I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

This was James Hilton's most upsetting novel, a parallel to Hans Fallada's "Was nun, kleiner Mann?" about the plight of small humble people at the mercy of a world of inhumanity. Paul Muni makes one of his finest performances ever as a good and decent but not very clever small town doctor, who is governed by a bit too orderly wife (Flora Robson), who doesn't like music, while Paul Muni actually plays the violin and does it well. As one of his patients he takes care of a young dancer who has broken a delicate bone, but she is foreign (Austrian) and has no one to turn to when she falls out of luck, deserted by her dancing company and attempting suicide in her abandoned despair. She proves to have a very good hand with children, and the doctor and his wife need a nanny for their young son (about 5 or 6), so even Flora welcomes her. But she becomes such good friends with both the son and the musical doctor, that Flora feels bypassed and takes action, ordering her to leave. There the trouble begins.It coincides with the outbreak of the first world war, and as an Austrian the delicate Jane Bryan finds herself a declared enemy in a very hostile country, where the small town folk don't hesitate to lynch local Germans. And so it goes from bad to worse.Edmund Goulding has much of the credit for this extremely human and touching film, which could make anyone's heart melt. A sure thing is you will never forget it. It completely dwarfs "Good-Bye Mr Chips" of the same author and almost the same year for its deeper human poignancy. "We Are Not Alone" refers to the fact which the doctor quietly observes, that those who suffer as martyrs for meaningless hatred in local places indeed are not alone, since hundreds of thousands of innocents are martyred at the same time in the trenches of the war. There are many delicate details in this film making it worth seeing again now and then, since situations like this always will remain actual and important reminders.

James Hilton's track record in movies based on his novels is pretty good. LOST HORIZON, GOODBYE MR. CHIPS, and RANDOM HARVEST were turned into first rate films. RAGE IN HEAVEN was less successful. But there is also this fine tragedy about two simple people who are embroiled in circumstances that not only destroy them but blacken their memories. Paul Muni is a doctor in a small country town, married to Flora Robson. They have a son. Robson is a tad domineering, and Muni is subservient. Jane Bryan is a German woman who is in England just as World War I begins. Hated by the xenophobes in the country, Bryan is hired as a nanny by Robson. She gets closer to Muni and his son, much to the dismay of Robson. Robson is a hypochondriac, and when she has a headache she wants some medicine. Her son brings the wrong pill, and she dies as a result. Bryan was preparing to leave the town with Muni's assistance, when they are arrested (appearing as they do to be about to skip out). They are tried for the murder, and circumstantial evidence conspires to condemn them. They are executed before the movie ends.The description does not do justice to the story. Hilton's novel is based loosely on the Crippen Case (see THE SUSPECT), except that it is taking the point that Crippen was not guilty (some people who felt sorry for Dr. Crippen felt he was never been able to show he did not commit his wife's murder). Also, Hilton is reexamining the extreme xenophobia that swept Great Britain in 1914-1918 towards Germany and it's people and culture (a similar xenophobia would hit the U.S. from 1915 to 1918, culminating in such acts as calling frankfurters "hot dogs" and banning German operas from the Metropolitan Opera House). In this respect the film is of considerable historical interest. Finally Hilton is into the running irony of the plot. While in prison Muni philosophizes about the circumstances leading to his and Bryan's fates, and it turns out that he realizes that the powers that be that have helped craft their ill-deserved demise are the same bunch of idiots causing the massive slaughter known as World War I. Hence the ironic title of the film - it is more than the story of the destructions of two innocent people in a botched trial. It is the story of the destruction of millions by elected fools.Of particular note in an outstanding cast are Henry Daniell and Una O'Connor. Daniell is as unsympathetic as normal, but here he actually is the public prosecutor. While the film audience realizes he has misread the evidence and is railroading two innocent people to the gallows, one has to remember he does not know this but looks at the evidence as accumulating to pointing out the guilt of Muni and Bryant. Actually he is a very effective prosecutor (and his character, Sir Ronald Dawson, seems based on Crippen's very effective prosecutor, Sir Richard Muir). O'Connor is Bryant's foe due to Bryant's German background, and she does testify against her. But as she does she slowly realizes that she is putting the noose around the necks of both Muni and Bryant, and it does not sit well with her. The last three minutes of the film concentrate on her, as she realizes Muni and Bryant are dead, and as she confronts evidence that they have not lived in vain. The conclusion is reaffirming and heartbreaking at the same time.

WE ARE NOT ALONE is one of James Hilton's lesser works, perhaps because it is a somber drama with a downbeat ending--and somewhere there's a message trying to get out. Whatever it is, it remains ambiguous as the ending itself.The performances are expert, the tale is told with sensitivity--but somewhere along the way the plot goes off on a different tangent and we're left with an unsatisfying conclusion.Paul Muni as a gentle doctor faces his imminent death with more noblesse oblige than Sidney Carton ('A Tale of Two Cities')--in fact, he makes Carton look like a coward. Jane Bryan as the German girl who becomes a nanny for his son, and Flora Robson as his shrewish wife (the kind who deserves their fate) is excellent.Little Raymond Severn gives an appealing performance as Muni's child and his scenes with his father have genuine warmth.But that ending...what were they thinking???

Paul Muni and Jane Bryan give an outstanding performance in this drama. Taken from a novel by James Hilton, this story concerns a village doctor, his wife, and a plain German girl who became their little boys governess. Most of the movie is of the trial of the doctor and the governess who are accused of killing the mean spirited doctor's wife. The love between the simple doctor and the German governess is so tender that your heart goes out to both of them.. Jane Bryan, a young actress from the Warner lot was an outstanding actress, but a few years after making this movie, she quit making films and seemed to disappear completely. It was our loss.