The Barretts of Wimpole Street | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Sidney Franklin |
Screenplay by | Donald Ogden Stewart Ernest Vajda Claudine West |
Based on | The Barretts of Wimpole Street 1930 play by Rudolf Besier |
Produced by | Irving Thalberg |
Starring | Norma Shearer Fredric March Charles Laughton |
Cinematography | William H. Daniels |
Edited by | Margaret Booth |
Music by | Herbert Stothart |
Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
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Running time | 110 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $820,000 [1] [2] [3] |
Box office | $1,258,000 (Domestic earnings) [1] $1,085,000 (Foreign earnings) [1] |
The Barretts of Wimpole Street is a 1934 American romantic drama film directed by Sidney Franklin based on the 1930 play of the same title by Rudolf Besier. It depicts the real-life romance between poets Elizabeth Barrett (Norma Shearer) and Robert Browning (Fredric March), despite the opposition of her abusive father Edward Moulton-Barrett (Charles Laughton). The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and Shearer was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. It was written by Ernest Vajda, Claudine West, and Donald Ogden Stewart, from the successful 1930 play The Barretts of Wimpole Street by Rudolf Besier, and starring Katharine Cornell.
In 1957, Franklin directed a color remake in CinemaScope and Metrocolor starring Jennifer Jones, John Gielgud, and Bill Travers.
In her bedroom where she has been sequestered for years, Elizabeth ("Ba") (Norma Shearer), the eldest Barrett daughter, consults with her doctor. She is recovering from an illness and is weak, but the doctor advises that a full recovery is possible.
She has a vivacious and brilliant mind, her poetry is frequently published, and she loves fooling around with her siblings, especially her youngest sister, Henrietta (Maureen O'Sullivan). Her stern father Edward (Charles Laughton), however, wastes no opportunity to remind Elizabeth that she is near death. Henrietta is interested in marrying her brothers' friend Surtees (Ralph Forbes), but she cannot see any way around her insanely possessive father, who has forbidden his children to marry.
Robert Browning (Fredric March), who has been corresponding with Elizabeth for some time, arrives in person and sweeps her off her feet. Months pass, and with a new lease on life, Elizabeth is able to walk. Edward insists she is still very sick, and when the doctors prescribe a trip to Italy, Edward forbids it. Exasperated, Robert makes his feelings towards Edward plain to Elizabeth, and they declare their love for each other.
One day, the Barretts' cousin Bella (Marion Clayton) reveals that Elizabeth's relationship with Robert is romantic. Edward arranges a scheme to get Elizabeth away from Robert by selling the house and moving the family to Surrey, six miles from the nearest railway station.
Unexpectedly, Edward returns from London and catches Henrietta and Surtees modeling his dress uniform for Elizabeth. He forces Henrietta to confess her secret affair. Denouncing her as a whore, he makes her swear never to see Surtees again and to lock herself in her room.
Ba conspires with her maid Wilson to let Robert know she will elope with him and Wilson is coming along. Edward opens up to Ba and confesses the motivation for his behavior. He apparently thinks of himself as having a sex addiction and now suppresses his desires, equating sex with sin, and he wants his children never to fall prey to carnal passion. As he goes into detail about how he wants Ba all to himself, he embraces her and comes close to making a sexual pass. Horrified, Ba repulses him. He apologizes and leaves, saying he'll pray for her. Ba soon departs with her dog Flush. The film closes with a brief scene of Elizabeth's and Robert's marriage, with Wilson as a witness and Flush waiting patiently by the church door.
The numerous love letters that Robert and Elizabeth exchanged before their marriage give readers a great deal of information about this famous courtship in their own words. The correspondence was well underway before they ever met in person, he having admired the collection Poems that she published in 1844. He opens his first letter to her, "I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett", and a little later in that first letter he says "I do, as I say, love these books with all my heart—and I love you too" (January 10, 1845). [4] Several editions of these letters have been published, the first being one compiled by their son in 1898. Flush: A Biography , the version by Virginia Woolf, from the perspective of Elizabeth's dog, is also an imaginative reconstruction, though more closely based on reading the letters.
Both the play and film reflect popular concerns at the time, particularly Freudian analysis. Although Edward Barrett's behavior in disinheriting any of the children who married seems bizarre, there appears to be no evidence of his being sexually aggressive toward any of the family members. [5]
For the screenplay, all overt suggestions of incest were removed from Besier's original play, but Charles Laughton, who played Edward, assured producer Irving Thalberg, "They can't censor the gleam in my eye." [6] [7]
Andre Sennwald of The New York Times called the film "a drama of beauty, dignity and nobility", praising Shearer's performance as "a brave and touching piece of acting" and Laughton as "superb." [8] Variety called it "truly an actor's picture" with a "final stretch that grips and holds", but that overall it was "slow" and "talky" and suggested its running time could have been shortened. [9] Film Daily lauded it as "Unquestionably one of the greatest love stories ever filmed", with "a superb performance" by Shearer and one of Laughton's "most dominating performances." [10] "I found myself pleasantly surprised by the performances of Miss Shearer and Mr. March", wrote St. Clair McKelway for The New Yorker . Although McKelway found it "hard to accept Miss Shearer in her role", he called it "sensibly handled from beginning to end, and every now and then Mr. Laughton creates moments as effective, I think, as any you have seen on the screen." [11] The Barretts of Wimpole Street topped the Film Daily year-end poll of 424 critics as the best film of 1934. [12]
The film was considered a success at the box office. [13] According to MGM records it earned theater rentals of $1,258,000 in the US and Canada and $1,085,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $668,000. [1] [2] [3] Its unexpected success in rural U.S. markets, despite its upper-class themes, was mentioned in the 1935 Variety article famously headlined "Sticks Nix Hick Pix". [14]
In 1957, Sidney Franklin filmed a word-for-word, and nearly shot-for-shot Metrocolor remake, of The Barretts of Wimpole Street, in CinemaScope. This version starred Jennifer Jones as Elizabeth, John Gielgud as her father, Bill Travers as Robert Browning, and Keith Baxter in his film debut. [15]
Both of the films were released by MGM.
It was also adapted in the Hindi language as the Indian film Aaj Aur Kal (1963).
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an English poet of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime and frequently anthologised after her death. Her work received renewed attention following the feminist scholarship of the 1970s and 1980s, and greater recognition of women writers in English.
Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings and challenging vocabulary and syntax.
Edith Norma Shearer was a Canadian-American actress who was active on film from 1919 through 1942. Shearer often played spunky, sexually liberated women. She appeared in adaptations of Noël Coward, Eugene O'Neill, and William Shakespeare, and was the first five-time Academy Award acting nominee, winning Best Actress for The Divorcee (1930).
Charles Laughton was a British-American actor. He was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and first appeared professionally on the stage in 1926. In 1927, he was cast in a play with his future wife Elsa Lanchester, with whom he lived and worked until his death.
The following is an overview of 1934 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.
Ralph Forbes was an English film and stage actor active in Britain and the United States.
Robert and Elizabeth is a musical with music by Ron Grainer and book and lyrics by Ronald Millar. The story is based on an unproduced musical titled The Third Kiss by Judge Fred G. Moritt, which in turn was adapted from the play The Barretts of Wimpole Street by Rudolph Besier. It is an operetta-style musical which tells the story of the romance and elopement of poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett. The original 1964 London production was a success, starring John Clements as Barrett, June Bronhill as Elizabeth and Keith Michell as Robert. Several revivals have followed.
Marie Antoinette is a 1938 American historical drama film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by W. S. Van Dyke and starred Norma Shearer as Marie Antoinette. Based upon the 1932 biography of the ill-fated Queen of France by the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, it had its Los Angeles premiere at the legendary Carthay Circle Theatre, where the landscaping was specially decorated for the event.
Katharine Cornell was an American stage actress, writer, theater owner and producer. She was born in Berlin to American parents and raised in Buffalo, New York.
William Brian de Lacy Aherne was an English actor of stage, screen, radio and television, who enjoyed a long and varied career in Britain and the United States.
Ernest Vajda was a Hungarian actor, playwright, and novelist, but is more famous today for his screenplays.
Flush: A Biography, an imaginative biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's cocker spaniel, is a cross-genre blend of fiction and nonfiction by Virginia Woolf published in 1933. Written after the completion of her emotionally draining The Waves, the work returned Woolf to the imaginative consideration of English history that she had begun in Orlando: A Biography, and to which she would return in Between the Acts.
The Sign of the Cross is a 1932 American pre-Code epic film produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille and released by Paramount Pictures. Based on the original 1895 play by English playwright Wilson Barrett, the screenplay was written by Waldemar Young and Sidney Buchman. It stars Fredric March, Elissa Landi, Claudette Colbert, and Charles Laughton, with Ian Keith and Arthur Hohl.
Wimpole Street is a street in Marylebone, central London. Located in the City of Westminster, it is associated with private medical practice and medical associations.
Producers' Showcase is an American anthology television series that was telecast live during the 1950s in compatible color by NBC. With top talent, the 90-minute episodes, covering a wide variety of genres, aired under the title every fourth Monday at 8 pm ET for three seasons, beginning October 18, 1954. The final episode, the last of 37, was broadcast May 27, 1957.
The Barretts of Wimpole Street is a 1957 British CinemaScope historical film originating from the United Kingdom; it was a re-make of the earlier 1934 version by the same director, Sidney Franklin. Both films are based on the 1930 play The Barretts of Wimpole Street by Rudolf Besier. The screenplay for the 1957 film is credited to John Dighton, but Franklin used exactly the same script for the second movie as he did for the first. The film, set in the early 19th century, stars Jennifer Jones, John Gielgud, and Bill Travers.
Norma Shearer (1902–1983) was a Canadian American film actress who was nominated five times for an Academy Award. She and her sister Athole were assisted in their pursuit of show business careers by their mother Edith Fisher Shearer. After amassing numerous letters of introduction from a variety of show business-related people in Canada, the trio relocated to New York, hoping to get into musical theatre.
Her Cardboard Lover is a 1942 American comedy film directed by George Cukor, starring Norma Shearer, Robert Taylor, and George Sanders. The screenplay by Jacques Deval, John Collier, Anthony Veiller, and William H. Wright is based on the English translation of Deval's 1926 play Dans sa candeur naïve by Valerie Wyngate and P.G. Wodehouse.
The Barretts of Wimpole Street is a 1930 play by the Dutch/English dramatist Rudolf Besier, based on the romance between Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, and her domineering father's unwillingness to allow them to marry. Presented first at the Malvern Festival in August 1930, the play transferred to the West End, where it ran for 528 performances. An American production, produced by and starring Katharine Cornell, opened in 1931 and ran on Broadway for 370 performances. The play has subsequently been revived onstage and adapted for television and the cinema.
Rudolf Wilhelm Besier was a Dutch/English dramatist and translator best known for his play The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1930). He worked with H. G. Wells, Hugh Walpole and May Edginton on dramatisations.