If you want to see a well crafted film you are in the right place, but if you are in the mood to be cheered up you are absolutely in the wrong place.
The film concerns the trials and tribulations of a marriage between a German college professor and his New England socialite wife set in the years 1909-1918. Mary Archer (Barbara Stanwyck) was born to one of those New England families that for some reason thinks it is a great personal accomplishment to exit the birth canal of someone whose ancestors landed on Plymouth Rock. She lives in a town named after her family - Archerville - and it seems you can't walk through the main square without tripping over a monument to one of her past relatives. However, in what seems to be a triumph over environment Mary is a down-to-earth gal that likes people for what they are not where they come from. Mary has had a lifelong friendship and understanding of probable matrimony with Jeff (Ralph Bellamy). However, one day in 1909 he brings over a friend of his, German Hugo Wilbrandt (Otto Kruger). It's love at first sight for Mary and Hugo and the whirlwind courtship and marriage is shocking to Mary's blue blood relatives who receive Hugo somewhat coolly.
Hugo gets a job at a small college as a chemistry professor, Mary gives birth to their son, and they get a small dog - a dachshund - that actually becomes a rather important part of the plot. Hugo even becomes an American citizen and the couple's friends give Hugo a loving cup in commemoration of his naturalization - all is good. Into everyone's life comes some tribulations, but it is tragic when the good comes in one lump followed by all of the bad in another lump and it is doubly tragic when the bad has nothing to do with your own failings and everything to do with prejudice and a paranoid frenzy. That's exactly what happens to the Wilbrandts after the sinking of the Lusitania when all of their friends and associates and even relatives turn against them because of Hugo's German heritage. The Wilbrandt family saga is of course fiction. The part of this story that is not fiction is how Americans treated everything and everyone German from sauerkraut to those with German sounding surnames caused by British and French propaganda that was spread to cause Americans to believe that the Germans were savages so that the United States would enter WWI on the Allied side.
This film was made when America was at the height of its post-WWI anti-war feelings, and through most of the film I figured that the moral of the story was how this largely pointless war - WWI - had ruined so many lives, including those not directly involved in battle. However, towards the end there is a troubling scene between Jeff and Mary. Jeff admits that Mary has always been the only girl for him and states that the tragic end of her marriage to Hugo was caused by her not "sticking with her own kind". Mary seems to passively agree with Jeff's self serving statement. I would be somewhat horrified if that is what the actual moral was meant to be.
I still recommend this one. It's a heart breaker but it is well done at every turn. Even the cinematography with various montages giving you an idea of what is running through Mary's mind at times is very effective.
The film concerns the trials and tribulations of a marriage between a German college professor and his New England socialite wife set in the years 1909-1918. Mary Archer (Barbara Stanwyck) was born to one of those New England families that for some reason thinks it is a great personal accomplishment to exit the birth canal of someone whose ancestors landed on Plymouth Rock. She lives in a town named after her family - Archerville - and it seems you can't walk through the main square without tripping over a monument to one of her past relatives. However, in what seems to be a triumph over environment Mary is a down-to-earth gal that likes people for what they are not where they come from. Mary has had a lifelong friendship and understanding of probable matrimony with Jeff (Ralph Bellamy). However, one day in 1909 he brings over a friend of his, German Hugo Wilbrandt (Otto Kruger). It's love at first sight for Mary and Hugo and the whirlwind courtship and marriage is shocking to Mary's blue blood relatives who receive Hugo somewhat coolly.
Hugo gets a job at a small college as a chemistry professor, Mary gives birth to their son, and they get a small dog - a dachshund - that actually becomes a rather important part of the plot. Hugo even becomes an American citizen and the couple's friends give Hugo a loving cup in commemoration of his naturalization - all is good. Into everyone's life comes some tribulations, but it is tragic when the good comes in one lump followed by all of the bad in another lump and it is doubly tragic when the bad has nothing to do with your own failings and everything to do with prejudice and a paranoid frenzy. That's exactly what happens to the Wilbrandts after the sinking of the Lusitania when all of their friends and associates and even relatives turn against them because of Hugo's German heritage. The Wilbrandt family saga is of course fiction. The part of this story that is not fiction is how Americans treated everything and everyone German from sauerkraut to those with German sounding surnames caused by British and French propaganda that was spread to cause Americans to believe that the Germans were savages so that the United States would enter WWI on the Allied side.
This film was made when America was at the height of its post-WWI anti-war feelings, and through most of the film I figured that the moral of the story was how this largely pointless war - WWI - had ruined so many lives, including those not directly involved in battle. However, towards the end there is a troubling scene between Jeff and Mary. Jeff admits that Mary has always been the only girl for him and states that the tragic end of her marriage to Hugo was caused by her not "sticking with her own kind". Mary seems to passively agree with Jeff's self serving statement. I would be somewhat horrified if that is what the actual moral was meant to be.
I still recommend this one. It's a heart breaker but it is well done at every turn. Even the cinematography with various montages giving you an idea of what is running through Mary's mind at times is very effective.