Our Town (1940 film)

Our Town (OT: Our Town ), the American film adaptation of the play by Thornton Wilder, directed by Sam Wood from the year 1940.

Action

The inhabitants of the small town of Grover 's Corners, New Hampshire live peacefully and in harmony. Dr. Gibbs, his wife Julie and their two children, George and Rebecca are the neighbors of the Webbs, who have a beautiful daughter, Emily. George and Emily fall in love and after three years of advertising they get married. Time passes and Emily is very ill at the birth of her second child. As she is dying, she meets all the people who have already left in the years before this world. Emily, who remains in a kind of limbo, remembers her past life, but in the end the young woman decides for life and she wakes up from her dream.

Background

The critics and audiences alike enthusiastically received piece Our ​​Town by Thornton Wilder was conceived immediately after its premiere in 1938 as a prime example of the so-called Americana. The author won the Pulitzer-Preis/Theater for the piece. After 1939, the film rights for $ 75,000 had been acquired by producer Sol Lesser, he first planned to realize the film by Ernst Lubitsch and in Technicolor. The plans were dashed as well as the idea to transfer the director William Wyler.

Basically the film version, directed by Sam Wood follows the play, but differs in the end decisively on the template. The producer was in no doubt that the tragic end of the play, in which Emily dies, would also not be accepted by the mass of moviegoers. In order not to compromise the commercial success of the film, the writers Thornton Wilder requested personally to give its assent to be able to insert a happy ending. The author accepted the proposal and so Emily returns in the movie back to life.

Awards

At the Academy Awards in 1941, the film received nominations in the categories:

  • Best Picture
  • Best Actress - Martha Scott
  • Best Art Direction ( Black - White )
  • Best Original Soundtrack
  • Best Original Score
  • Best Sound

Criticism

The filmdienst was:

1940 in film Screenplay United Artists Film score Bert Glennon Thomas Mitchell (actor) Pulitzer Prize for Drama 13th Academy Awards
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