Synopsis
Les Misérables (1934) is a French epic you can watch online on iFILM — Raymond Bernard's nearly five-hour adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel, originally released in three separate parts.
Harry Baur plays Jean Valjean, a man who served nineteen years for stealing bread and can never quite outrun the mark of a convict. Pursuing him across two decades is Inspector Javert (Charles Vanel), a policeman so devoted to the letter of the law that mercy simply doesn't register as an option. Their collision passes through the Paris underworld, a student uprising on the barricades, and the life of a girl Valjean quietly raises as his own.
Of the many screen versions Hugo's novel has produced, this one comes closest to the book's actual scope. Bernard doesn't compress — he unfolds. And Baur doesn't perform the character so much as inhabit him. Stream Les Misérables (1934) online on iFILM.
Starring
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