Street Scene

Directed by King Vidor, "Street Scene" (1931) is set in a New York City tenement over a sweltering summer day and examines the lives of those who called the tenements home. The film is based on the 1929 Pulitzer-Prize winning play of the same name written by Elmer Rice, who also directed the Broadway production. Many of the actors in the play are also featured in this film.The movie was filmed on a realistic-looking set depicting the run-down apartment building where the story takes place and the adjacent block. The site is filmed from a variety of angles and perspectives giving the viewer the sense being in an actual block. With the heavily naturalistic atmosphere the film tells many stories and develops many characters in showing the American melting plot. The characters include an Italian immigrant couple struggling to have a baby, a younger family with a newborn, a nosy neighbor, a bully, a music student and teacher, a family about to be dispossessed for not paying the rent and its heartless social worker, a reader of Karl Marx, and more. The main action gradually focuses on a pair of stories. A middle aged woman and mother is having an affair with a milkman when she suffers neglect and abuse from her husband. Her young and beautiful daughter Rose is in love with her apartment neighbor, a young, bookish Jewish man, Sam, who is working hard to become a lawyer. The mother's affair ends tragically if predictably. Sam and Rose recognize their love for one another but decide to take the time to establish their own lives.The movie shows the prejudices and the poverty of New York immigrant life as well as the possibility of a better, fulfilled life. Some of the characters may be stereotypical but they come to life in this film. In addition to the setting and the story, the movie features an outstanding Gershwin-influenced musical score by Alfred Newman. Rice's play and film were later adopted into an opera by Kurt Weil with lyrics by Langston Hughes.The film brought home to me a feeling for life in New York City and in the United States, particularly the lives of immigrants seeking the promise of this country. It shows something special in the American experience for all its difficulty. It reminded me of the possibilities I have had in my own life, almost entirely lived in large American cities. I hadn't known this film before and was glad for the opportunity to see it.Robin Friedman

The stifling oppression of poverty and the tragedy born from it is the subject of this mature film from King Vidor. Based on Elmer Rice's Pulitzer Prize winning play this Samuel Goldwyn produced film starring a young Sylvia Sidney is full of insight and maturity.Though the entire film takes place on the steps of a tenament in New York where getting out is only a deam, only the first 15 minutes or so give evidence of its stage origins. Director Vidor, always innovative, uses photographer George Barnes' camera and a fine early score from Alfred Newman to give the viewer a real feel for these lives being led in sometimes quiet, and sometimes not so quiet, desperation. Soon you are lost in their world and begin to understand that much of what happens is simply born of poverty and having nowhere else to turn.Much of the film is dialog between these neigbors living in cramped and hot quarters. There are Jews and Germans and Irish, Rice's words and Vidor's direction letting their lives unfold through that street scene in front of their building during the summer heat. A fire hydrant may offer some relief to the small children in the street but it will take more than water for some.At the center of everything is Mrs. Murrant (Estelle Taylor) and her daughter Rose (Sylvia Sidney). Taylor gives an excellent performance as a woman reaching out for any happiness she can find in the slums. Her husband and Rose's father provides food and shelter but is so caught up in his own unhappiness there is no love or tenderness left to give.Only trying to get more from life than just looking after someone else will lead the lonely mother of Rose to the arms of the milk collector. Their looks and actions are not lost on the other women in the building, especially the snide Mrs. Jones. Neither is it lost on her son Willie's friends. When Rose's father begins to suspect, tragedy is not far behind.Sylvia underplays her Rose with sincerity and maturity. She sees both sides and understands that it is their environment which is causing all this. She herself is loved by a young Jewish boy whose mother likes Rose but knows his focus on getting out falters whenever she is near. Rose will grow up in an instant, and her life and that of her brother Willie's will change forever.There are some quietly powerful scenes in this talky but rewarding drama. Rose attempting to cross the street while a young newsboy tries to get her to purchase his last paper, not knowing the sensational headline touches her personally, is quite moving. It is still a powerful scene as an ambulance pulls away from Rose, taking with it her youth in these slums.There is a rich and mature ending with Vidor's camera following Rose toward the unknown, the New York skyline of the time offering hope perhaps, for a future born from tragedy. What has begun as a somewhat dated early talkie has become a moving and touching film of real substance.King Vidor has been neglected when the subject of great directors comes up, possibly due to the fact that some of his best work, most notably "The Stranger's Return," is not available. "Street Scene" is one of his best and, while slightly dated, is well worth a look for film buffs.

Gripping, realistic account of the lives of the inhabitants of New York tenements, during the Depression years, based upon the Pulitzer Prize winning play by Elmer Rice.Long before the Neorrealistic Movement began in Italy, Samuel Goldwyn produced this great picture which depicts the miseries and hardships of a group of working class characters, directed with skill, intelligence and in a very "naturalistic" way, by master director King Vidor, who excelled in this kind of films, dealing with social issues ("The Big Parade" (1925), "The Crowd" (1928), "Hallelujah" (1929) and "Our Daily Bread" (1934)).Sylvia Sidney is magnificent and displays great acting skill in the role of a working girl; she looks pretty, charming, "petite", naive, conveying all the frailty and helplessness her character requires. William Collier Jr. portrays convincingly an idealistic young jewish College-educated lad, who is in love with Sidney's character.Beulah Bondi is great as well, as a gossipy, mean, bitter woman who's married to a drunken, no-good man. Estelle Taylor is efficient as the basically nice, doomed, adulterous mother of Sylvia Sidney's character. Also in a cast full of stage actors, character player John Qualen, interprets very well a Scandinavian immigrant who works as the janitor of the building in which the events take place.Great landmark score by legendary composer Alfred Newman, which is reminiscent of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue". Great camerawork for a movie that was filmed during the first years of Sound Pictures, when films were usually stagey and static.The transfer is far from perfect but, in my opinion, is decent, considering the age of the film.

great

Fairly poor VHS transfer

Just avoid the Grapevine edition and stay happy. This should not be available anywhere. If one can find the Image Entertainment version you will have a treasure to keep and love. This 90 plus year old film is an icon of social consiousness and cinematic vision.