user1089r Review of A Dog of Flanders

A Dog of Flanders (1935)

Marvelously melodramatic, very " early 30's", highly entertaining

[9/10 · 12 March 2010]

Heavily influenced by the immediately preceding silent film era, this version of de la Ramê's novella is perhaps the most faithful in spirit to the original story (including multiple foreign versions and animé), while nevertheless a cheerier ending is added for thirties audiences. Voluptuously melodramatic. This is the second movie in the very early career of Frankie Thomas, only 13 at the time. His style of acting here -- clearly from stage and silent films -- can only have come from his father, Frank Thomas, who acted in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and with whom Frankie starred in "Wednesday's Child" the previous year. A truly beautiful film for any person of heart, of any age.