RAFFLES is another version of the E.W. Hornung novel about a famous jewel thief who gets caught up in a scheme to help out an old debt-afflicted friend as well as falling in love and vowing to give up his life of crime. It stars man-of-the-moment Ronald Colman in a likable performance as the titular character, in fact more charismatic than David Niven was in the 1939 remake of this movie.
The main problem I have with RAFFLES is how dated it feels to the modern viewer. Made as an early talkie, it lacks a musical soundtrack and suffers from quite poor sound quality too. This slows the production down quite considerably at times and occasionally makes the acting feel stilted; it doesn't help that this was still of an era when the actors would project themselves to deliver larger-than-life performances, in other words 'playing to the back row'. Still, this film isn't all bad, and there are some good twists and turns along the way, but I never quite bought the antagonist/protagonist duality of the main character.
The main problem I have with RAFFLES is how dated it feels to the modern viewer. Made as an early talkie, it lacks a musical soundtrack and suffers from quite poor sound quality too. This slows the production down quite considerably at times and occasionally makes the acting feel stilted; it doesn't help that this was still of an era when the actors would project themselves to deliver larger-than-life performances, in other words 'playing to the back row'. Still, this film isn't all bad, and there are some good twists and turns along the way, but I never quite bought the antagonist/protagonist duality of the main character.