Simply A Masterpiece

Fresh and Exciting

Don't listen to the negative reviews

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

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.

In "Dodsworth," the title auto magnate embarks on a European tour with his wife, who takes up with a series of penniless but titled men. To modern ears, the plot sounds a tad soapy, but in 1936, social-climbing American divorcées were the destroyers of dynasties, not dowagers out of Danielle Steele, so this Sinclair Lewis novel gets a very tasteful, respectful film treatment with an A-list cast (Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Mary Astor) and director (William Wyler, master of middlebrow, middle-class drama -- see "The Best Years of Our Lives"). The results are uneven, thanks to an awesome performance by Huston and an awful one by Chatterton, but generally entertaining, thanks to genuine suspense about the survival of the Dodsworth's marriage.Craggy Hollywood legend Huston plays craggy American archetype Sam Dodsworth, a man of humble origins who claws his way to the top through brains and industriousness. After he sells his automobile company to a huge competitor(quite realistic for the time --young audience members will be shocked to learn that there were once more than three car companies in America), his American archetype wife, the vaguely ditzy and dissatisfied Fran (Chatterton), convinces him to enjoy his new leisure by sailing for Europe since she's never been happy in her home town of Zenith (had she read more Lewis novels, she'd realize no one is, not even George Babbitt). Innocents (or idiots) abroad is another shopworn American theme, and here, Europe doesn't get an especially sympathetic treatment since the whole continent is portrayed as swarming with well-dressed smoothies looking for any chance to sponge off of rich, gullible American women. Ruth throws herself at tux after tux, one of which encases a young David Niven (who bears a striking resemblance to a middle-aged David Niven and an old David Niven), until Walter finally has enough and succumbs to the charms of lovely Edith Cortright (Astor), a sad-eyed, charming American divorcée living in Naples. Astor is good, she's very good, as lovely Edith, and I wonder if more traditionalist audiences in the 1930s were rooting for the end of the Dodsworth marriage (as I was) or the reconciliation of Sam and Fran. Wyler and the screenwriters try to build some sympathy for dear Mrs. Dodsworth by subjecting her to a humiliating dressing-down by a slow-talking European countess (the wonderfully named Madame Maria Ouspenskaya) whose son Fran aspires to marry. But since the character of Fran is so shrill and annoying, thanks in part to the script and thanks in part to Ruth Chatterton's inability to convey any real feeling (the character makes about three transitions in every scene, none of which ol' Ruth bothers to register), you kind of wish that the good Madame will pull a pearl-handled revolver from the folds of her gown and put Ruth and the audience out of their collective misery.Once you ignore Ruthie, though, "Dodsworth" is a pretty good time. Between the epic score and the epic scenery, it's a fantastically lush production, and there's some clever filmmaking going on between the economical dialogue (entire relationships are established in three lines) and smart cinematography (every time you see a character standing in a doorway, something major is about to happen). And Huston excels as the kind of homespun hero that Spencer Tracy or Jimmy Stewart were too young to play in 1936, and to his great credit, he doesn't shy from Sam D's darker side -- the scene in which he returns, cuckolded, to Zenith and starts yelling at everyone in his house is fantastically uncomfortable. Angelica inherited her talent from him and her looks, blessedly, from somewhere else.

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.

I have limited experience with the works of Walter Huston and Mary Astor, both of whom sell this one for me. Notwithstanding its 8.3 rating, this is certainly not among my favorite William Wyler films. I like it about as much as The Little Foxes (a low 7/10).Ruth Chatterton's Fran is her husband's inferior mentally and morally. For me, the low points are when this pretentious woman is rather oddly gallivanting around with other guys in order to stave off old age. Her husband Samuel, who happens to 'adore' her, is no curmudgeon. It annoys me when a character I like is so committed to one I don't like for reasons that don't cut it for me. Fortunately, Mr. Dodsworth exhausted his tolerance by the very satisfying ending.I would have much preferred more on the relationship between Huston's Samuel and Astor's Edith, two very endearing characters. I'll be sure to prioritize my films to see list with them in mind.