Dodsworth (1936)

You won't be disappointed!

good film but with many flaws

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Like a lot of Hollywood movies in the studio-bound 30s, this is a stagey, screechy talkfest. Sure, for people who didn't live in a city with live theatre, this passed for mature entertainment. But all these decades later it's just a relic of an era of static film-making. There isn't a single interesting visual shot in the entire movie. The plot barely exists. It's just two cranky people crabbing at each other for nearly two hours. Frankly, the whole movie is tiresome. And this from someone who considers Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf one of the greatest films ever made.

Successful auto manufacturer Sam Dodsworth (Walter Huston) retires at the urging of his wife (Ruth Chatterton). He takes her on a European vacation she desperately wants. Unfortunately poor dumb Dodsworth doesn't realize his vain, shallow wife has already emotionally checked out of their marriage and is looking for something more exciting.Wonderful lead turns by Huston and Chatterton. The rest of the cast is about as good as it gets: Mary Astor, Paul Lukas, David Niven, Spring Byington, John Payne, and the great Maria Ouspenskaya. Classic based on Sinclair Lewis' novel and beautifully-directed by William Wyler. It's a very sophisticated and mature film for the time. Highly underrated.

Dodsworth is directed by William Wyler, produced by Samuel Goldwyn and Merritt Hulberd,has a screenplay by Sidney Howard, is based on the novel by Sinclair Lewis and stars Walter Huston,Ruth Chatterton,Mary Astor,David Niven and Maria Ouspenskaya.Dodsworth is an intelligent tale about the dissolution of a marriage.Sam Dodsworth(Walter Huston)is a wealthy Automobile mogul,who after selling his company,faces the challenges of his retirement.One of those challenges comes in the form of his much younger wife Fran(Ruth Chatterton).Fran loves Sam mostly for his position and wealth, she is embarrassed by his personality and the blunt way he says what he thinks.She want's culture and sophistication,they take a cruise to France where(practically upon arrival)Fran's beauty brings her many male admirers.Dodsworth soon discovers she has begun an affair and leaves her.He meets American expatriate Edith Cortwright(Mary Astor)who has put behind her the American way of life and just enjoys the simple joys of life at her own pace.The two fall in love and Dodsworth, for the first time in his life starts to learn how to live and in fact be his own person.However their happiness seems to be short lived as a jilted and frightened Fran begs Dodsworth to reconcile with her.The beauty of this film unlike others with similar stories is the fact that neither Dodsworth or Fran is painted as the villain.We feel Dodsworth's pain at her infidelity's,however we understand and sympathise with Fran for committing them. We can also all surely relate to some extent to her deepest fear,loss of youth and physical attraction.The entire cast is superb with particular praise going to Huston for what is one of his greatest performances.Dodsworth is a refreshing change from the so called relationship dramas of todays cinema.

I've probably seen "Dodsworth" 25 times in the last 35 years, and it never has grown old. There's not a missed mark or a bad performance in the whole film. As a character study of a man whose comfortable, happy retirement has suddenly become a nightmare, it's a jaw-dropper.I won't waste time summarizing the action since others have done so and quite competently. I will observe that Fran Dodsworth's "flings" (played by David Niven, Paul Lukas, and Gregory Gaye) are in various degrees of seriousness with varying degrees of slimy characters. Fran is a silly woman, carried away with pretentious notions of what is and isn't "cultured," and accepts no responsibility for her own actions. It is amazing that she and Sam had such a lasting marriage, unless she had simply never had the opportunity to become such a social butterfly before. Ruth Chatterton's portrayal of her as a status-seeking woman, vain about her looks and terrified of growing older, is dead-on.Walter Huston was a brilliant actor; I've never seen him in a bad performance. It's a shame he is largely forgotten today by the younger crowd who cut their teeth on action flicks and can't comprehend that black and white movies are just as good as (and often better than) their full-color counterparts. Huston played the Dodsworth role on stage and radio as well as film, and in the movie he brings to life the simple yet multi-layered Sam Dodsworth, who could give Job lessons in patience.And what can one say about Mary Astor? I've seen her as vamps and mothers and she's always good. Here she is no vamp or mother, but a woman on her own, alone but not necessarily lonely. She is independent, quietly confident, and she open's Sam's eyes, not only to the fact that there is life after a crushing blow, but to the folly of hanging on to something that will only kill you in the end.When Sam Dodsworth utters his final line in the movie, I have always cheered. Many lines have been written about love, but his well-delivered Parthian shot covers worlds that are to this day unexplored.