Product Details

• Actors: Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Paul Lukas, Mary Astor, Kathryn Marlowe
• Directors: William Wyler
• Writers: Robert Wyler, Sidney Howard, Sinclair Lewis
• Producers: Merritt Hulburd, Samuel Goldwyn
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Language: English, French, German, Italian
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: April 4, 2000
• Run Time: 101 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0792844599
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #105,431 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

One of the finest films of the 1930s, this classic Samuel Goldwyn production was based upon the hit Broadway play written by Sidney Howard, which had in turn been adapted from the 1929 novel by Sinclair Lewis. Ahead of its time in dramatizing the disintegration of a marriage, the story centers on the title character (superbly played by Walter Huston, who originated his role onstage), a wealthy automobile manufacturer whose wife (Ruth Chatterton, in her final American film role) desperately craves an aristocratic lifestyle in Europe. Dodsworth indulges her fancies to a degree, but their clashing desires--compounded by her affair with a European baron and his affection for a sympathetic widow (Mary Astor)--create further tension and mutual rancor. Dodsworth was perhaps the first Hollywood drama of the sound era that maturely addressed the complexity of a failing marriage and impending divorce, made especially compelling since Dodsworth is such an admirable and upstanding character who means well and upholds the ideal of marital commitment. Sharply directed by William Wyler, the film is as relevant today as it was when released in 1936. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Splendid Movie, September 25, 2002

By 

Fernando Silva "fedo" (Santiago de Chile.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dodsworth (DVD)

Actors build up their characters at very close perfection in this outstanding film, which deals with the conflicts of a middleaged married american couple in an european-second-honeymoon trip. One wonders how such a poignant, adult film, could be made under the strictures of the Production Code, which reigned supreme from 1934.

The cast is uniformly flawless: Walter Huston, as industrialist Sam Dodsworth, gives one of the most sincere and unaffected performances ever achieved by an actor on the american screen (he deserved an Academy Award for this role); lovely and very pretty Mary Astor, in a most sympatthetic role, as an american widow living in Naples, Italy, who falls in love with Huston, realizing they're soulmates; Ruth Chatterton, as Fran Dodsworth, the self-centered, snobbish, selfish, spoiled, manipulative, unnerving & ultimately flirtatious wife of Huston, who cannot cope with growing old and ends looking down on her husband, hometown friends, way of life, etc....yearning for the "european"chic & sophisticated ways of its idle upper classes; Paul Lukas, as the suave, continental man who uses his charms on Chatterton; David Niven, as one of Chatterton's suitors; a very young John Payne, as the Dodsworths' son-in-law; and character actress Madame Maria Ouspenskaya, making her american debut, as the old baroness who spoils Chatterton's wedding plans to her much younger son Kurt (played by Gregory Gaye), who not only is an impoverished nobleman, but cannot make decisions of his very own!

Samuel Goldwyn, the legendary and indomitable Hollywood producer, must be given the praise for making the decision to film such a delicate and sensitive movie, with an "A" class treatment, in spite of its lack of commercial punch for regular `30s moviegoers.

Really one of the best Hollywood movies of all time, and a truly timeless 1930s classic. Buying this dvd has been one of the smartest investments of my adult life.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Director William Wyler Scores Again, July 30, 2000

By 

James L. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dodsworth [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I was surprised by how honestly and maturely this film dealt with its subject matter of a marriage slowly falling apart. It's not what I expected to see coming from 1930's Hollywood. Walter Huston and Ruth Chatterton star as the Dodsworths, a wealthy American couple who go to Europe after his retirement, and while there, discover how little they have in common with each other, and how quickly they are growing apart. She is a vain woman who wants to regain her youth and live a glamourous life, while he is a practical man who wants meaning to his life. Huston is excellent as the conflicted husband, while Chatterton unsubtly tackles her unlikeable character with some success. Mary Astor is terrific (as always) as the woman that Dodsworth should be with. Dodswoth's pain at his disintegrating marriage and life is honestly portrayed, and the ending is very satisfying. This is a terrific film from start to finish, and audiences today will find it both relevant and accurate.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A movie for a desert isle...., December 22, 2003

By 

Usonian33 (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dodsworth (DVD)

If I can only have one movie to take with me to that proverbial desert isle, I pick this one. The play between Walter Huston and Ruth Chatterton is really something to see...they gave the best performances of their careers here (and I love Chatterton in a little-known Pre-Code film called "Lilly Turner" which you should definitely seek out). The script VASTLY improves upon the book by Sinclair Lewis, and fleshes out the part of, to quote Chatterton, "that washed-out ex-patriate" played by Mary Astor. Praised in its day for its maturity and its sumptuous production, it is still an absolutely perfect film. The final 5 minutes show what an intense climax a director can create from a relatively tiny story.