Art Vandelay 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.

utgard14 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.

marcslope Amazingly adult for 1936, this Samuel Goldwyn/William Wyler adaptation of Sinclair Lewis's novel actually suggests that a decent man with an awful wife would do well to run off with an attractive divorcée. How un-Hays Code of it! The film reeks of prestige yet doesn't feel stuffy, and, Henry James-style, is firmly on the side of American unpretentiousness and hard work vs. European highfalutin-ness. There are flaws--scenes that end inconclusively or at the wrong moment, an intrusive Alfred Newman score, a Ruth Chatterton performance that might have been toned down a bit by Mr. Wyler--but they fade into insignificance against the resounding adultness of the themes and treatment. Walter Huston, probably the best actor we ever had, is at the top of his game here: Watch him in the scene halfway through, where he's rattling about his large antiseptic Midwestern home, miserable without the Mrs.--and Mary Astor is warm, assured, and utterly delightful as the realistic, straight-shooting woman who's his real match. And Spring Byington, whom I usually find annoying, sensitively underplays a Midwestern matron and makes a large impression in a small role. With an essentially soap opera plot, it manages to make larger points about aging, overcoming regret, and Old World vs. New World. Sinclair Lewis is not as well remembered as he should be, and this, the best screen adaptation of his work, is an excellent introduction.

mlktrout 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.