Our Town
Director: Sam Wood
Year Released: 1940
Rating: 1.5
Wooden adaptation of the Thornton Wilder play - it's like a feature-length anthropological/social reenactment of the development of a 'typical' whitebread American family in the beginning of the 20th century and the minor problems they encounter. Never loses its stage origins - the narrator explains everything so no one ever gets confused - and is but a trifle when compared to the tragedies in a small town as shown in Kings Row; the only time it bothers getting creative is in the last act, and even that's a maudlin rip-off of Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Martha Scott is ill suited for her role, and the same goes for William Holden, who appears to have difficulty with his meek, down-home character.
