which Valjean, Eponine, and Javert dash about, seemingly oblivious to the gunfire going on around them. Apparently the studio was reluctant to present the young protesters as revolutionaries. In fact, they were revolutionary only in the sense of wanting to bring down a monarch (which a similar, but larger, uprising had done two years earlier). What they wanted was a democratic system without a monarch. In any case, it is not credible that advocates of prison reform would launch an insurrection. Similarly, for the studio, Fantine's prostitution was also taboo. In this version Valjean does not die. Among the persons and events not shown: M. Gillenormand, George Pontmercy, Gavroche, Fantine's relationship with Tholomyes, and Eponine's relationship to the Thenardiers. Also absent are several dramatic scenes: Valjean's robbery of Petit Gervais, the Gorbeau House ambush, Eponine's thwarting of Thenardier's attack on Valjean and Cosette, Gavroche's death, Marius' discovery that it was Valjean who carried him through the sewers, and Javert's suicide.

Fredric March gives a convincing performance, especially when made up to look like a convict or the half-witted Champmathieu, but March, who was 37 when Les Miserables was filmed, appears too unlined and youthful to portray Valjean as the 62-year-old he was in 1832. As Javert, Charles Laughton Is effective, but perhaps a little more emotional than Hugo's Javert. March's real life wife, Florence Eldridge, is appropriately emotional as Fantine. Like Hugo's Fantine, Eldrdge is blond (many actresses cast for this role have been brunettes). Rochelle Hudson, 18 when filmed as Cosette in this movie, grows from being an ingénue as she deals with Valjean's flight from the police, his jealousy of Marius, and the consequences of the insurgency. Frances Drake is effective in an unusual interpretation of Eponine. Most of the other characters have insufficient screen time to establish their characters. For example, John Beal has little chance to impress as Marius. The prison scenes include inmates from the Midnight Mission on LA's Skid Row, who were paid $10/day for filming that lasted a week.

Like some other Darryl Zanuck products, Les Miserables had social implications. Film was expensive, costing nearly $1,000,000. The filming took 34 days. It opened in New York on the 50th anniversary of Hugo's death. The movie drew large crowds and had good reviews and award nominations.

This isn't a bad film--in fact, if you never read the novel by Victor Hugo, you may think it is a great film. However, how can any film possibly adequately capture the intricacies of a HUGE novel with so many characters and sub-plots. As a result, many of these subplots and characters are simply missing from the film or aren't fully developed. Charles Laughton does a decent job of playing Inspector Javert, however, this character is probably the most important from the novel and in this case he is simply a bad guy without much rhyme or reason. As a result, the movie is sketchy and pretty to look at, but that's really about all.

I had read many good things about this adaptation of my favorite novel...so invariably my expectations were crushed. But they were crushed more than should be expected. The movie would have been a decent movie if I had not read the novel beforehand, which perhaps ruined it for me.

In any event, for some reason they changed the labor camp at Toulon to a ship full of galley slaves. The scene at Bishop Myriel's was fine. In fact, other than the galleys, things survived up until the dismissal of Fantine. Because we do not want to have bad things happen to a good woman, she does not cut her hair, sell her teeth, or become a prostitute. The worst she does is run into the mayor's office and spit on his face. Bamatabois is entirely eliminated. Because having children out of wedlock should also not be talked about, Tholomyes is Fantine's dead husband, rather than an irresponsible dandy. Valjean is able to fetch Cosette for Fantine before the Champmathieu affair, so they reunite happily, yet another change. Then comes the convent, which is a pretty difficult scene to screw up. Thankfully, it was saved. After this three minutes of accuracy, however, the movie again begins to hurtle towards Classic Novel Butchering.

As Cosette and Valjean are riding through the park, they come across Marius giving a speech at a meeting. About prison reform. When he comes to hand out fliers to Valjean and Cosette, he says the one line in the movie that set me screaming at the TV set. "We aren't revolutionaries." I could hear Victor Hugo thrashing in his grave. OF COURSE THEY ARE REVOLUTIONARIES! They want to revolt against the pseudo-monarchy that is in place in favor of another republic, you dumb screenwriters! It's a historical FACT that there was an insurrection against the government in 1832.

At one point Cosette goes to give Marius a donation from her father for the reform movement and meets Eponine. Except...not Eponine. Or at least not the Eponine of the book. This Eponine appears to be a well-to-do secretary girl working for the prison reformers (who are working out of the Cafe Universal as opposed to the Cafe Musain). Not to mention the audience is already made to dislike her thanks to her not-period, low-cut, tight-fitting dress and her snooty mannerisms.

The prison reformers (Lead by the most poorly cast Enjolras that I have EVER seen) decide that handing out pamphlets isn't good enough anymore. So they're going to build barricades. I don't know about you, but I have never heard of reform movements tearing up the streets and building barricades and attacking government troops. About three hundred people (it was not supposed to be so many) start attacking the National Guard and building a bunch of barricades, etc. Eponine does die for Marius, thankfully.

The rest of the movie is sort of accurate, except that Javert's suicide again seems hard to understand thanks to his minuscule screen time and odd character interpretation. The movie ends with Valjean watching Javert jump into the river. This is again inaccurate because Valjean would never have let Javert drown. He saved the man's life earlier, why let him die now? Then there's the whole skipping of Valjean's confession to Marius, his deterioration, and his redemption on his deathbed with Marius and Cosette by his side.

Overall, I can blame the script mostly for the problems. While I am glad Enjolras and Eponine were at least present in the film, they were terribly misinterpreted, as was the entire barricade scene. The elimination of Fantine's suffering prevents us from feeling too much pity for her. That Cosette knows Valjean's past from the start messes with the plot a good deal. I did not even see Thenardier, and Mme. Thenardier only had a few seconds of screen time. The same with Gavroche. I did like Frederich March's interpretation of Valjean a lot, however, which was one of the redeeming features of the movie. On the other hand, Charles Laughton, for all his great acting in other movies, seems to have missed the mark with Javert. The lip tremble, the unnecessary shouting, and his acting in general all just felt very wrong. He also, like many Javerts I have seen, did not appear at all menacing, something required of the character.

Again, this film would probably feel much better if I had not read the book. I would not recommend it to book purists, though. I would also say that the movie would have been a good adaptation for the time had not the infamously accurate French version come out the year before.