Customer Reviews

Dodsworth [VHS]

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

It is a stinging indictment of today's Hollywood that a movie like Dodsworth probably couldn't get made today. In its emotional richness and complexity, it demands an audience that doesn't expect an explosion or a poopoo joke every ten seconds. Walter Huston gives one of the all-time great performances as Sam Dodsworth, a self-made millionaire who goes to Europe searching for his roots. Unfortunately, his neurotic wife Fran (Ruth Chatterton, an unjustly forgotten actress) goes with him searching for something else entirely, and the movie is largely about the suffering her emotional games-playing causes him. Add Mary Astor as an elegant American divorcee, Paul Lukas and David Niven as shady Europeans, and Maria Ouspenskaya as a wise old Austrian baroness, and you have a great cast giving life to a screenplay of uncommon literacy and wisdom. Dodsworth is a movie for people who are willing to pay attention, who don't want everything spelled out in huge letters, and who agree with F. Scott Fitzgerald that action is character.

This movie holds a special fascination for me. First off, the little-seen-on-video actress Ruth Chatterton does a superlative job as Fran Dodsworth, the hopelessly vain forty-something wife of a successful American Industrialist

I love the remark Mary Astor makes to Chatterton when Fran states to the younger Edith: "I hope I look as good as you do at your age" - "You're almost certain to, my dear" replies Mary.

As Dodsworth himself, Walter Huston is amazing: a brilliantly effective performance, simple, unaffected -- basking in its realism.

Mary Astor is wonderful as the true blue widow Edith Cortwright. Astor plays her role with a sincere confidence and her character is a nice contrast to the foolish Fran (Who gets more ridiculously affected and flirtatious as the film progresses)

Apart from the great Maria Ouspenskaya - who has one telling scene - David Niven is merely adequate here and the other supporting players (John Payne, Spring Byington, etc.) aren't particularly memorable.

But Huston, Chatterton and Astor carry the film aided by William Wyler's superb direction. And that lovely semi-sentimental musical theme heard throughout doesn't exactly mar the film, either.

DODSWORTH is an uncommonly adult film for the 193O's (Nineteen thirties Hollywood, anyway!) And it's a joy to relish for those interested in fine vintage performances from three pros doing some of their finest work on screen.

This one is a gem, and along with "The Best Years of Our Lives", director William Wyler's best film, which is high praise since he has one of the most impressive canons in Hollywood history. This 1936 classic has to be one of the most mature views of marriage and divorce ever provided by the Hollywood studio system, and the cinematic translation of Sinclair Lewis' novel also represents Wyler's signature humanism at its most absorbing. The story centers on the Dodsworths - Sam is a millionaire industrialist who just sold his large automotive company so he can enjoy life with his vainglorious wife Fran, perpetually restless and fearful of getting old. They sail to Europe, as they usually did in 1930's romantic melodramas, and Fran wastes no time in flirting with Clyde Lockert, a young and perceptive lothario who sees the aging Fran for the fraud she is but pursues her anyway. This turns out to be the first of three liaisons Fran selfishly pursues, as the prospect of becoming a grandmother sends her over the edge while Sam patiently waits for her to come to her senses.

Walter Huston gives one of the great screen performances as Sam, perfectly evoking his everyman demeanor in either full bluster or shades of subtlety. In a particularly brave turn, Ruth Chatterton plays his fortyish wife with palpable desperation and vindictive fervor, conveying the pretentiousness of a woman who wants to be Continental but never will be. She loses viewer sympathy with appropriate fearlessness but also with an interesting ambiguity that prevents her from being a stock villainess. In one of his earliest roles, David Niven already displays his trademark cavalier wit as Lockert. Paul Lukas plays the dapper but oily Arnold Iselin, who memorably confronts Sam's hold over Fran with a burning letter on a Lake Geneva villa terrace. Spring Byington has a nice scene as Matey, a friend back home who silently recognizes Fran's indiscretion, and in a memorable cameo, Maria Ouspenskaya shows up as the mother of Fran's new and even younger intended and stops her cold with one classic question, "Have you thought how little happiness there could be for the old wife of a young husband?". Although Mary Astor usually plays the villainous female, this time she plays Sam's new love, Edith Cortright, with such quiet maturity and infectious liberation that it makes the union between her and Sam all but inevitable. Her look of surprise at the end is a wonderfully romantic moment. Full of shrewd observations and barbed dialogue that resonates beautifully, Sidney Howard's screenplay cuts like glass at every plot turn. This is dazzling work by one of the true greats of filmmaking.

Described as a 'middle-age love story' Dodsworth was the first great collaboration between director William Wyler and producer Samuel Goldwyn and is taken from the smash hit Broadway production of Sinclair Lewis' novel. Goldwyn was originally reluctant to take on the project, thinking it a non-starter but he ended up changing his mind, buying the screen rights for a hundred and sixty thousand dollars. Wyler was hired to direct and threw himself into the project and the end result is a brilliant and mature Hollywood classic. It tells the storty of Samuel Dodsworth a leading citizen of the mid-western town Zenith and the founder of the Revelation motor company and his relationship with his pretentious wife Fran and what happens when they take a European vacation and end up making new relationships. The film addresses many serious themes from marriage, divorce, aging and the cultural clash between Americana and Europeans. The performances are superb. Walter Huston reprising his Broadway role as Sam and is the soul of the film and is matched by the marvellous Mary Astor as Edith the woman with whom he eventually ends up. Ruth Chatterton's stagey emoting seems perfectly suited to her character of Fran the spoilt middle aged woman trying to cling desperatley to her youth. The supporting cast includes Paul Lukas, David Niven, Maria Ouspenskaya, Gregory Kaye and a lovely little turn from Spring Byington as Sam's supportive friend. Sidney Howard wrote an intelligent screenplay and the direction of Wyler is faultless, some of the directorial techniques he would be reknowned for evident here eg the'deep focus'shot (eagle eyed viewers should be able to spot Wyler himself playing the violin among the small orchestra in the Vienna nightclub scene where Fran and her suitor Kurt are dancing). This is one of the many highlights of Wyler's brilliant career and is not to be missed.

I expected a rather stereotypical, dated but interesting film and ended up watching anything but -- I was fascinated almost to the point of being mesmerized during the whole film by the brilliant performances of a great cast, the honest and moving story, beautiful musical score, and the multidimensionality of the characters parading before me. In short, this is a great movie.

It's about the complexity of people, their shadow side and their light side, involved in relationships for better or for worse. A story about an automobile tycoon who adores his wife. A story about a woman who married young and missed out on experiencing life as a single woman, who performed her duties and cares for her husband and children, but feels she has never really lived life to the core. Unfortunately, she loses her humanity in her quest for a more colorful life.

And the acting, oh my, the acting. Walter Huston is just plain terrific (lost out at academy award time that year to Paul Muni), and Ruth Chatterton (straight from Broadway, and does it show in her awesome performance) is perfect for the role of Fran Dodsworth. Ms. Chatterton lived a life ahead of her time: she directed Broadway plays as well, translated French plays for the American theatre, and was a licensed pilot. After she retired she even became a successful writer.

One of the greatest scenes in the film is between Ms. Chatterton and the great Russian actress Maria Ouspenskaya, who studied in Russia with the reknowned Stanislavski. She only accepted the role to support her own theatre school in New York, and went on to make many more film appearances. The final lines in this scene will bowl you over. Can't miss.

We even see a very young John Payne, who bills himself as John Howard Payne after an ancestor who actually wrote the classic song "Home Sweet Home."

Excellent directing by William Wyler (he keeps the film going at a fast pace), screenplay by Sidney Howard (also wrote the screenplay of "Gone with the Wind," along with other uncredited writers), and the Broadway play, "The Silver Cord."

I think this film should have won the academy award that year (1936) instead of "The Great Ziegfeld," although, of course, there is much to be said for that film as well.

And yet, you don't hear about it, the way you hear about Gone With The Wind, Wuthering Heights, The Wizard of Oz, etc. One of the few films where it can truly be said that the script, the acting (Walter Huston as Sam Dodsworth deserved the Oscar, and so did Ruth Chatterton as his unsympathetic wife) and the direction were all 100% perfect. Nothing needed to be added, deleted or changed. And that's a rare film!

Sam Dodsworth (Walter Huston) has just sold his company and has decided to take a European tour with his wife Fran (Ruth Chatterton). He wants to be a tourist and she wants to be a socialite. This throws her into the arms of various gigolos.

Sam tries to ignore her flirtations but eventually he tires of the vagabond life and returns home. The only thing is that home has moved on and he no longer belongs at the head of his own table.

Sam returns to Europe but Fran has formed an attachment. Sam agrees to a divorce but has to stay in Europe until it is final. During his travels he again runs into Edith (Mary Astor). Edith is an American expatriate widow, who is living in Italy. Sam met Edith on his first ship over and then ran into a couple of times during his earlier travels. Edith invites Sam to stay at her villa until the divorce case is final.

During this time Sam is contented for the first time since his retirement. Once again a curve ball, Fran's boyfriend's mother does not approve of her and he leaves her. Fran decides that Sam is better than nothing. But as the ship is about to depart, Sam realizes that it is time to look after his best interest.

This is a beautifully simple look at a marriage between the wars. This was a period when divorce was still taboo and adultery was even worse. This film featured early performances by many future stars. Walter Huston would not become a star for twenty years when his son John "rediscovered" him. But this film gives him a chance to show that he had talent. As his unfaithful wife Fran, Ruther Chatterton is fine but is probably the weakest link in the film. The great discovery is Mary Astor. She will become one of the greatest character actresses ever. This film shows the depth and range that Mary Astor is capable of. She is just stunning in this film. Also making appearances in this film are future Oscar winners Paul Lukas and David Niven as paramours of Fran.

This is a great film by a great director - William Wyler.

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