18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fine early Sylvia Sydney film, February 21, 2001
This review is from: Street Scene (DVD)
I bought this DVD as I'm a big fan of Sylvia Sidney and King Vidor. She looks wonderful, with a slightly different look from her more familiar late thirties incarnations. Vidor, on the other hand, is somewhat hampered by the constraints that were necessary in the early talkie period. When there is movement in the film it appears to have been shot silent (with added sound), otherwise the film is often rather static. Thus, although this film is similar in some respects to The Crowd, focussing on the lives of ordinary city dwellers, it cannot be said to be an advance in directoral terms. The story of the film is mature and adult, dealing with issues such as infidelity, prejudice and the damage of interfering gossip. There is not much glamour in this film and this makes it unusual for the period and certainly more serious. As with most early talkies, one of the problems with this film is the sound. At times one has to strain to hear the dialogue. The picture quality on the whole is fine, there are however some occassional jumps where a few frames have been lost. On the whole, this is a good example of an early talkie film and is well worth seeing. For Sylvia Sydney fans it is a must, even if she doesn't show up for nearly half an hour. Also for those obsessed with It's a Wonderful Life, it is worth noting the appearance of Belula Bondi (Jimmy Stewart's mother) in Street Scene. She looks much the same.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Film, June 23, 2005
This review is from: Street Scene (DVD)
Gripping, realistic account of the lives of the inhabitants of New York tenements, during the Depression years, based upon the Pulitzer Prize winning play by Elmer Rice.
Long before the Neorrealistic Movement began in Italy, Samuel Goldwyn produced this great picture which depicts the miseries and hardships of a group of working class characters, directed with skill, intelligence and in a very "naturalistic" way, by master director King Vidor, who excelled in this kind of films, dealing with social issues ("The Big Parade" (1925), "The Crowd" (1928), "Hallelujah" (1929) and "Our Daily Bread" (1934)).
Sylvia Sidney is magnificent and displays great acting skill in the role of a working girl; she looks pretty, charming, "petite", naive, conveying all the frailty and helplessness her character requires. William Collier Jr. portrays convincingly an idealistic young jewish College-educated lad, who is in love with Sidney's character.
Beulah Bondi is great as well, as a gossipy, mean, bitter woman who's married to a drunken, no-good man. Estelle Taylor is efficient as the basically nice, doomed, adulterous mother of Sylvia Sidney's character. Also in a cast full of stage actors, character player John Qualen, interprets very well a Scandinavian immigrant who works as the janitor of the building in which the events take place.
Great landmark score by legendary composer Alfred Newman, which is reminiscent of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue". Great camerawork for a movie that was filmed during the first years of Sound Pictures, when films were usually stagey and static.
The transfer is far from perfect but, in my opinion, is decent, considering the age of the film.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
GREAT EARLY SYLVIA SIDNEY PERFORMANCE., January 28, 2003
In a New York slum street on a hot, sweltering summer night, an adulterous woman is shot by her husband. Based upon Edgar Rice's Pulitzer-Prize-winning play about the lives of people who live on one West Side Manhattan street proved to have national appeal to movie audiences back in 1931. King Vidor wisely kept eight members of the original cast to insure realism. As Rose, Sylvia Sidney is outstanding. Originally, Nancy Carroll was to have played her (Erin O'Brien-Moore did the part on Broadway), but she was committed to Paramount. Vidor, never afraid of realism, insisted on the magnificently steamy, gritty street scene sets. Alfred Newman's evocative score is timeless piece of motion picture compositon: it's esteemed to this day. Beulah Bondi made her film debut here, and went on to become one of the finest and most respected character actresses in films. In her eighties, she won an Emmy for her performance in an episode of THE WALTONS.
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