Dodsworth (1936)

Directed by William Wyler. Starring Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Mary Astor, Paul Lukas, David Niven, Gregory Gaye, Harlan Briggs, Maria Ouspenskaya, Odette Myrtil, Spring Byington.

Big-screen rendition of the same-named Sinclair Lewis novel (and Sidney Howard’s stage adaptation) about the Dodsworths, a semi-estranged married couple who embark upon a European vacation in the vein of a “second honeymoon,” but they only drift further apart, and each becomes enamored with other people: sophisticated playboy Lukas and tender divorcée Astor. Classy if overgenerous production, focused on character while injecting social commentary, with director Wyler shrewdly eliminating almost all traces of mustiness that so often accumulates during the transition from stageform. Even though tightening the screenplay and editing further would have combated the aforementioned overgenerosity, what remains is a high-caliber adult drama led by a dignified Huston performance that echoes of Spencer Tracy; taking over for Fay Bainter from the theatrical version, Chatterton plays her peevish narcissism a little too loudly, but audiences at the time needed to get themselves too swept up in rooting interest to be distracted by moldy moral outrage. Though she has less than five minutes of screentime, Ouspenskaya makes the most of it as the mother of another of Mrs. Dodsworth’s potential lovers, nabbing one of the seven Oscar nods bestowed upon the film; the only one it won was for its art direction (Interior Design).

75/100