Skip to content

Frank's Movie Log

My life at the movies.

The Man Who Played God

1932 | United States | 80 min | More...
A still from The Man Who Played God (1932)
D: 2 stars (out of 5)
on Sun Jul 18, 2021

George Arliss plays a renowned concert pianist who loses his hearing, learns to read lips, and discovers renewed purpose by playing anonymous benefactor to strangers he sights in Central Park. The sixty-four-year-old Arliss doesn’t convince as a fifty-year-old. The thick foundation and dark lipstick combined with his long features conjured visions of the Joker. Bette Davis has a supporting role as an admirer of Arliss. She charms, and I appreciated the script’s giving her character relatable dignity, but the material didn’t engage. When one of Arliss’s beneficiaries started hacking the melodramatic cough of cancer, I laughed.

Viewing History

    Watched on
    Sun Jul 18, 2021 via DVD