The idea of this film is really gripping, but ordinary pre-code melodrama and a few boring patches made this a trifle hard to make it through. Richard Barthelmess hasn't been one of my favorite early '30's leading men with several of his films on my all time worst list. Playing a man of mixed Asian heritage in "Son of the Gods" was one of the all-time lows in Hollywood bad taste, the "yellow" references enough to make me want to just turn the movie off. In this film, he's an educated Native American, a rodeo hero to the young white girls who obviously lust after him but still consider him beneath them. He is perhaps too smart for his own good, and uppity white folks seem intent to pin a crime on him-in fact, any crime. So an attempted murder charge comes along, and when the alleged victim dies, it becomes a full-fledged murder charge. Barthelmess goes off on the bigots in court, accusing them of exploiting his people while keeping them suppressed and at the bottom of the social barrel. Particularly smarmy is the disgusting lawyer played by Dudley Digges. Ironically the original "Fat Man" in an early talkie version of "The Maltese Falcon" and highly amoral as the man who turned noble Paul Robeson into an evil ruler in "The Emperor Jones", Digges was an excellent character actor who excelled in parts like this. Of course, he was also very wise and godly in " Outward Bound ", so its nice to see a contrast.
The film culminates with a rebellion where the natives have had enough, and how they are riled up and calmed down is the film's dramatic highlight. Unfortunately, the involvement of the two women in the plot slows this down during its center, so for at least half an hour other than a few important plot moments, I was not fully concentrating. It is a valiant effort for Warner Brothers to try and do something good for the natives who were displaced by our ancestors. Certainly, Ann Dvorak and Claire Dodd were not at fault for distracting from the important parts. They do what they were hired to do, but not every social drama needs romantic subplots to keep it alive. Barthelmess does shine better than he did in the earlier films, bit ultimately, this was a second string drama that just didn't leave much of an impact.
The film culminates with a rebellion where the natives have had enough, and how they are riled up and calmed down is the film's dramatic highlight. Unfortunately, the involvement of the two women in the plot slows this down during its center, so for at least half an hour other than a few important plot moments, I was not fully concentrating. It is a valiant effort for Warner Brothers to try and do something good for the natives who were displaced by our ancestors. Certainly, Ann Dvorak and Claire Dodd were not at fault for distracting from the important parts. They do what they were hired to do, but not every social drama needs romantic subplots to keep it alive. Barthelmess does shine better than he did in the earlier films, bit ultimately, this was a second string drama that just didn't leave much of an impact.