Mary Pickford
STREET SCENE [Blu-ray/DVD] [1931]
One of the great stage-to-screen adaptations of the early sound film era, STREET SCENE (1931) presents a New York City tenement melting pot, boiling over with summer heat, resentment, and longing. Independent producer Samuel Goldwyn acquired the rights of the Pulitzer Prize winning and hit Broadway play by Elmer Rice, who also penned the screenplay. Under the direction of King Vidor, the relatively simple set (building, sidewalk, street) becomes a canvas of human emotion, achieved through dynamic camerawork and powerhouse performances by Sylvia Sidney, Estelle Taylor, and Beulah Bondi–a member of the original Broadway cast who made her film debut as the busybody Mrs. Jones. Composer Alfred Newman’s score offers musical cues carefully timed to character dialogue, along with a Gershwin-esque theme that Newman reused during his long career at 20th Century-Fox. The film’s restoration allows us to fully experience the power of STREET SCENE, seeing and hearing in vivid clarity as Anna Maurrant (Taylor), her daughter Rose (Sidney), and neighbor Sam Kaplan (William Collier, Jr.) open their hearts and crash against the limitations of their environment.
Cast
Estelle Taylor
Beulah Bondi
David Landau
Matt McHugh
Russell Hopton
Greta Granstedt
Eleanor Wesselhoeft
Nora Cecil
Margaret Robertson
Walter James
Max Montor
Walter Miller
T.H. Manning
Conway Washburne
John Qualen
Ann Kostant
Adele Watson
Lambert Rogers
George Humbert
Helen Lovett
Richard Powell
Jane Mercer
Monte Carter
Harry Wallace
Director King Vidor
Format Blu-ray/DVD
Language English
Region ALL
Aspect Ratio 1.33:1
Rating NR
Runtime 80
Year 1931
Color B/W
UPC 089859910722
“Street Scene proves the tremendous possibilities of sound and music wedded intelligently to the pictorial image.”
—- Ralph Bond, Close Up, December 1931
“Street Scene is dominated by an almost serene intelligence. It portrays the weaknesses and strength of the human animal with an unprejudiced camera. It is splendidly acted. The musical score by Alfred Newman deserves a paragraph in itself. And the direction by King Vidor is a thrilling piece of work, a blending of skill, restraint and imagination into a tremendously fine production. I am going to view this picture again before it leaves the city, and then perhaps once more. I am going to shout its praises. And I am going to thumb my nose at those aesthetes who contend that nothing good can come from that morass of greed which is called Hollywood.”
—- Dalton Trumbo, Hollywood Spectator, September 26, 1931
