William Wyler has been responsible for a number of great films, of which Dodsworth is one of my favourites from him and from the 30s too.The film looks great, gleamingly shot with beautiful art direction which secured a well-deserved Oscar for Best Art Direction. Alfred Newman's score is melancholic, haunting and orchestrated with such richness, considering the story this approach could have been inappropriate but the story here is written in such a way that the approach is ideal and it is a great score in its own right. Dodsworth is a brilliantly written film, with a nuanced and remarkably honest screenplay that was ahead of its time for back then and still holds much relevance now. The story is full-blown poignant romance with a refreshing honesty and an intensely dark edge, despite how it sounds it's written and constructed in a way that avoids becoming too much of a soap opera.Dodsworth's characters are remarkably compelling in their realism, all having their likable traits and their bad traits. Fran especially could easily have been a character with no redeeming qualities but is written with dimension and played with nuance that you kind of understand what she's going through while never condoning her actions. Wyler directs with elegant class and a good deal of narrative tension. The performances are fantastic from all involved, especially a possible career best from Walter Huston and a quietly dignified Mary Astor. Ruth Chatterton even manages to bring nuance and pathos to a rather snobbish and self-centred role, David Niven is his usual charismatic self and Maria Ouspenskaya makes her short screen time memorable. Nice to see Spring Byinton in a dramatic supporting role after seeing her in more comedic roles.All in all, a William Wyler treasure and a must see. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Does the story really end with the last scene of this movie? It almost ends with a riddle. For it is merely Mr. Dodsworth's turn to stay abroad with a lover, something his unfaithful wife had already done. For some reason, we expect the Dodsworths to find their way back together and stay together. Viewers will think Mary Astor's character is the more sympathetic woman and that Walter Huston's Mr. Dodsworth has at last found true happiness, but what has happened is that the narrative has switched so that we are watching infidelity from the reverse angle. When you think about it, the filmmakers are presenting a rather tortured love story that is complicated by the new choices that are being presented abroad.

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.

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.