Dodsworth

Dodsworth is William Wyler's highest rated movie on IMDb. It is considered a classic and is not on the top 250 only because it doesn't have enough votes. I am a big fan of all the previous William Wyler movies I've seen (Roman Holiday, The Best Years of Our Lives, Ben Hur), especially Roman Holiday, which is an utterly wonderful movie.

I did not like Dodsworth very much. Technically, it is very good. But what was its point? It was obviously trying to preach the correct moral values to live by, but I couldn't even tell what those values were. The movie is a shining example of the classic Hollywood Hay's code crap (married couples sleeping in separate beds is normal?, seeking permission from your parents to marry the person you love?), yet also had some ideas very liberal for the time, specifically divorce. Dodsworth is a gung-ho I love America type, yet all the women in his life, choose Europe over America. The movie embraced and rejected social norms at the same time (not wanting to conform to society and grow old and be grandparents while also be constantly worrying about what other people think about you, or vice versa). Really, what was this movie about? What was it trying to say? Beats me.

Oh, and I must say again, thank you His Girl Friday for introducing overlapping dialog to Hollywood!