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Dodsworth
(1936)
In William Wyler's Best Picture-nominated bittersweet
romance drama:
- in the opening, to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne," the
silhouetted (from the back) view of retiring US auto industrialist
husband Sam Dodsworth (Oscar-nominated Walter Huston) standing
at the window of his auto-plant on his last day on the job after
selling his business; the camera tracked behind the beloved Dodsworth
as he walked among the workers, assembled to bid him goodbye ("I
hate to see you go, Sam")
- the character of his 40-ish wife of 20 years Fran
(Ruth Chatterton), youth-obsessed, vain, social-climbing and self-centered,
in a small Ohio town
- during the cruise, Fran's open flirtations with suave,
debonair playboy Capt. Clyde Lockert (David Niven), and soon after
in Paris, she was also cozying up to international financier and
distinguished art collector Arnold Iselin (Paul Lukas) and other
newly-acquired continental friends
- Sam's opportune meeting on the deck with American
divorcee Mrs. Edith Cortright (Mary Astor) who was living in Italy
and shared Sam's excitement about life and learning new things
- the scene in their Parisian hotel room during their
long-awaited getaway vacation when Fran told Sam that she wanted
him to return to the US without her for the summer: ("You've
got to let me have my fling now! Because you're simply rushing at
old age, Sam, and I'm not ready for that yet"); when he balked,
she demanded a trial separation for the summer so that she could
have a youthful fling ("You've got to let me have my fling now!
Because you're simply rushing at old age, Sam, and I'm not ready
for that yet")
- later after a trial separation, Sam returned to Europe
where after some months of watching her continual flirtations, Fran
declared her intentions to marry young Austrian baron Kurt Von Obersdorf
(Gregory Gaye): ("I love Kurt, and Kurt loves me, and I'm going
to marry him. He asked me tonight...You've never known me. You've
never known anything about me, not what I had on or thought or the
sacrifices I've made....I'll be happy with Kurt. I'm fighting for
life! You can't drag me back!"); she made demands for a divorce,
followed by her parting from a forlorn Sam at the Vienna train station
when he told her: "Did I remember to tell you today that I adore
you?"
- the scene of Kurt's stern Baroness mother (Oscar-nominated
Maria Ouspenskaya in her first Hollywood film) telling a devastated
Fran that she wouldn't allow her son's marriage: ("You will
forgive if I observe that you are older than Kurt...Have you thought
how little happiness there can be for the old wife of a young
husband?"); Fran was forced to return to Sam and make plans
to return to America
- and the confrontational scene on the cruise liner
about to depart from Naples for the US, when Sam decided to leave
his selfish, nagging and eternally-unhappy wife and his loveless,
estranged marriage for good: ("I'm not sailing with you...You
and I can't make a go of things any longer...I'm not taking another
chance, because I'm through, finished, and that's flat....I'm going
back to doing things...Love has got to stop someplace short of suicide");
as Sam charged down the gang-plank, Fran cried out: "He's gone
ashore; he's gone ashore!" - her shrieks partly drowned out
by the ocean liner's blaring horns
- the concluding happy-ending sequence of Sam's exuberant,
joyous return to Edith - he waved at her from a small fishing boat
that approached her rented villa in Naples, Italy and she waved
back
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Sam's Last Day at Work
Sam With Wife Fran
(Ruth Chatterton)
Spiteful, Self-Centered Fran's Pronouncement in Paris
Parting With Fran at the Vienna Train Station: "Did
I remember to tell you today that I adore you?"
Fran with Stern Baroness Mother
Sam to Fran: "I'm going back to doing things"
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