--- title: "Dodsworth" year: 1936 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/dodsworth" fi1m_score: 87 critics_score: 79 critics_reviews: 5 published: "2026-09-19T23:11:34.325661+00:00" updated: "2026-09-19T23:11:34.946469+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Dodsworth (1936) Directed by William Wyler · 1h 41m · MPA NR · Drama, Romance **Fi1m score: 87** · Critics 79 (early) from 5 reviews *In a sentence:* He wants to see Europe; she wants Europe to see her > William Wyler’s film of the Sinclair Lewis novel watches a twenty-year marriage come apart in hotel rooms and on ship decks, and it does so without raising its voice. Walter Huston is the reason to see it. Ruth Chatterton is the reason some people cannot. ## Synopsis Zenith, Ohio, in the 1930s. Sam Dodsworth (Walter Huston) has spent twenty years building cars, and on the first morning of the film he sells the Dodsworth Motor Company, walks the factory floor one last time and finds himself with nothing to do. His wife Fran (Ruth Chatterton), who is frightened of growing old in a small city, has been waiting for this. She wants Europe, and she wants to be young in it. They sail for England, leaving their married daughter Emily (Kathryn Marlowe) behind. On board, Fran takes up with Captain Clyde Lockert (David Niven), an Englishman who is charming on deck and less so in London. Sam, meanwhile, meets Edith Cortright (Mary Astor), an American widow who lives in Italy and does not expect anything of anyone. ## Review Sam Dodsworth (Walter Huston) has built cars in Zenith for twenty years, and in the first scene of *Dodsworth* he sells the company, shakes a few hands, and stands outside the gates with the rest of his life in front of him. His wife Fran (Ruth Chatterton) has planned that life for him. It is in Europe, and it involves her being taken for thirty. William Wyler’s film, adapted by Sidney Howard from the Sinclair Lewis novel, follows them across the Atlantic and spends 101 minutes watching what happens when a man who has always been busy has nothing to do but look at his marriage. It is a film about grown-ups, made for grown-ups, and there were not many of those coming out of Hollywood in 1936. The scene that told us what kind of film it would be comes on the ship. Sam is at the rail at night, waiting for the first light off the English coast, and when it appears he calls for Fran like a boy who has spotted something. She is not interested. She is below, being charming to Captain Clyde Lockert (David Niven), who is charming back. Wyler puts husband and wife in the same frame, one lit up and one bored, and holds it long enough for us to see both. It moved us more than we were ready for, because Huston plays that happiness so plainly and Chatterton plays that boredom so plainly, and neither of them is wrong about the other. Huston is the film. He walks with his hands in his pockets, talks slowly, and never once asks us to feel sorry for him, which is why we do. He is a man who has been good at one thing and is now being told, politely, in Paris and Vienna, that it was not the right thing. Fran moves on from Lockert to Arnold Iselin (Paul Lukas), a banker with a flat and no obvious job, and later to Baron Kurt Von Obersdorf (Gregory Gaye). Omar Kiam dresses her more elaborately at each stop, so that by the time the Baron appears she is wearing her whole argument. Chatterton divides people, and we understand why. She pitches Fran high and keeps her there, and she is hard to be in a room with. We think that is the part, not the actress, and there are moments, in a hotel corridor and at a dressing table, when she lets us see how frightened Fran is of the mirror. But the film gives Sam his quiet scenes and gives her almost none, and when Maria Ouspenskaya arrives as the Baron’s mother for a single drawing-room scene, the cruellest in the film, Fran has nowhere to stand. We will not describe what is said. It is the one place where Wyler’s fairness fails, and it fails against the woman. Mary Astor, as Edith Cortright, is doing the opposite of Chatterton. She sits still, speaks slowly, and lets Sam finish his sentences, and the scenes between them on the ship and later in Italy are the calmest in the film. Astor gets less screen time than either lead and makes more of it, which several critics have noticed and which we found true. Rudolph Maté shoots the staterooms and hotel suites in depth, so that arguments happen across furniture and through doorways, with one person in the foreground and the other half a room away. Wyler blocks the marriage as space: who walks out, who stays, who is left standing by a door. Daniel Mandell cuts without fuss, ending scenes on a look rather than a line. Alfred Newman’s music is used sparingly; long stretches have none, and the arguments are the better for it. For a studio picture of its year it is startlingly direct about adultery, about divorce, and about a woman’s fear of no longer being wanted. The Zenith scenes are broader than the European ones. Tubby and Matey Pearson (Harlan Briggs and Spring Byington), the old friends from home, are written as a warm-up act, and the Dodsworths’ daughter Emily (Kathryn Marlowe) and her husband Harry (John Payne) are there to be waved off. The last ten minutes move faster than anything before them, and we would have given them another five. Watch it with someone you have been married to for a long time, and do not talk over the deck scene. *Fi1m score 87, published 19 September 2026.* ## What the critics say With only 5 reviews in so far, the lean is clearly positive. Most critics single out Walter Huston in the title role, finding him sympathetic, funny and expansive, and credit William Wyler with handling a dissolving marriage in a way that still looks frank and grown-up. Time Out and RogerEbert.com both praise Mary Astor, with Time Out going so far as to say she steals the film. The one real disagreement is Ruth Chatterton: Variety finds her vivid as the vain wife, while RogerEbert.com finds the performance grating enough to hold the film back. The spread is otherwise narrow. ### Reviews we read (5) - **Los Angeles Times**, Jan Herman (90/100, inferred): The critic highlights the film's fluid grace and mature handling of marital conflict, crediting William Wyler's touch for blending serious themes with light humor and spotlighting Walter Huston's expansive lead performance. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-04-25-ol-892-story.html) - **The New York Times** (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the film adaptation for its smooth narrative flow, sustained interest and strong performances, especially Walter Huston's portrayal of the title character, which brings sympathy, humor and depth to the role. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1936/09/24/archives/samuel-goldwyns-film-of-dodsworth-opens-at-the-rivoli-the.html) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (90/100, inferred): The review calls the film a superb motion picture with steady dramatic flow and praises the casting, especially Walter Huston's perfect fit for the lead role and Ruth Chatterton's vivid portrayal of the vain wife. [Read](https://variety.com/1935/film/reviews/dodsworth-1200411242/) - **Time Out** (75/100, inferred): Wyler’s adaptation of the Sinclair Lewis novel looks remarkably frank and mature even by contemporary standards. Walter Huston plays the title role, but Mary Astor steals the show. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/newyork/film/dodsworth) - **RogerEbert.com**, Odie Henderson (50/100, inferred): The critic finds the restored film very good overall as an adult portrait of a dissolving marriage but singles out Ruth Chatterton's performance as a nerve-grating distraction in contrast to the stronger work by Walter Huston and Mary Astor. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/festivals/nyff-2019-varda-by-agnes-he-walked-by-night-45-seconds-of-laughter-dodsworth) ## Details - **Director:** William Wyler - **Director:** William Wyler - **Screenplay:** Sidney Howard - **Novel:** Sinclair Lewis - **Cinematography:** Rudolph Maté - **Editor:** Daniel Mandell - **Music:** Alfred Newman - **Costume design:** Omar Kiam - **Producer:** Samuel Goldwyn - **Cast:** Walter Huston as Sam Dodsworth; Ruth Chatterton as Fran Dodsworth; Paul Lukas as Arnold Iselin; Mary Astor as Edith Cortright; David Niven as Captain Clyde Lockert; Gregory Gaye as Baron Kurt Von Obersdorf; Maria Ouspenskaya as Baroness Von Obersdorf; Odette Myrtil as Renée de Penable - **Runtime:** 1h 41m - **Certificate (MPA):** NR - **Release (the US):** 23 September 1936 - **Genres:** Drama, Romance ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: streaming - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $10.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-19.* Also available in: AU, CA, ES, GB, NZ, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1937: Best Actor (nominated); Best Director (nominated); Best Picture (nominated); Best Sound (nominated); Best Supporting Actress (nominated); Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated); Best Production Design (won) ## If you liked this - *Brief Encounter* (1945), Fi1m 90: Another marriage tested in railway waiting rooms, with the same refusal to shout. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/brief-encounter.md) - *Journey to Italy* (1954), Fi1m 84: Rossellini sends an English couple south and watches them discover they have nothing to say. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/journey-to-italy.md) - *Make Way for Tomorrow* (1937): McCarey’s film about an old couple parted by their children; harder to watch, just as honest. - *Scenes from a Marriage* (1973): Bergman gives a marriage six hours to come apart; Ullmann and Josephson never blink. - *45 Years* (2015), Fi1m 88: Rampling and Courtenay, one week, one old letter, and the floor going out from under them. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/45-years.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/dodsworth