KING VIDOR
Bil’s rating (out of 5): BBB.5.
USA, 1937. The Samuel Goldwyn Company. Screenplay by Sarah Y. Mason, Victor Heerman, dramatization by Harry Wagstaff Gribble, Gertrude Purcell, based on the novel by Olive Higgins Prouty. Cinematography by Rudolph Mate. Produced by Samuel Goldwyn. Music by Alfred Newman. Production Design by Richard Day. Costume Design by Omar Kiam. Film Editing by Sherman Todd. Academy Awards 1937.
Perennial twelve-hankie weeper stars Barbara Stanwyck as a low-class factory worker’s daughter who gets in the family way thanks to a rich gentleman and marries him to avoid scandal. Raising her daughter (Anne Shirley) as best as she can, she eventually decides that her vulgar, nouveau riche ways are in the way of her daughter’s ever truly achieving something in life and so makes the ultimate sacrifice for her happiness. This film doesn’t earn points for playing right into the hands of a snobby, classist mentality, but the acting is so great that you just can’t resist it.
