There are two sides to Ronald Colman: the likable side and the unlikable side. In his unlikable phase, Ronnie acts like he couldn't care less about anyone around him, the women especially. It's not a very attractive look.
If you want to see him in and fall in love with him, rent A Tale of Two Cities. If you don't care, rent Random Harvest. If you rent The Light That Failed, you won't like him, but you also won't like the movie. It's pretty terrible.
The beginning of the movie shows the romance of childhood sweethearts shooting a gun. The girl accidentally shoots the boy in the face. Isn't that nice? Don't you just hope they get together when they're grown up? When they do grow up, they're both artists. Ronnie's paintings get critical acclaim, but Muriel Angelus's paintings haven't been discovered yet. She's jealous of his success, and there's no believability that they've been pining away for each other all those years. In the meantime, Ronnie's roommate and army buddy Walter Huston falls for Cockney beauty Ida Lupino.
For some reason, everyone in this movie feels entitled to criticize everyone else's life choices and tell them what to do. Walter tells Ronnie he's selling out, Ronnie tells Walter to kick Ida to the curb. With friends like those, who needs enemies? The Light That Failed had the potential to be a real tearjerker, but it just wasn't a good movie. There's no poignancy, no romance, no likable character, and no real reason to watch it.
The beginning of the movie shows the romance of childhood sweethearts shooting a gun. The girl accidentally shoots the boy in the face. Isn't that nice? Don't you just hope they get together when they're grown up? When they do grow up, they're both artists. Ronnie's paintings get critical acclaim, but Muriel Angelus's paintings haven't been discovered yet. She's jealous of his success, and there's no believability that they've been pining away for each other all those years. In the meantime, Ronnie's roommate and army buddy Walter Huston falls for Cockney beauty Ida Lupino.
For some reason, everyone in this movie feels entitled to criticize everyone else's life choices and tell them what to do. Walter tells Ronnie he's selling out, Ronnie tells Walter to kick Ida to the curb. With friends like those, who needs enemies? The Light That Failed had the potential to be a real tearjerker, but it just wasn't a good movie. There's no poignancy, no romance, no likable character, and no real reason to watch it.