Film Illiterate, wherein the proprietor records movies seen, and sporadic progress through assorted lists of the "best". Originally started after regretfully renting something forgettable for the third time. I've forgotten what, but never again! A tedious endeavour since 2005. Hello. 🙂
Sam Dodsworth (Walter Huston) retires from business and heads off on a European vacation with his wife Fran (Ruth Chatterton), a younger woman less interested in quiet retirement than in a long-buried desire for reinvention.
This is a great film: fantastic script, good performances and a wonderful score by Alfred Newman. Arguably it is unfair in its treatment of Fran, who has presumably been nursing her dissatisfaction for decades, but it certainly can't be called misogynistic; if nothing else, Fran is contrast with the much more positive portrayal of independent Edith Cortwright (Mary Astor). While in the first act Fran is cast as the villain, Sam's controlling behaviour when he returns to the United States demonstrates his own fault. In the end, more than just a story of a relationship breakdown, it's about both of their attempts to grow into new lives.