Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Jerrie It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

vincentlynch-moonoi Yes, I love Ronald Colman. Most of all for his starring role in "Random Harvest", but also for "A Tale Of Two Cities", "Lost Horizon", "Prisoner Of Zenda", "The Light That Failed", "The Talk Of The Town", and "Arrowsmith". But this film -- only his second talkie -- is simply too decrepit for me to enjoy...other than to see him in such an early role.Nevertheless, Colman is the one bright spot here. The acting of Dudley Diggs...did anyone...even way back then...think this man could be a movie actor. It may very well be the worst acting performance I've ever seen. And Ann Harding -- now I've seen Harding in a number of other films and rather enjoyed her. But here the overacting is just terrible.Clearly, for its time, this was an ambitious film. But as much as I like films beginning around 1933 (give or take a year), this one is just too decrepit. I'll keep the DVD simply because I love Ronald Colman.

Antonius Block There is such an element of unreality to the idea that the warden at the Devil's Island penal colony would allow one of the inmates to act as a servant in his home and to be alone with his wife throughout the day, that you'll have to go into this movie suspending your disbelief. Ronald Colman is suave as the convict, and it's always a joy to see him, and here he is opposite Ann Harding, who varies between down to earth and over-emoting. The film does set the stage with some nice 'hard prison' scenes, including one of a man howling in solitary confinement, but next to Colman smooth-talking Harding, something seems off. Perhaps Colman is a little too debonair. On the other hand, the film is entertaining and worth seeing. I liked the supporting cast most, and thought that Dudley Digges turned in the best performance as the warden, angrily spewing his bile.

axeldahl No story value here but worth for Ronald Colman - always emotional in his own restrained way.I have alas never seen this obscure early talkie with a fair 35mm print but the 16mm used for the french VHS Samuel Goldwyn 1990 edition allows to see that the sets and photography of this "Condemned" were of absolute first rate : William Cameron Menzies (sets), George S. Barnes & Greg Toland (photography) make for quite a team !A bit like Susan Lenox two years later and its magnificent William H. Daniels lighting/framing and Cedric Gibbons angled sets : script-wise a very passable and previsible film but visually a true feast for the eyes.The 16mm print/edition is also mushy, unfocused and the video transfer is at least 6 stops below... Hopefully a proper 35mm original still exists somewhere - if only for the end sequence in the train station.

the_mysteriousx This Ronald Colman film was his second talkie, following a rousing success in Bulldog Drummond earlier in 1929. For these two films, Colman received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and his work in this one is good. Samuel Goldwyn went through great pains to prepare Colman for talkies and for audiences' expectations of his voice to match his on-screen persona. In this film, Colman plays a suave thief who is sentenced to prison on Devil's Island. Once there, the warden employs him to aid his wife in household chores and there Colman falls in love with the beautiful Ann Harding.The plot is surprisingly not too ridiculous as both Colman's and Harding's characters really don't want to start an affair out of respect for each other and for the warden (a solid Dudley Digges). However, once the warden buys into local gossip that his wife is having an affair, he cannot help but constantly become angry. Each time the plot has a chance to become silly and over-melodramatic, it takes a step back and seems to have a conscience. For an early talkie, that is impressive. Further more impressive were the many dolly moves employed by the cameraman. This is not too static for such an early sound film and there is good use of sound effects being layed over the montage. All that being said, it is not a great film. It is never fully engrossing as Alibi and Applause were at times, but for a film from the class of 1929 this one is a winner and Colman, Harding, Digges and Louis Wolheim as Colman's convict friend are all excellent.