101. Dodsworth (1936)

Directed By William Wyler

Synopsis

A rich business man sells his car factory and decides to travel with his wife to Europe to learn how to enjoy life. Wife has a severe case of chronic wandering genitalia. He gets tired of forgiving her and finds a much better woman in Naples. "Frankly my Dear I Don't Give A Damn" ending!

Review

This was a film that felt very adult and modern, in an almost Merchant-Ivory way. All this modernity is in its particularly intelligent script based on a novel by Sinclair Lewis, which captures the American abroad perfectly. While Dodsworth remains true to his roots, acting like a normal person would abroad, his wife is ashamed of her roots and has a degree of snobbery which only comes out in those who feel inadequate.

In the end, although you think Mrs. Dodsworth is a spoiled brat with a husband which is too good for her you can still understand where she is coming from. She is a person who is like a fish out of water, and the only way she can attempt to fit in is by rejecting herself and assuming a personality to which she is completely alien. Samuel Dodsworth has the opposite reaction, he remains himself and is actually able to fit this new world (or should I say old world) better than her simply by not selling his soul to glitz.

In the end it is a deep and admirable film, with stellar performances throughout, particularly from Mary Astor who is just fantastic here. You end up really feeling for Dodsworth while still understanding the thoughts and motivations of his emotionally immature wife. The problematic of the woman who married too early to a much older man desperately seeking her lost youth in the wrong way is actually deeply affecting. In the end Samuel gets the wife he deserves, one who has lived and is ready to be with him, to follow him with one suitcase to Siberia. Watch it. Get it from Amazon UK or US.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and acting nominations for Walter Huston and Maria Ouspenskaya. Richard Day won the award for Best Art Direction. For his role, Huston won the year's Best Actor award from the New York Film Critics Circle Awards. In 1990, Dodsworth was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Fifteen years later, Time.com named it one of the 100 best movies of the last 80 years.

Dodsworth, how annoying is this woman?: