Influenced by Dreyer, Boleslawski’s cinematic version of Victor Hugo’s classic possesses both whole-hearted sincerity and unabashed Christianity. The lost life of the justifiably bitter and disillusioned Jean Valjean (Frederic March) is transformed by the mercy offered him by Bishop Myriel (Sir Cedric Hardwicke). Meanwhile, Javert (a memorably internally conflicted Charles Laughton) is a courageous, principled police inspector committed to the uncompromising pursuit of law and order in a world torn apart by revolution. In this atmospheric gem of a film, the wide-reaching consequences of the repeated confrontations between mercy and justice, personified by these two characters, are set in the midst of the black and white luminosity, long dark shadows and beautiful imagery of Citizen Kane’s cinematographer, Gregg Toland.
—Jeremy Purves