The Light That Failed (1939)

Rudyard Kipling excelled at telling tales of Empire - his detailed knowledge and vivid imagination has been the source of many a strong adventure. This one is a bit different though. Ronald Colman ("Dick") is a war correspondent in the Sudan who is injured in action. Sent back home to convalesce, he becomes a bit of a sensation with this paintings and after meeting childhood sweetheart "Maisie" (Murial Angelus) again, things look set fair. Unfortunately, he begins to notice that his eyesight isn't what it was, and after consulting a physician, he learns that he is going blind. He decides to go out with a bang - his masterpiece - and so decides to paint "Betty" (Ida Lupino) a young girl living with his best friend "Torpenhow" (Walter Huston) who helped save him in the desert. When his work is complete, jealousy rears it's ugly head and he is left with little else than to return to the army, again as a correspondent, where he once more rides against the Dervishes. At times, this is quite slow - but Colman and Angelus have a certain charm to their performance, and as the artist's eyesight deteriorates, I did feel a certain degree of sympathy for this rapidly declining melancholic man soon to be robbed of much of his raison d'être. I wasn't so sure of Lupino - her efforts just a bit forced and her dialogue doesn't really allow her character to come across as much more than an angry young woman. I could have done with a little more action, the romances subsume it largely after about twenty minutes; but it is still an enjoyable watch.