Director: King Vidor
Year Released: 1931
Rating: 3.0
Uses an apartment building in NYC as a microcosm of melting pot America and the difference in values from one generation to another; it also devotes some of its attention to lonely housewives, lecherous men and aspiring young nobodies studying to better themselves. The characters all seem to be stereotypes of their various ethnic backgrounds - the Italian talks with his hands and is jovial, the Russian man speaks of Communism, and so on - but there's more than just shallow observation, and it's clear that playwright Elmer Rice either researched or lived in such a place, where the older women sit outside and gossip about the lives of people passing by - often to hide their own domestic problems - and people meddle in each others' business. Their children, tired of the cramped quarters and borderline communal living, swear that they'll never raise their own kids in such cramped, unpleasant surroundings - Sylvia Sidney dreams of suburbia - and strive to rise above the poverty.
