THE DEVIL'S IN LOVE (1933)

An odd little Foreign Legion melodrama which might have had worked better with more exotic personalities in the lead roles. Victor Jory is a doctor at a Legion post; after he treats the much-despised commander (Robert Barrat) for heartburn, the commander is found dead the next morning and Jory is accused of murder. Jory's friend and fellow legionnaire David Manners knows that Jory couldn't have done it--and we know that Barrat's servant (J. Carrol Naish) did it--and when Jory is sentenced to death, Manners helps Jory escape. He winds up under an assumed name, taking care of outcasts at Fort Zamba, and falls in love with Loretta Young, niece of the local missionary. As it happens, Young is Manners' girlfriend, and things come to a head when police chief C. Henry Gordon figures out that Jory is a fugitive; Jory winds up back at Manners' fort, risking his freedom by treating the men for a deadly fever. Together, Manners and Jory trick the real killer into thinking he's dying of the fever so he'll confess to the crime. On top of this, the fort is under attack, and Young winds up in the midst of it all. There's a happy ending for Jory, a less happy one for Manners. Jory is not leading man material and, though he's not bad, he doesn't have the charm or appeal that someone like Douglas Fairbanks or Gary Cooper would have brought to the role. Young and Manners are fine, and it's nice to see Bela Lugosi in a non-horror role as a military prosecutor. Herbert Mundin is a comic relief sidekick, but I kept wishing Frank McHugh had the part instead. When you spend much of the movie imagining other actors in major roles, you know there's a problem. BTW, the title is meaningless. [FMC]