US 101m Dir: William Wyler Key Cast: Walter Huston and Ruth Chatterton
Sam Dodsworth (Walter Huston) sells his successful company to retire and with his younger wife Fran (Ruth Chatterton) travels to Europe for an extended tour. It gradually becomes clear that the pair want very different things from life and their marriage becomes ever more strained.
This is quite an unusual film, especially for it's time, which is a sort of anti-love story. We watch as Sam just wants to enjoy life and see the sights whilst Fran can't let go of her youth and wants to be a socialite. The pair become ever more frustrated with each and begin to spend more and more time apart, even separated by the Atlantic for some of the time.
What's really well done here is the fact that the love between the pair feels very real. As much as they find each other increasingly frustrating there is still love between them and a memory of what drew them together in the first place. Whilst it is not something in my experience, it feels like a realistic take on a deteriorating marriage with both parties struggling to let go and move on with their lives. This is taken to the real extreme when Sam has found love with Edith (Mary Astor) but goes back for Fran when she comes calling only to finally come to his senses and make the right decision.
This tone is the main reason why this film feels to natural. The script does a great job of displaying the pain of the break-up and Huston and Chatterton are really convincing as the lead couple. We generally see things from the viewpoint of Sam but that's not to say that we aren't shown how Fran feels either. Neither is painted in a particularly bad light and it's easy to empathise with each character's feelings.
It's interesting that nearly every American film of the mid-30s (on the 1001 list at least) seems to be about rich people and their problems. Where were the working class stories? Perhaps part of it is due to the economic situation and these films showed a life that wasn't attainable for most. Maybe the fact that none of these rich characters ever seem very happy was solace for those struggling to make ends meet.
A very adult film in terms of the way it treats emotion and a film which is sympathetic about divorce seems forward-thinking for the era.
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