Walter Huston and Ruth Chatterton star in William Wyler’s production of “Dodsworth”

Dodsworth (1936) is an American drama film directed by William Wyler, and starring Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Paul Lukas, Mary Astor, and David Niven. The screenplay by Sidney Howard is based on the stage adaptation of the 1929 novel by Sinclair Lewis. Houston starred in the stage version and recreated his role on film.

The film centers on the marriage of retired auto magnate Samuel Dodsworth (Huston) and his wife Fran (Chatterton). While on a trip to Europe, the couple discovers they want different things. On the RMS Queen Mary, Sam meets divorcee Edith Cortright (Astor). Edith and Sam hit it off but their relationship is one of friendship. As Sam and Fran arrive in Europe, their marriage is strained, partly due to Fran’s dissatisfaction with what she considers their dull social life. Fran decides to stay in Europe while Sam returns to America.

While in America, Sam is confronted with the “gossip” about Fran and playboy Arnold Iselin (Lukas). Same returns to Europe to see if he and Fran have a future together.

 

William Wyler (1902 - 1981) was an American (born in Mulhouse, Alsace, then part of Germany) film director and producer. He won the Academy Award for Best Direction three times: Mrs. Miniver (1942), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and Ben-Hur (1959). Wyler was nominated 12 times for Best Director, an Academy Awards history record. Wyler started working in the movie business during the silent era, eventually making a name for himself as a director in the early 1930s. He would go on to direct Wuthering Heights (1939), The Westerner (1940), and The Little Foxes (1941). Actress Bette Davis received three Oscar nominations under Wyler’s direction, winning her second Oscar for her performance in Jezebel (1938). Other popular films directed by Wyler include The Heiress (1949), Roman Holiday (1954), Friendly Persuasion (1956), The Big Country (1958), and Funny Girl 1968).

Walter Huston (1883 - 1950) was a Canadian singer, stage, and film actor. He is also the patriarch of the Huston clan which includes his writer-director son John, and his granddaughter, actress Anjelica. Huston worked in the theater, with roles on Broadway where he debuted in 1924. Once talking pictures began in Hollywood, Huston worked as both a leading man and also a character actor. Some of Huston’s films include The Virginian (1929), Rain (1932), Gabriel Over the White House (1933), The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, directed by his son John. Huston’s last film was The Furies (1950) co-starring Barbara Stanwyck and Wendell Corey.

Ruth Chatterton (1892 – 1961) was an American stage, film, and television actress. She was also an aviator and novelist. She was one of the few female pilots in the 1930s and was a close friend of Amelia Earhart. Chatterton started her film career in 1929 and established herself as a major movie star with her role in Madame X. For her work in that film, she received her first Best Actress Academy Award nomination. In 1930, Chatterton was voted as the second favorite star of the year behind Norma Shearer, in a poll of West Coast film exhibitors. Chatterton’s film career was at its height during the mid-1930s. By the end of the decade, she basically retired from film. She continued to work on the stage and was an early performer on television in the late 1940s.

Paul Lukas (1894 – 1971) was a Hungarian actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film Watch on the Rhine (1943), reprising the role he created on Broadway stage. Before coming to American, Lukas had a successful stage and movie career in Europe. Some of the movies Lukas starred in include Little Women (1933), Ladies in Love (1936), The Lady Vanishes (1938), The Ghost Breakers (1940), Berlin Express (1948), and Fun in Acapulco (1963) with Elvis Presley.

Mary Astor (1906 – 1987) was an American actress. She won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her role in The Great Lie (1941) but is perhaps best remembered for her performance as Brigid O’Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon (1941) opposite Humphrey Bogart. Astor was a silent film star—she starred in over 40 silent films—in her teens but when talkies arrived, her voice was considered too masculine. After a successful stage performance, film roles started coming her way. A divorce and child custody scandal involving Astor and playwright George S. Kaufman almost destroyed her career. During the 1940s, Astor, under contract to M-G-M, specialized in character roles. Other film roles include Red Dust (1932), The Kennel Murder Case (1933), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), Midnight (1939), The Palm Beach Story (1942), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Little Women (1949), and Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964).

David Niven (1910 - 1983) was a British actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Separate Tables (1958). Niven’s film career started in the 1930s with small roles in films like Mutiny on the Bounty  (1935). He soon signed a contract with Samuel Goldwyn and his career took off. He had a supporting role in Wuthering Heights (1939). The film was a major success and increased his profile as an actor. He next co-starred with Ginger Rogers in Bachelor Mother (1939), another big hit. He played a safe-cracker in Raffles (1939) co-starring Olivia de Havilland. Niven worked constantly in film throughout the next four decades. Other films he starred in include Enchantment (1948), Soldiers Three (1951), Around the World in 80 Days (1956). Bonjour Tristesse (1958), Please Don’t Eat the Daisies (1960), and The Pink Panther (1963).

 

Walter Huston and Mary Astor

Dodsworth trivia

• During the filming, Mary Astor was involved in a very public child custody case. Ruth Chatterton was a character witness for Astor.
• David Niven didn’t like working with William Wyler. He acknowledged that Wyler could be “kind, fun, and cozy” off set, but when he sat in that director’s chair he became a bit of a tyrant.
• Mary Astor said that Edith Cortright was her favorite film role.
• William Wyler, Ruth Chatterton, and Walter Huston fought over Chatterton’s performance. Chatterton felt that she should be portrayed as a villainess; Wyler and Huston thought she should be portrayed more sympathetically.

 

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Ruth Chatterton and Walter Huston

Discussion questions

1. Ruth Chatterton thought that there should be little sympathy for Fran. Did you think she deserved any?
2. Do you think the marriage conflict between Fran and Sam was realistic?
3. Do you think that Sam and Fran were ever in love with each other?
4. What did you think of the performances of Huston, Chatterton, and Astor?
5. Where you surprised by the film’s ending or did you expect it? Do you think Sam and Edith will eventually get married? Sam is still married to Fran at the film’s end.

Joan Fontaine, Ida Lupino, and Edmond O’Brien as “The Bigamist”

The Bigamist (1953) is an American drama film directed by Ida Lupino and starring Joan Fontaine, Ida Lupino, Edmund Gwenn, and Edmond O’Brien. The cinematography was by George E. Diskant (They Live by Night) and the music was by Leith Stevens (The Wild One).

Married couple Harry (O’Brien) and Eve Graham (Fontaine) are about to adopt a child. Mr. Jordan (Gwenn), the adoption agent informs them that as a matter of routine, he needs to check into their backgrounds.

This worries Harry because he’s been living a double life with another woman named Phyllis (Lupino). Their relationship develops into a serious one and they get married.

What happens now? Will Harry be able to get himself untangled from the mess he’s made of his life or will his life spiral out of control?

 

Edmond O'Brien, Edmund Gwenn, and Joan Fontaine

Ida Lupino (1918 – 1995) was an English-American actress, director, and producer. She appeared in over 50 films and was one of Warner Bros.’s biggest contract players during the 1940s starring in High Sierra (1941), The Sea Wolf (1941), and The Man I Love (1947). After she left Warner Bros., Lupino formed her own production company, producing, writing, and directing films that tackled subjects the big studios wouldn’t touch. During the 1950s, Lupino was the only female director working in Hollywood. She directed several small independent films but really made a name for herself directing for television. Lupino directed episodes of The Twilight Zone (starred in one too), The Rifleman, Bonanza, Gilligan’s Island, It Takes a Thief, Family Affair, and Columbo. In 1966, she directed her one-and-only big-budget studio picture, The Trouble with Angels starring Rosalind Russell and Haley Mills.

Joan Fontaine (1917 – 2013) was a British-American actress who starred in more than 45 films during Hollywood’s “Golden Age.” After secondary roles in Gunga Din (1939) and The Women (1939), her fortunes turned with her starring role in Alfred Hitchcock’s first American film, Rebecca (1940). She was nominated for Best Actress for her role in that film but lost to Ginger Rogers. The next year, she worked with Hitchcock again in Suspicion and this time won the Best Actress Oscar, beating out her older sister Olivia de Havilland. She received a third and final nomination for The Constant Nymph (1943). Other popular Fontaine films include This Above All (1942), From This Day Forward (1946), Ivy (1947), Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), The Emperor Waltz (1948), and Ivanhoe (1952). After the late-1950s, she appeared less in films and more on stage and television. Fontaine and her sister are the only siblings to have won major acting Academy Awards. 

Edmund Gwenn (1877 – 1959) was an English stage and film actor. He is best remembered for his role as Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34^th Street (1947) for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Gwenn made his Hollywood film debut in Sylvia Scarlett (1935) and went on to have a long career in that town. He was a member of what was known as the British Colony—British ex-pats who were working in Hollywood. So of his other films include Pride and Prejudice (1940), Foreign Correspondent (1940), Lassie Come Home (1943), The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), Undercurrent (1946), Apartment for Peggy (1948), and Mister 880 (1950). The actor Cecil Kellaway was Gwenn’s cousin. 

Edmond O’Brien (1915 – 1985) was an American stage, screen, and television actor. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Barefoot Contessa (1954). O’Brien had leading roles in some of his earlier films but mostly worked as a supporting actor in films like The Killers (1946), A Double Life (1947), and White Heat (1949). He had lead roles in noir classics D.O.A (1950) and The Hitch-Hiker (1953). Other film roles include Julius Caesar (1953), D-Day the Sixth of June (1956), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).

 

Ida Lupino and Edmond O'Brien

The Bigamist trivia

• It is believed that this is the first sound film where the female star directed herself. It was the only time Lupino did so.
• Writer-producer Collier Young was married to Joan Fontaine at the time of production. Lupino was previously married to Young; they founded the Filmakers production company.
• This was the last film Lupino directed until The Trouble with Angels (1966).
• There are several inside jokes at the expense of Edmund Gwenn.
• Joan Fontaine’s mother Lillian has an uncredited role.
• Jane Greer was originally cast to play the role that eventually went to Joan Fontaine.
• Edmund Gwenn, Joan Fontaine, Edmond O'Brien, and Jane Darwell were all Oscar winners.

 

Click here to watch the movie on YouTube.

 

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Discussion questions

1. How do you think the subjects of adultery/bigamy were handled?
2. Did you think that the film took a position?
3. Was the situation between Edmond O’Brien and Joan Fontaine’s characters believable or realistic?
4. What did you think of the performances? Did one stand out to you?
5. Was the ending satisfying? If not, how would you have liked to the movie end?

 

 

Jean Gabin and Ida Lupino star in “Moontide”

Moontide (1942) is an American drama directed by Archie Mayo and starring Jean Gabin and Ida Lupino. The supporting cast includes Thomas Mitchell, Claude Rains, and Jerome Cowan.

Bobo (Gabin) works on a barge with Anna (Lupino) a girl he saved from committing suicide. Bobo has a violent past and is prone to fights when he is drunk. Bar-fly Pop Kelly (Arthur Aylesworth) was murdered and Bobo is concerned that he may have killed him while he was drunk.

Bobo and Anna try to make a life together but there are forces beyond their control that are out to destroy them.

Will Bobo and Anna be able to live in peace or are they destined to a life of misery and pain.

Ida Lupino nad Jean Gabin

Archie Mayo (1891 – 1968) was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor. Mayo began directing during the silent era, easily making the transition to talking pictures. He directed many stars of the pre-code era including James Cagney, Constance Bennett, and Joan Blondell. He also directed The Petrified Forest (1936) starring Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, and Humphrey Bogart.

Jean Gabin (1904 – 1976) was a French actor and singer. His reputation as a major star of French cinema brought him to Hollywood. Gabin didn’t like being under a studio contract and only made two films in Hollywood.

Ida Lupino (1918 – 1995) was an English-American actress, director, and producer. She appeared in over 50 films and was one of Warner Bros.’s biggest contract players during the 1940s starring in High Sierra (1941), The Sea Wolf (1941), and The Man I Love (1947). After she left Warner Bros., Lupino formed her own production company, producing, writing, and directing films that tackled subjects the big studios wouldn’t touch. During the 1950s, Lupino was the only female director working in Hollywood. She directed several small independent films but really made a name for herself directing for television. Lupino directed episodes of The Twilight Zone (starred in one too), The Rifleman, Bonanza, Gilligan’s Island, It Takes a Thief, Family Affair, and Columbo. In 1966, she directed her one-and-only big-budget studio picture, The Trouble with Angels starring Rosalind Russell and Haley Mills.

Click here to watch the film on YouTube

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Discussion questions

1. Jean Gabin made only two films in Hollywood. What did you think of his performance? Do you think he could have been a big star in American if he stayed in Hollywood?
2. Ida Lupino was borrowed from Warner Bros. to co-star with Gabin. Did you think they had good on-screen chemistry.
3. The film’s production was affected by World War II. It was originally planned to be filmed on location but was instead filmed on the sound stages at 20^th Century-Fox. Did you find the studio sets believable?
4. Cinematographer Charles G. Clarke was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Moontide. Did you think it was well deserved?
5. Did you have a favorite character actor?

 

Edward Arnold shows Jean Arthur some “Easy Living”

Easy Living (1937) is an American screwball comedy film directed by Mitchell Leisen and starring Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold, and Ray Milland. The screenplay was written by Preston Sturges from a story by Vera Caspary (Laura). The supporting cast includes William Demarest, Franklin Pangborn, Luis Alberni, and Robert Greig.

On her way to work, Mary Smith (Arthur) is hit with a sable coat while riding in a double-decker bus. The coat was thrown off of the New York City penthouse by J.B. Ball (Arnold) during an argument with his wife. Little does Mary know how that sable coat will change her life, especially after she meets J.B. Ball Jr. (Milland), not knowing who he is.

Edward Arnold, Jean Arthur, and Ray Milland

Mitchell Leisen (1898 – 1972) was an American director who was one of Paramount Pictures most successful directors during the 1930s and 1940s. He directed Olivia de Havilland to her first Best Actress Oscar in To Each His Own (1946). He also directed Ginger Rogers in Lady in the Dark (1944), as wekk as the Christmas classic Remember the Night  (1940) starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray. Leisen’s last big movie success was the comedy The Mating Season (1951) starring Gene Tierney, John Lund, and Thelma Ritter in an Oscar-nominated performance.

Jean Arthur (1900 – 1991) was an American stage and film actress whose career spanned three decades. Arthur got her start in silent films but became a major star with the advent of sound. Her unique speaking voice made her a natural for comedy. She came to prominence with major roles in a series of films directed by Frank Capra: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), You Can’t Take it With You (1938), and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). Other popular films Arthur starred in included Only Angels Have Wings (1939), The Talk of the Town (1942), The More the Merrier (1943). For her work in The More the Merrier, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, her only Academy Award nomination. Arthur’s last film role was in the western classic Shane (1953). After retiring from acting, she taught drama at Vassar College where one of her students was Meryl Streep.

Edward Arnold (1890 – 1956) was an American film and stage actor. Arnold started acting on the legitimate stage before finding work in film in 1916. He returned to the stage in 1919 and didn’t appear in film again until Okay America! (1932). In the early years of his film career, he played leading man roles but as he got older, he appeared in character roles and was never without work. He often worked on more than one picture at once. Some popular films that Arnold starred in include The Toast of New York (1937), You Can’t Take it With You (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and Meet John Doe (1941).

Ray Milland (1907 – 1986) was a Welsh-American movie star and film director. He won a Best Actor Oscar for portraying an alcoholic writer in Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend (1945). Milland played bit parts at M-G-M and Paramount. While at Paramount, he was loaned to Universal to for a lead in the Deanna Durbin movie Three Smart Girls (1936). The success of the film led to him being cast in leading roles. He became one of Paramount’s biggest stars, remaining there for almost 20 years. Other films starring Milland include The Major and the Minor (1942), Reap the Wild Wind (1942) where he had top billing over John Wayne, the horror classic The Uninvited (1944), The Big Clock (1948), and Dial M for Murder (1954). Later in his career, he starred as Ryan O’Neal’s father in Love Story (1970).

 

Jean Arthur at the automat.

Easy Living trivia

• The furs and jewelry used in the film were real. Guards were posted during the shooting to ensure that none of the valuables were stolen.
• The $58,000 sable coat in 1937, would cost more than $1.18M today.
• This was the first film that Preston Sturges worked on at Paramount.
• Jean Arthur was almost seven years older than Ray Milland.

 

Click here to watch this film on YouTube.

 

Click here to join the online discussion on January 15, 2024, at 6:30 p.m.  Central Time. Once you RSVP, you will receive an invitation and a link to join the discussion on Zoom.

 

Discussion questions

1. What did you think of the character of J. B. Ball played by Edward Arnold?
2. Was Jean Arthur believable as a working-class young woman caught up in a scandal?
3. Were Ray Milland and Jean Arthur believable as a couple?
4. What did you think of the automat scene?
5. Did you have a favorite scene, piece of dialogue, or character actor?
6. How would you rank this screwball comedy? Is it in your top ten?